by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 2, 2018 | Comm Center News
SOURCE: Mission Critical Communications
DATE: February 2, 2018
An email from the president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International to its members highlighted the association’s efforts to modernize 9-1-1 and ensure that equipment and services are interoperable. The email also suggested steps members can take to improve next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) interoperability.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 2, 2018 | Comm Center News
Four Hancock County cities will receive a break on their 2018-19 communications allocations.
The Hancock County Board of Supervisors on Monday unanimously voted to reduce the charge for county dispatch services for Corwith, Crystal Lake, Goodell and Woden — cities with populations under 500 — by 60 percent, or $11,928.42, total.
The county board decided to revert the four cities back to paying the 2016-17 rate of 15 percent of the total communications budget, while the cities of Britt, Garner, Kanawha and Klemme will remain at the 2018-19 rate of 37.5 percent.
“I’m not saying this is the greatest or wonderfulest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Jerry Tlach, county board chairman. “It was a way to start at least.”
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by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 1, 2018 | Comm Center News
SOURCE: Mission Critical Communications
DATE: January 30, 2018
During recent disasters such as the 2017 U.S. hurricanes and wildfires, public-safety answering points (PSAPs) in the disaster areas received a flood of nontraditional requests for emergency service over social media.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 22, 2018 | Comm Center News
SOURCE: Mission Critical Communications
DATE: January 19, 2018
A record 48 states and territories provided information about progress toward next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1), annual funding and revenue, operations and other data.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 8, 2018 | Comm Center News
Public safety and industry entities have weighed in on proposed regulations for a next-generation 911 (NG-911) grant program, including on who should be eligible for funding, whether tribes should be able to directly submit applications, and the formula for distributing grant.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a notice of proposed rulemaking in September that proposed awarding NG-911 grants directly to tribal organizations, rather than to them only through states (TR Daily, Sept. 21).
The NPRM proposed modifications to the E-911 Grant Program, which was established pursuant to the ENHANCE 911 Act of 2004, which allocated $43.5 million from the proceeds of the FCC’s 700 megahertz band auction.
The modifications of the regulations proposed in September were required by Congress in the NG911 Advancement Act of 2012, which was part of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which reserved $115 million for NG-911 grants from the FCC’s AWS-3 auction. Up to $110 million in actual grants will be awarded.
The NPRM “seeks comment on an approach that envisions apportioning the available grant funds across all of the states and tribal organizations, to serve 911, Enhanced 911 (E911), and NG911 purposes. However, given the total amount available for the grant program, this approach would allow for only marginal enhancements in any given area,” the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International argued in its comments in docket 170420407-7407-01. “Accordingly, the best way to use these grants is to create model deployments that demonstrate proofs of concept for fully-deployed and interoperable NG911 services in urban, suburban, and rural areas. By focusing on model NG911 deployments for a few areas, the grant program can better serve the entire country by producing blueprints for efficiently modernizing 911 systems nationwide. This should lower costs and speed implementations for systems that follow.”
APCO also said that “interoperability should be the top priority for the grant program. The NPRM’s proposal to require grant recipients to comply with current NG911 standards as listed in the Department of Homeland Security’s SAFECOM Guidance is not the best approach. The standards listed in the SAFECOM Guidance are very broad, in some cases incomplete, and unlikely to ensure interoperability, at least without costly after-the-fact integrations. Conversely, using widely deployed commercial standards will facilitate interoperability and help to expand the market so that public safety benefits from the competition and ongoing innovation in the commercial market. Thus, the Office [National 911 Program] should encourage grant applications be based upon use of widely deployed commercial standards that achieve the interoperability, innovation, and cost efficiencies that would be of most benefit to PSAPs.”
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 8, 2018 | Comm Center News
“Upgrading the nation’s 9-1-1 system is literally a life and death matter that must become more of a national priority,” said Sen. Nelson, who is ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
Sens. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) introduced legislation (S 2061) today to accelerate the deployment of next-generation 911 (NG-911) services. Among other things, the Next-Generation 9-1-1 Act of 2017 would expand a federal NG-911 grant program, although it doesn’t include a specific authorization level, would establish an advisory board to recommend updates to the definition of NG-911, and would state that it is the sense of Congress that the NG-911 transition “is a national priority and national imperative” and that it should be completed within a decade.
Sens. Nelson and Klobuchar had circulated a draft version their legislation in February (TR Daily, Feb. 28).
“Upgrading the nation’s 9-1-1 system is literally a life and death matter that must become more of a national priority,” said Sen. Nelson, who is ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. “In this digital world, Americans must have more than one way to access the 9-1-1 assistance they need and expect when emergencies occur. No plea for help should go unanswered because a call center doesn’t have the technology to receive a text, video or picture.”
“As a former prosecutor and co-chair of the NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus in the Senate, I know how important it is for our first responders, law enforcement officers, and public safety leaders to be able to communicate seamlessly during times of crisis,” said Sen. Klobuchar. “Our legislation would provide state and local governments with the resources they need to efficiently transition to NG 9-1-1 and strengthen our country’s emergency response networks.”
“While the legislation doesn’t put a specific price tag on implementing next generation 9-1-1 systems nationwide, the senators said they hope to receive soon a congressionally mandated analysis from the 9-1-1 Implementation Coordination Office to help better determine the cost,” a news release said. “A 2009 U.S. Department of Transportation study estimated it could range between $9.2 billion and $13.2 billion.”
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