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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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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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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“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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Today’s critical control rooms (PSAP’s) are facing increasing challenges across the board, from rapidly evolving technology to managing operational changes…
According to research carried out by analysts IHS Markit, the global market for command and control room technologies and services was estimated to have been worth $4.99 billion in 2016 with North America estimated to have generated the most revenue, achieving $1.8 billion.
The installed base of control rooms is approaching 240,000 worldwide. Public safety growth is forecast to be low because of efficiencies, both in cost savings and operations, leading to an increase in the consolidation of public safety control rooms. The transport and utilities sectors are both forecast to grow steadily. Benefits of consolidation include improved emergency response due to better collaboration, enhanced technology because of bigger budget pools and increased visibility into operations. This will save both personnel resource costs and time needed to the address incidents.
These and other issues around the control room market will be discussed in detail at the International Critical Control Rooms Congress (ICCRC), due to take place in Geneva from 5-7 December. Produced by TCCA’s International Critical Control Rooms Alliance (ICCRA) Working Group, the ICCRC is the only dedicated event in the world focusing on the complete ecosystem for critical control room environments. This established event is set to bring together key decision makers looking to share and engage with key market insights.
Peter Prater, ICCRA chair, said: “Today’s critical control rooms are facing increasing challenges across the board, from rapidly evolving technology to managing operational changes. This event is an opportunity to share best practices around the convergence of control room functions, dispatching and security, and safe and smart city initiatives.”
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State and municipal emergency leaders are revamping their legacy technology to support NG911 capabilities. Now they want the carriers to step up.
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
For years a stalemate prevailed between emergency call center authorities and telecommunications carriers. Both needed to upgrade their systems to get to the state known as next-generation 911, or NG911.
Upgrading to an IP-capable infrastructure would cost millions, and neither wanted to make the first move. That landscape is shifting, with state and municipal emergency leaders revamping their legacy technology to support NG911 capabilities. Now they want the carriers to step up. “We built the superhighway, but no one is sending the cars yet,” said Maine E911 Director Maria Jacques.
Emergency call centers have seen big benefits from their upgrades. Operating costs are down and they have powerful new capabilities. But until the carriers step up to the plate, they say, NG911 will remain more theory than fact.
COMING UP SHORT
NG911 promises to replace existing narrow-band, circuit-switched networks with more robust digital architectures, expanding beyond voice to more readily deliver data including photo and video information. Such a system would be able to layer on location and other data for more efficient call routing and handling.
Proponents across the emergency community say NG911 will save lives. Improved call routing will speed responders to the scene. Multimedia overlays could give dispatchers a clearer understanding of an emergency and would help them to better organize the response.
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