POWELL BULLISH ON PUBLIC SAFETY IMPLICATIONS OF VoIP

Powell compared the challenges of providing E911 through VoIP with that of providing this capability on wireless networks, which had the harder task of retrofitting existing technology. “We have the historical opportunity to work on public safety and E911 from the ground floor up, rather than what we seem to be always struggling with, which is retrofitting systems that already exist or have matured,” Powell said. He ran through a list of the challenges in the wireless industry of providing caller’s automatic location information to 911 call centers. “This is what gives me so much optimism about not only ensuring what we have but promoting greater flexibility and new functionality.”

New technologies also provide more options for first responders, Powell said. “We need to assure the basic location capabilities of E911 are robust and with us as we migrate to new technologies,” Powell said. “But if that’s as far as we go, then shame on us.” New technologies will provide platforms for first responders “like none we've ever seen before,” he said. “We should be thinking about this as much as an opportunity as a threat.” Open architecture and network-based application systems essentially mean “cheaper networks” to which public safety agencies can evolve, he said. For example, in some cases, public safety answering points (PSAPs) can use off-the-shelf equipment to reduce costs and improve their systems, Powell said. The Commission this month waded into the difficult issues of how to treat IP services, ruling that a service offered by Pulver.com was a generally unregulated information service subject to federal jurisdiction (CD Feb 13 p1). A separate notice of proposed rulemaking teed up issues such as whether IP-based services should be subject to 911 and other requirements.

Asked in a separate panel how Congress will approach the impact of VoIP on E911, James Assey, minority senior counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee, said the “bigger question is what is going to happen at the FCC.” He noted there’s a Senate Commerce Committee hearing today (Tues.) on VoIP, including the ramifications of classifying these offerings as information services (see separate item). “There are a lot of implications to that and I'm not sure that a lot of them have been fleshed out to the degree that we need to,” he said. The hearing “is kind of our first step at really trying to get underneath the surface of these issues.” House Commerce Committee senior counsel Howard Waltzman said while there’s general agreement regulations shouldn’t have a chilling effect on new technologies such as VoIP, there’s also a “growing consensus” issues like E911, CALEA and universal service need to be addressed. Waltzman said he was happy to see NENA working with the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition: “We would certainly rather see these types of issues addressed outside of a government context. We might not get it right.” Last year, VoIP providers led by the VON Coalition created an ad hoc group to work on voluntary agreements on common carrier obligations such as E911.

In advance of today’s hearing, Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Pres. Vincent Stile urged Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) to address 911 issues connected with VoIP. “APCO is deeply concerned that, without appropriate regulatory requirements, the rapid deployment of VoIP will have a serious, negative impact on the provision of 911 emergency communications across our nation,” Stile wrote to McCain late Mon. APCO said VoIP services aren’t mandated to provide full 911 access, such as selective routing to the correct PSAP, callback numbers and location information. The group said this means calls to 911 from VoIP systems can be routed to the wrong PSAP, delaying response to an emergency. Stile acknowledged VoIP providers were working on permanent solutions on a voluntary basis and, in the meantime, planned to route 911 calls to 10-digit emergency numbers. “APCO does not consider that to be an adequate or an acceptable solution, as it takes a 21st century technology (IP telephony) and shoves it into a 1960s method of reporting life-threatening emergencies,” Stile wrote. “Routing VoIP 911 calls to 10-digit emergency numbers will also disrupt and strain the limited resources of PSAPs, which are already struggling to provide wireless E911 capability,” he said. He urged McCain to back “enforceable regulations” that would apply to all VoIP providers.

Meanwhile, top Senate and House telecom aides said on a panel at the NENA forum that with the Senate version of E911 legislation poised for a vote in coming weeks, the next major challenge would be securing appropriations for the grant funding contained in both the House and Senate versions. S- 1250, sponsored by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.), would devote $500 million a year to deploying E911 and the House version (HR-2898) would earmark $100 million. But Jason Mahler, chief of staff for Rep. Eshoo (D-Cal.), said that regardless of the number agreed on in the authorizing legislation that ultimately passes Congress, appropriators must make the funds available. “That is not necessarily a given, particularly with the budget situation that we have today,” he said. “It’s not something we should do, it’s something we must do,” Mahler said of the E911 funding: “But that funding is not a certainty. The challenge that we all have going forward after this bill is enacted is to make sure that the level of funding that is authorized is actually appropriated.”

E911 Institute Exec. Dir. Greg Rohde, former head of NTIA, asked how the legislation could be implemented to help agencies that have fallen behind in Phase 2 rollouts while not ignoring local govts. who have financed timely deployment. The head of the Tenn. Emergency Communications Board, for example, has raised concerns that states that aggressively deploy E911 would receive little or none of the funding in the pending bills. Assey said the hope was that the funding mechanism would be flexible enough to deal with future E911 challenges for public safety. “We have a clear preference that priority be given to ensuring that those who are lagging way behind are able to catch up,” he said. Waltzman said PSAPs that have already implemented Phase 2 wouldn’t be penalized under the bill. “They are rewarded already by the fact that constituents in those areas are safer than constituents in areas where Phase 2 hasn’t been deployed. This isn’t an issue about which PSAPs get rewarded and which PSAPs get penalized,” he said.

Rohde noted that the federal budget situation was “very tough” right now, including the largest federal deficit in history. Asked how the legislation’s authorization levels could work around such constraints, Waltzman replied: “I don’t know.” The legislation that emerged from the House last year authorized $100 million a year for 5 years, he noted. “I'm not convinced today that we'll be able to get that same amount of money out of the House this year,” Waltzman said. “I think it’s going to be extremely difficult and it’s going to be necessary once we get a bill passed for everyone to weigh in -- not only for our bosses to weigh in but for you all to weigh in,” he told a standing-room only NENA forum. “At the end of the day, we're going to have to find the money from somewhere,” Assey said. He noted that Rep. Stupak (D-Mich.) has legislation pending that would use a portion of the auction proceeds from the 3G spectrum auction to fund public safety needs. “It’s not a new idea, but it’s something that’s been talked about,” he said.

Speaking about the prospects for congressional passage of an E911 bill, Powell said he left that to the panel of telecom aides. But he added: “Shame on them, if they don’t get this done.”

Some NENA forum attendees stressed that they would prefer to see a narrower scope of programs available for the funds than in the Senate version. The House version’s grant program covers emergency communications, including 911, while the Senate version makes grants available only for Phase 2 E911 upgrades.