Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column where C-level executives and advisory firms from across the mobile industry share unique insights and experiences.
Our current 911 system was designed in the 1950s and early 60s for landline phones. Today, 40% of households are mobile only and more than 70% of 911 calls come from mobile phones. The level of confidence in the existing system is a testament to the hard work of the thousands of 911 professionals and organizations like National Emergency Number Association and Association of Public-Safety Officials, in spite of some of the underlying technical limitations. While we await the broad deployment of a next-generation IP-based infrastructure for 911, it is helpful to understand the reality of today’s system – both as a consumer of the service and as a service provider working within its limitations. Let’s examine a few common 911 myths.
Myth No. 1: 911 is a national service
While 911 for emergency services exists in most of the nation, the reality is that those calls are routed to one of approximately 6,400 local public-safety answering points. For the most part, each are subject to their own local laws and procedures. This inherent local aspect of 911 means there is no national 911 service and no over-arching 911 authority. The Federal Communications Commission has jurisdiction over the telecom providers routing calls, but not over the centers answering the calls. The practical implication of this is that the technology innovations have to be implemented and rolled out locally, or at best regionally.
Myth No. 2: 911 is able to locate me like on TV or with apps
The infrastructure used by 911 centers is based on technology developed long before mobile phones existed. After a call is routed to the nearest PSAP, it essentially checks a database to determine a more accurate location for the caller. That’s fine for static data like landlines, but since the advent of mobile phones that look-up ability was modified to also inject requested mobile locations from the wireless carrier into the “landline” location database. For mobile phones, the carrier can utilize several technologies to locate the device and then record it on a temporary table in the 911 center’s location database. Depending on the specific technology in use – and whether the caller is in an urban or rural area – 911 is only able to identify a caller’s location to within 100 yards and even that accuracy is only capable 60% of the time. If a victim is in an urban area or large building – and an intruder or medical situation prevents communications – the phone will not give responders any insight into what door he or she is behind (let alone what floor). If the caller is in a very rural area and the wireless carrier uses triangulation to identify the location, there may not be enough towers from which to get an accurate fix. Bottom line: The wireless carrier location is not as accurate as a landline or even voice-over-Internet Protocol line. As more consumers cut the cord, those maintaining landlines cite “safety” as the top reason. In many areas, callers are turning to solutions like Smart911 where they can provide key address and location information in advance.
Myth No. 3: Dialing 911 will always get help
Not all devices are created equal. For the past few decades, we’ve learned to take for granted that trained emergency responders answer the phone when we dial 911. Thankfully, that is usually true; however, many large IP-based phone systems as well as “free” wireless phones pose major challenges. Because the legacy 911 network is not IP-based, it has a hard time dealing with dynamically provisioned phones (large campus PBXs) or phones that don’t have an addressable phone number (nonservice initialized, or NSI, mobile phones). Often, the 911 system sees all phones from a corporate campus as coming from the assigned billing address (e.g., the IT office), which may be hundreds of yards, if not miles, away from the location of the incident. Further, in an attempt to triage emergency support, some PBX systems actually route 911 calls to a local extension, or worse yet, are configured to require an extra digit before external lines are dialed (e.g., “9911”). Because NSI phones don’t have a call-back number, dropped or hang-up calls cannot be traced. These phones also often are not well suited to the location-rebid process required to get a granular location on a caller.
Myth No. 4: You can text 911
Whether you are in a situation in which it is unsafe to speak, you have poor voice coverage, or are deaf or hard of hearing, the ability to text for help can mean the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, that ability is very limited in the United States. The industry is working hard to roll out support for text-to-911 nationwide and has made great strides in recent years; however, only about 1% of those making emergency calls today have the option to do so via text message. Even in areas that have announced support for text-to-911, it’s limited to select carriers (the actual carriers supported varies based on the vendor chosen by the local 911 center). While the FCC has mandated support for text-to-911 by all wireless carriers in the near future, PSAPs have no deadline by which they must implement. In the interim, text messages will receive an automated bounce back message in unsupported areas.
Myth No. 5: Apps are the answer
Public safety has not been surpassed by the “app” explosion. A plethora of safety apps have emerged that promise to bridge the gap in services available when we call 911 (e.g., sending photos, videos, medical records, etc). Unfortunately, there are very few vendors today who are actually able to provide interfaces that integrate directly into the 911 system and deliver data about the caller and their situation. Thankfully, the effort around NG911 promises a long-term solution to providing more data to 911, but in the meantime consumers should beware of false promises.
The good news is that the industry has identified and is aggressively working to address the misconceptions above, but the process won’t be done overnight. The 911 system is not an e-commerce website that can be changed instantly. It is a complicated network of 6,400 independent centers that has to work flawlessly. Change must be planned and deliberate. In the meantime, everyone should understand the reality of the environment in which we live and operate.
Todd Piett, ENP, is the chief product officer of Rave Mobile Safety, a leading provider of safety software including Smart911 which is used by more than 1,000 communities in 37 states, and Rave Alert, which provides emergency text notifications for nearly 40% of the U.S. higher-education system. Piett is a board member of the NG911 Institute, a member of APCO’s emerging technology committee and participates in various NENA working groups related to NG911. He holds numerous safety-related patents, is a graduate of Harvard Business School and is a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot.
