Copies of NG9-1-1 Institute Newsletters

Eric Hagerson (T-Mobile) and Ron Bloom (Frontier Communications) were reelected to fill the vacant Consumer Telco positions. Chris Freeman (Marshall County 911) and Lynne Houserman (Motorola Solutions) were reelected for the Member-at-large (General) positions.

One new Board member was also elected: Mike Tan (AT&T) was elected for the final vacant Consumer Telco position.

The Board elected Liz Graeber (City of Phoenix) as Chair and Peter Beckwith (South Sound 911) as Vice-chair.

“The Institute is pleased to welcome Mike Tan to the Board. Mike will undoubtedly strengthen our leadership and bring new perspectives,” said Institute Executive Director Wesley Wright. “The Institute is fortunate to also retain Eric, Ron, Lynne and Chris. These nationally recognized public safety and industry experts remain dedicated to ensuring a successful transition to nationwide NG911 deployment.”

Today (7/27/22), the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7624, the Spectrum Innovation Act (as amended). If enacted, the bipartisan Act authorizes the FCC to auction 200 MHz of spectrum in the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and use the proceeds from the auction to fund Next Generation 9-1-1 (“NG9-1-1”) grants (up to $10 billion). The auction proceeds would also fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Reimbursement Program.

Now that the bill has passed the House, it will head to the Senate. While the Senate has a related bill, S. 4117, this bill does not include the amendments made to H.R. 7624. Bringing the amended version of H.R. 7624 over will allow the Senate to consider to provisions that use auctions proceeds to fund NG9-1-1 grants and the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Reimbursement Program, currently not in the Senate version of the bill.

In honor of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (April 10-16, 2022), FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) encouraging them to take “the next available opportunity” to explore updating the employment classification of public safety telecommunicators in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System. 911 professionals are currently classified as an “Office and Administrative Support Occupation.” In the letter, Chairwoman Rosenworcel discusses the evolution of their responsibilities and makes the case for grouping 911 professionals in the “Protective Service” category.

Chairwoman Rosenworcel explains that, in today’s world, 911 professionals do more than answer 911 calls. In addition to providing “assistance, guidance, and life-saving advice to 911 callers… they also actively plan, coordinate, and direct the response activities of emergency personnel, especially when multiple agencies are involved.” As technology has advanced, 911 professionals have taken on more responsibility, particularly with “intake and assessment of other information sources, including photos, videos from police and traffic cameras, and automated alarm and sensor data.” Based on this, the Chairwoman suggests that 911 professionals should be grouped with others that work in emergency response in the “Protective Service” category.

Chairwoman Rosenworcel closes the letter with an offer to collaborate with OMB on this effort and to provide any information or assistants required.

On February 22, 2022, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed a plan that would support the implementation of next generation 911 services throughout the country. In a speech celebrating the 10th anniversary of FirstNet, Chairwoman Rosenworcel discussed the past, present, and, most importantly, the future of public safety communications.

Chairwoman Rosenworcel called for an upgrade of the nation’s 911 services, explaining that “next-generation 911 means better support for voice, text, data, and video communications—and more opportunities for redundancy to protect against outages, too.” To fund this upgrade, Chairwoman Rosenworcel proposes copying the “model used to create FirstNet” and using the proceeds from the next spectrum auction. Chairwoman Rosenworcel closed her speech by saying that this “golden opportunity” will take time and perseverance, but it is “worth the effort.”

H.R. 5376 (Subtitle K)

117th Congress

Introduced: Sept. 2021

The $1.75 trillion bill passed the House of Representatives on November 19, 2021. The proposal includes nearly $480 million for NG911 funding. The U.S. Senate must now consider the BBB Act and we hope a vote will occur before the end of 2021. If passed, the $480 million NG911 program would be administered by NTIA.

H.R.1625 (Division P)

115th Congress

March 2018

The bill directs the FCC to (1) complete a proceeding within 18 months to consider adopting rules to ensure that the dispatchable location is conveyed with all 911 calls, regardless of technology platform and including 911 calls placed from multiline telephone systems; and (2) conduct a study on the public safety benefits, technical feasibility, and cost of making telecommunications service provider-owned Wi-Fi access points and other unlicensed technologies available to the public for direct access to 911 services during times of emergency when mobile service is unavailable.

H.R.582

115th Congress

January 2018

The bill requires that multi-line telephone systems permit users to directly dial 911 without having to first dial 9 or any other code. The bill also would require that installers of those systems configure them to provide notification to a central location at the facility when 911 is dialed.