WASHINGTON-A special Senate Y2K committee learned last week that ironically due to the lack of phase I enhanced 911 wireless systems, public safety answering points actually may be practicing Year 2000 scenarios.
Meanwhile, the Senate failed to pass a bill to stave off frivolous lawsuits regarding the millennium bug. Democrats and the White House strongly opposed a bill to reduce frivolous liability lawsuits resulting from Y2K failures. The bill was pulled after Democrats signaled they would attach to it non-germane amendments, such as a minimum-wage increase.
There had been some hope for the bill’s passage after a compromise was fashioned between the sponsor and some Democrats.
The compromise between bill sponsor Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (R-Ore.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah) kept the 30-day notice-or waiting period-and preserved contract rights for those parties who have already agreed on Y2K terms and conditions.
The House Judiciary Committee also began debating a similar bill last week.
911 systems
FCC Commissioner Michael Powell said 911 calls would go through because the public switched telephone network is not expected to fail. But the action time on those calls would increase because the process of dispatching emergency services would take longer. Powell suggested people shouldn’t hesitate to make a 911 call in an emergency.
A representative of the General Accounting Office, which has been examining Y2K readiness for the select committee, agreed. “If these things don’t work, you essentially revert back to the old 911 system … the dispatch is no longer automated … There will be an increase in time,” said Jack Brock, GAO director of information management issues.
PSAPs have experience with non-automated dispatch because it is the way most agencies handle the approximately 90,000 wireless calls made to 911 each day, said Bennett, select committee chairman.
Powell warned 911 is not always the emergency number for wireless calls. He suggested consumers find out whether their locality has alternate emergency numbers for both wireless and wireline calls.
There is much concern about the 911 system nationwide because it is not actually a nationwide central system but rather a system of many-perhaps as many as 5,000-local PSAPs, each with its own idea on how emergencies should be handled. The FCC does not have authority to regulate PSAPs.
Because there is no federal regulation, there is little, if any, independent information on PSAP Y2K readiness, said participants at the hearing.
Powell later told reporters that not only are the PSAPs afraid of FCC intervention, some states are also afraid. “States are extremely hostile about the federal government going anywhere near (PSAP readiness … Some state governments are) worried somehow we are trying to regulate,” he said.
