Julius Genachowski

“It’s time to bring 9-1-1 into the digital age,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said on Nov. 23 to public safety officials at the Arlington County Emergency Center in Arlington, Va.

Genachowski announced that in December he will launch a proceeding, as recommended in the National Broadband Plan, to get public input on how to transition the current system to broadband-enabled, Next Generation 9-1-1. This action builds on the FCC’s recent order beefing up 9-1-1 location-accuracy requirements so that first responders can quickly find people who reach out for help on their mobile phones.

“The current 9-1-1 system is efficient and reliable—handling more than 650,000 calls a day,” said Genachowski. “But today’s 9-1-1 system doesn’t support the communication tools of tomorrow. Many 9-1-1 call centers don’t even have broadband, and some are in communities where broadband isn’t even available. That is unacceptable.”

According to Genachowski, of those 650,000 daily calls to 9-1-1, 450,000 are made on mobile phones. “Even though mobile phones are the device of choice for most 9-1-1 callers, and we primarily use our phones to text, right now, you can’t text 9-1-1,” said Genachowski.

He pointed to the Virginia Tech campus shootings in 2007 as a reminder of the current technological limitations of 9-1-1. “Some students and witnesses tried to text 9-1-1 during that emergency, and as we know, those messages never went through and were never received by local 9-1-1 dispatchers,” he said.

For those who actually work in public safety communications, Genachowski’s comments should come as no surprise. The inability to text 9-1-1 has been a major discussion point at meetings and conferences for several years now. A white paper released in October by 4G Americas questioned the reliability of texting 9-1-1. “While we understand the desire to use SMS [short message service] to contact 9-1-1, SMS has significant limitations and shortcomings that do not make SMS suitable for emergency communications, especially under life-threatening conditions,” stated Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas.

But that hasn’t stopped the public from trying to reach 9-1-1 via texts and social media. And many teenagers and young adults today don’t realize that they can’t reach 9-1-1 via text until they try. Many Americans, particularly those with disabilities, rely on texting as their primary means of communication. In some emergency situations—especially in circumstances where a call could further jeopardize someone’s life and safety—texting is the only way to reach out for help.

An American Red Cross survey released in August revealed that one in five respondents would try to contact emergency responders through an e-mail, Web site or social media. If Web users knew of someone else who needed help, 44% would ask other people in their social network to contact authorities, 35% would post a request for help directly on a response agency’s Facebook page, and 28% would send a direct Twitter message to responders.

The survey also found that Web users have clear expectations about how first responders should be answering their requests. Of the respondents, 69% said that emergency responders should be monitoring social media sites, and almost half believe a response agency is probably already responding to any urgent request they might see. Respondents also expect quick response to an online appeal for help; 74% expect help to arrive in less than an hour.

In March 2010, the FCC released its National Broadband Plan, which emphasized the development and deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1 systems to allow PSAPs to receive text, pictures and videos from the public and relay them to first responders. The chairman’s plan to get public input on how to transition the current system to NG9-1-1 builds on that base. Bringing 9-1-1 into the 21st century is one of the FCC’s key public safety priorities.

According to the FCC, the benefits of NG9-1-1 include the ability to text for help; real-time, rapid response; and automatic alerting.

“Broadband-enabled, Next-Generation 9-1-1 will revolutionize emergency response by providing increased means of communications — including texting, data, video and photo — which will improve situational awareness and rapid response,” said Genachowski. “There are tremendous benefits that would come with this capability, particularly for persons with disabilities or those individuals in emergencies who cannot speak to 9-1-1 dispatcher due to circumstances that could further jeopardize their life and safety. …

“While the need for action is clear, modernizing 9-1-1 raises complex challenges that will take not only time, but also significant coordination. We need to help of our federal, state and local partners, public safety, lawmakers, communications and broadband service providers, and equipment manufacturers to develop a national framework for Next-Generation 9-1-1 services across the nation. FCC staff recognize the importance of this work and what it takes and continue to work diligently with all interested parties to move this initiative forward.

“We at FCC are committed to working through these issues,” continued Genachowski. “Today, I call on all the key constituencies to work with us, and I expect that this proceeding will provide a vehicle for much-needed coordination and the opportunity to effectively deploy Next-Generation 9-1-1 across America.

In response to Genachowski’s comments, APCO International released a statement applauding Genachowski for his leadership in announcing a Notice of Inquiry on NG9-1-1 services.

“APCO International recognizes that advances in consumer technology are laying the groundwork for heightened public participation in emergency reporting and raising the public’s expectations about what our country’s public safety agencies can do with text messages, videos and photos when they contact 9-1-1. While this information is very important to emergency services, it should be acknowledged that our country’s public safety answering points are still developing a standardized method of collecting and disseminating this information to the most appropriate response teams during an emergency.

“Efforts to build Next Generation 9-1-1 systems must also be managed in close coordination with efforts to build a nationwide public safety broadband network, which will ensure that these communications reach the first responders whose safety and effectiveness are dependent on timely and accurate transmission and receipt of information.”

APCO is committed to working with the FCC to ensure consumers’ expectations of service run parallel to the development of NG9-1-1 systems throughout the country.

About the Author
Keri Losavio is the editor of APCO’s Public Safety Communications. She has more than 15 years of publishing experience, 12 of which have been spent in public safety.