FCC's Simpson Touts Progress on Text-to-911 Adoption
FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson touted significant progress Friday in encouraging the adoption of next-generation 911 and text-to-911 functionality. Public safety answering points that haven’t adopted the technology already should “affirmatively prepare” to do so, he advised PSAPs. The FCC approved an order in August requiring all carriers and interconnected over-the-top text providers to be able to transmit text-to-911 messages by the end of the year (see 1408110069). All major wireless carriers are able to support text-to-911 functionality, “so it’s over to the PSAPs now to stand up,” Simpson said during an FCBA event.
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The number of PSAPs able to receive text-to-911 messages has almost doubled since the beginning of the year, Simpson said. The number of PSAPs that have adopted text-to-911 functionality was 138 Sept. 23, the FCC said (http://bit.ly/1pWNmM7). Indiana PSAPs implemented text-to-911 because they saw it as a tool for 911 operators to text back callers to verify an emergency was occurring because of the frequency of callers accidentally “butt dialing” 911, Simpson said. An FCC report released earlier this month found that at least half of all 911 calls made from wireless numbers were the result of butt dialing (see 1410170057).
PSAPs have successfully taken “radically opposite” approaches to introducing text-to-911 and NG-911 technology to operators, which shows that “one size doesn’t fit all,” Simpson said. PSAPs in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, first introduced the technology to its most experienced operators, who were coincidentally the ones most skeptical of the technology, Simpson said. He cited one operator who converted from being the technology’s top skeptic to its top supporter. PSAPs in Washington, D.C., are introducing the technology first through newly-hired operators, Simpson said.
The FCC doesn’t anticipate it will retain its wireless TTY requirement “in perpetuity” given the introduction of text-to-911 and NG-911, but “we want to be very careful that we don’t sunset something before its time,” Simpson said. “You don’t want to strand any American just because they weren’t ready yet to jump to the next technology.” But "there’s a reality that it costs money to retain that infrastructure and that infrastructure that exists around a landscape that isn’t static,” Simpson said. “We do want to engage with the deaf and hard of hearing community, as well as with the carriers and the PSAPs, to determine the right life cycle for TTY.”