On the heels of a voluntary commitment last week by the nation’s four cellular carriers to provide text-to-911 service by May 2014, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued its own proposal to formally require the service, with “significant deployments” in 2013. In a press release issued yesterday, the commission said implementing text-to-911 will, “keep pace with how consumers communicate today and can provide a lifesaving alternative in situations where a person with a hearing or speech disability is unable to make a voice call.” But the commission also emphasized, “Text-to-911 will be a complement to, not a substitute for, existing voice-based 911 service, and that consumers should always make a voice call to 911 during an emergency if they can.” Like the carriers, the FCC proposed that “bounce back” no-service warning messages for cellular subscribers in areas not served by text-to-911. The commission also made proposals to speed up the implementation of a nationwide next-generation 911 (NG911) network. Download (pdf) the press release on the action and the prepared remarks of the FCC commissioners here, and the full Notice of Proposed Rulemaking here.
Within a week, the the FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) issued an updated version of their recommendations on text messaging to 911. Download (pdf) the document here.
In a statement after the FCC’s action, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) said:
On the heels of last week’s historic agreement between NENA-The 9-1-1 Association, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, and the Association for Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) to bring text-to-9-1-1 capabilities to the “Big 4” wireless networks in 2014, the FCC today took further action to enable this technology and ensure that all Americans, especially those with hearing and speech disabilities, have access to 9-1-1.In a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued this afternoon, the Commission seeks to address issues related to the provisioning of text-to-9-1-1 services via non-native SMS applications. These so-called “over the top” messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, Blackberry Messenger, Facebook Messenger, and Apple iMessage, represent a growing segment of the overall text messaging landscape, but are not currently designed to deliver messages to 9-1-1, nor are 9-1-1 centers capable of receiving such messages.
It is very important for the news media and the public to recognize that neither the Commission’s action today nor last week’s agreement will make text-to-9‑1‑1 service available to all consumers by a date certain. That will depend on the deployment of hardware, software, and training at the more than 6,000 9-1-1 centers across America, and progress will vary from one community to the next.
“NENA thanks the FCC, specifically Chairman Genachowski and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, for their ongoing commitment to 9-1-1 issues,” said NENA President Barbara Jaeger. “We look forward to working with the Commission and all stakeholders to make text-to-9-1-1 a success. However, until text-to-9-1-1 becomes available – and even after — citizens contacting 9-1-1 should do so via voice communications whenever possible.”
Within a week two telecom industry groups agreed to develop standards for text-to-911:
Washington – The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) today announced a collaboration to develop the near-term text-to-9-1-1 solution. This work will provide the standards that, upon implementation, will provide short message service (SMS) subscribers the ability to send an SMS text message to 9-1-1.
Currently, in the U.S., the capability for the public to contact 9-1-1 through texting does not exist. During an emergency situation, initiating a voice call to 9-1-1 is the preferred and most efficient method of communication; however, the ability for such communication is not always an option. The ATIS/TIA standards solution will create a common approach for users to send and public safety personnel to receive text messages, and provides the capability for them to communicate. It is critical that texting to 9-1-1 have a similar “look and feel” regardless of where the text originates in the U.S., and the ATIS/TIA standards solution makes this possible. It also supports the implementation of an auto-reply message advising an SMS subscriber to dial 9-1-1 if texting to 9-1-1 is unavailable in that area.
On December 6, 2012, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and Verizon, all active participants in the joint ATIS/TIA effort, advised the Federal Communications Commission that “[t]ext-to-9-1-1 service would be made available by May 15, 2014.” With the completion of the joint standard targeted for publication in 1Q2013, service providers will be well positioned to have a standards-based solution to meet their target deadline.
“Various cities and states across the U.S. are already adopting multiple vendor-specific solutions for texting to 9-1-1. If this trend continued, then texting to 9-1-1 would turn into a regional service with little or no interoperability,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan M. Miller. “Ensuring public safety depends upon a reliable, nationwide standardized solution supporting text-to-9-1-1.”
The joint ATIS/TIA solution is envisioned without a third-party relay function and without redesigning the existing SMS architecture. The service that results from this collaboration is an interim solution while the long-term Next Generation 9-1-1 solution continues to be developed in ATIS and 3GPP for Multimedia Messaging Emergency Services in the next technology generation.
“Providing access to emergency and first responders is important to the safety and well-being of all citizens. TIA and ATIS are working together to bring jointly produced and effective industry standards that will enable the cooperation of regional, state and federal agencies with the carriers and wireless equipment providers. Together, the solutions developed will enable an entirely new generation of text messaging features that will facilitate access to emergency services and assistance.” said TIA President Grant Seiffert.
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As a public safety communications center director since since the pre-911 era through the present, I have taken many calls from emergency callers with hearing and speach disabilities through TTY’s (also knonw at TDD’s) which use baudot code. Until the availability of texting cell phones almost all households of hearing and speach impaired people had a TTY, and every dispatch center was also capable of receiving text messages from these devices. Since the availability of texting cell phones these people have abandoned the TTY’s as you could only communicate with another TTY, and went to cell phones and could now communicate with anyone else with texting capability, which 911 dispatch centers could not have texting cellphone capability, given their present infrastructure.
I have been saying for years that the FCC should require all cells phones have a 911 texting function that would automatically defalt to baudot code when using the text to 911 feature. The then task would be accomplished without waiting for the technological infrastructure of the entire country’s 911 call deliver system to be gutted and replaced with a system capable of using present texting technology.
As susal the tail is being allowed to wag the dog.
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