WASHINGTON-“The current infrastructure lets us find you, but it’s eroding every day, step by step,” commented Dr. Ricardo Martinez, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at last week’s Call to Action for Implementation of Wireless 911. “By the year 2000, there will be 100 million wireless phones out there, but so far, there is no infrastructure safety net. A government edict won’t do it. We need a public- and private-sector partnership.”
Although Phase 1 of the Federal Communications Commission’s enhanced 911 service-getting a wireless call through to a public safety answering point-has been completed and Phase 2-getting a call from the PSAP back to the wireless phone-has just begun, there still appears to be some resistance at the state level to implement E911 services, either due to lack of information or a hesitance to impose a new line item on a wireless phone bill. According to Bill Munn, first vice president of the National Emergency Number Association, nearly 50 percent of all calls made to 911 operators are made from wireless phones. In his state of Texas, “confrontation has turned to cooperation at the state level” to begin levying a fee but that “some wireless lobbyists killed it” because of glitches in cost-recovery methods.
He continued, “Technology doesn’t come free and it’s not cheap. Despite a lawsuit pending in the state, Texas did begin collecting fees, and a funding mechanism could be on Gov. Bush’s desk next week.”
Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, added that wireless phones have “changed the safety paradigm for all Americans. We’ve wrestled the laws of physics [to provide E911 service], and now we must wrestle with human nature and state legislators.” Wheeler pointed out that for better triangulation, more sites will be needed, and that means more time talking to local governments and citizen groups. In California, he said, all 911 calls go to the state highway patrol, which then decides where to route them, an unacceptable program.
“If all organizations work together on a model state statute for contracts between PSAPs and carriers, we can cut out the clutter of a legal system built for a wireline environment,” Wheeler concluded. “The next challenge is to deal with historical precedents that only have been dealt with in the age of wires.”
NHTSA’s Martinez encouraged 911 officials and community leaders to take the following steps to build a wireless emergency system:
Contact state chapters of the National Emergency Number Association or the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International plus all wireless carriers to find out what needs to be done at the local level to implement E911 services.
Find local PSAPs and make sure they are aware of the FCC mandate and of their need to prepare to provide E911 services.
Establish a grass-roots coalition to support E911 implementation.
Call meetings of all interested parties to develop a plan for implementing E911, including cost-recovery mechanisms.
