An FCC announcement of February 2, 2009 stated that it will hold a summit on the deployment and operational issues for next generation IP-enabled 911 and E911 services. The summit is scheduled for February 25 at the FCC's headquarters. This is an effort of the FCC's Commission on Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The public notice is available on the FCC's website.The summit is part of the FCC's implementation of the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008. The act requires that the FCC work with public safety organizations, participants from industry and others to promote consistent development and operation of IP-enabled 911 and E911 services.
This is to be accomplished by setting standards concerning geographic coverage for Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) and PSAP certification. It will also review network diversity requirements for IP-enabled delivery of 911 and E911 calls. The summit will be used to discuss what response will occur when there is an overflow of calls or network outage. Lastly, the summit agenda includes the validation procedures for processing location information and the format for delivering address information to PSAPs. This year's summit is follow-on to the Bureau's 2008 summit entitled "911 Call Center Operations and Next Generation Technologies."
The summit is open to the public. If you are interested in attending, pre-registration is available online. You can also contact Stephanie Caccomo at 202-418-1812 to discuss pre-registration. For additional information, you can contact [email protected] or call 202-418-0530 for the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau. The pre-registration deadline is February 23, 2009.
For those not able to attend, there will audio/video coverage over the Internet from the FCC's website. Pre-registration is not required for the webcast. If you are concerned with telephony, legacy or IP-based, public safety or enterprise liabilities, you should at least listen to the broadcast dialogue from this summit.
Only about 15 states have regulation for E911. The states' regulations do not match each other, a problem for any organization that has telephones. The FCC ignored the Internet problems in the past and eventually forced providers like Vonage to adopt 911 after there were injuries, deaths and property damage resulting from incomplete or non-existent 911 capabilities. I think the potential standards will help produce useful products and services that will be mandated, rather than voluntary adoption.
