The goal is to ensure that effective emergency response is a critical element of the broadband environment, the FCC said.
At the 2011 Association of
Public Safety Communications Officials conference in Philadelphia, Federal
Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced a five-step
action plan to chart the transition to NG911 (Next Generation 911) services. Working
with the public-safety community, carriers, manufacturers and other service
providers, Genachowski said his goal is to ensure that effective emergency
response is a critical element of the broadband environment.
Under the five-step action
plan, the FCC will develop automatic location accuracy mechanisms for NG-911;
facilitate the completion and implementation of NG911 technical standards for
the hardware and software that carriers and PSAPs (public-safety answering
points) use to communicate NG911 information; work with state 911 authorities,
other Federal agencies, and other governing entities to provide technical
expertise and develop a coordinated approach to NG911 governance; develop an
NG911 funding model focused on the cost effectiveness of the NG911 network
infrastructure linking PSAPs and carriers; and enable consumers to send text,
photos and videos to PSAPs.
Next month, the FCC is
expected to launch a rule-making process to consider how to accelerate NG911 adoption
to help answer practical technical questions about how to enable text, photo
and video transmission to 911, including how to ensure adequate broadband
infrastructure to deliver the bandwidth PSAPs will need to provide NG911. As
part of the proceeding, the FCC will examine interim solutions for ensuring
that carriers and service providers support text-to-911 transmission.
"It's hard to imagine that
airlines can send text messages if your flight is delayed, but you can't send a
text message to 911 in an emergency. The unfortunate truth is that the
capability of our emergency-response communications has not kept pace with
commercial innovation - has not kept pace with what ordinary people now do
every day with communications devices," Genachowski said. "The shift to NG911
can't be about if, but about when and how."
The NG911 service supports
seamless, end-to-end IP-based communication of emergency-related voice, text,
data, photos, and video between the public and public safety answering points.
NG911 systems will continue to support the legacy 911 system on a transitional
basis for as long as is necessary, according to a statement released by the
FCC.
The announcement builds on
Genachowski's enhanced public-safety agenda, including the launching of a PLAN
(Personal Localized Alerting Network), strengthening the FCC's existing
enhanced E-911 location accuracy rules, laying the groundwork for a nationwide
interoperable public-safety network and granting waivers to build out the
public safety network.
"We're on the other side of
the tipping point. Almost everyone in or near an emergency situation now and in
the future will have access to these new communications technologies. These
technologies, and the fact of their widespread use, have the potential to
revolutionize emergency response and save lives," Genachowski said.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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