Subject: [NEXTEL-1] E911 Legislation Increases Pressure On States

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 10:51:02 -0400

E911 Legislation Increases Pressure On States

Jun 18, 2003

Bill Would Halt Diversion On Technology
Deployment Funding

State that have been redirecting for other uses funds earmarked for the deployment
of E911 location-finding technology could soon find themselves in serious trouble
with federal authorities, particularly if a Senate bill introduced late last week
becomes law.

Last Thursday, Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
unveiled E911 legislation aimed at ensuring that money collected from subscribers
of wireless carriers and turned over to the states in which the carriers are
licensed to operate actually gets used to pay for deploying E911 location-finding
technology.

According to Senate sources, the bill is necessary because many states simply are
not using the collected funds for their intended purpose.

"We've found that a lot of states are re-directing this money," a Burns staffer
told TPR. "This has been going on ever since Sept. 11, 2001 ... A lot of states
are finding it difficult to beef up their security systems, and they're using this
[E911] money for that purpose."

In dropping the bill, Burns reaffirmed the perspective offered by his staffer.
"Since Sept. 11, it has become clear that improving safety in our country is a
priority," he said. "As co-chair of the E911 Caucus, I have been working to
develop E911 legislation that will improve overall safety and allow first
responders the ability to communicate in real time and get their job done during
an emergency."

Burns said funds that were supposed to be directed towards the E911 enhancement
effort have routinely been used for alternative purposes, "and that's just not
right."

"This legislation will make sure funding for E911 improvements are used for that
purpose," he said. "I am committed to getting funding to programs that need it so
we can ensure that everyone gets the response they need during an emergency."

The Burns-Clinton bill "is about advancing the issue of public safety," Tim
Lorello, senior VP for TeleCommunications Systems Inc. (TCS), a key player in the
E911 location technology space. (TCS is responsible for about half of all the E911
location technology systems currently in place.)

"The states for some time have been collecting E911 dollars, and we're finding out
now that a lot of those dollars are not going for that purpose," Lorello said.
"Now that the carriers are ready to support the location requests that would be
launched by public safety authorities to find people who need help, the public
safety agencies don't have the dollars to upgrade their systems."

The FCC mandates for deployment of the E911 location systems are already in place
and have been for some time. Hence, there's no immediate impact on the industry,
Lorello noted. "But from a broader perspective, the question arises:

When are we going to have the kind of nationwide E911 coverage that we know we
want and need to have?" he asked rhetorically.

"The technology is there. The carriers are on board and ready to provide the
location information. Now, we just need to make sure that the dollars that are
being collected are being used for the right purpose. That's what this bill is all
about."

Not all states are misdirecting the E911 dollars that are being collected, Lorello
said. In fact, some states are doing a really good job: "Indiana, Virginia, Iowa
are good examples of states that are doing what's supposed to be done," he said. 
"They've made emergency management a priority."

In those cases where states have taken an active policy approach to the E911
issue, operational plans have been formulated that included detailed cost recovery
methods for deploying the technology. In other words, those states that are doing
the best job in deploying the technology enacted measures mandating that there
will be collection of cost recovery dollars from wireless carrier subscribers. And
then they made sure that those dollars actually went into upgrading E911
infrastructure.

"Establishing a secure, reliable and adequate funding mechanism for E911 is an
essential step for protecting our families, communities, and homeland security,"
Burns told reporters at Thursday's press conference.
Jenny Hansen, who oversees E911 on the state level in Montana, praised the bill. 
"This bill protects the technology that will save lives, and will provide state
and local authorities with the tools they so desperately need to keep pace with
the technological advances which occur daily," she said. "As a public safety
official, I am keenly aware of each state's role in protecting its citizens, and
this bill empowers everyone involved in Enhanced 911 services, from the first
responders to local officials."
Hansen has also worked with the Montana Governor's Office to re-institute the
Public Safety Services Office, and sits on numerous national councils, all
associated with public safety.

The Burns-Clinton bill follows closely in the wake of an FCC measure that requires
carriers to be more aggressive in reporting the progress they are making in
deploying E911 location technology. Beginning Aug. 1, the nation's Tier 1 carriers
will have to file additional documentation with the commission that will be used
by the regulator to more precisely track deployment progress. There are six Tier I
carriers: AT&T Wireless Services Inc.; Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless;

Sprint Spectrum L.P. d/b/a Sprint PCS; Cingular Wireless LLC; Nextel
Communications Inc. (including Nextel PartnersInc.); and T-Mobile USA (formerly
VoiceStream Wireless).

The FCC's wireless E911 rules are intended to improve the effectiveness and
reliability of wireless 911 service by providing 911 dispatchers with additional
information about the location a wireless 911 caller. The program is divided into
two parts - Phase I and Phase II. As part of Phase I, upon an appropriate request
by a local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), carriers are required to report
the telephone number of a wireless 911 caller and the location of the antenna that
received the call.

In Phase II, which the industry is only now beginning to enter, wireless carriers
are required to provide far more precise location information - within 50 to 100
meters in most cases, according to Lorello.
The deployment of E911 required the development of new technologies and upgrades
to local 911 PSAPs, as well as coordination among public safety agencies, wireless
carriers, technology vendors, equipment manufacturers, and local wireline
carriers. The FCC has established a four-year rollout schedule for Phase II, which
began Oct. 1, 2001 and is to be completed by Dec. 31, 2005.

To help identify and address the primary factors causing delay in implementing
Phase II, the FCC last year initiated a "technical inquiry" under the direction of
Dale Hatfield, the former head of the commission's Office of Technology and
Engineering. Hatfield currently is an independent consultant and adjunct professor
in the Department of Interdisciplinary Telecommunications at the University of
Colorado at Boulder.

Capitol Hill sources say that even as Hatfield's report served to spur the FCC to
seek more aggressive reporting on carriers' E911 location deployment efforts, it
also was a prime driver for Burns and Clinton. The staffs of both lawmakers "spent
a great deal of time pouring over" Hatfield's report, one congressional source
told TPR. Hatefield's report was intended to be an independent inquiry into the
technical and operational issues affecting the deployment of wireless E911
services in the United States. The inquiry was carried over a six-month period
beginning April 15, 2002.

In his report, Hatfield observed that one over-arching issue that emerged from his
inquiry was that the existing wireline E911 infrastructure, while generally
reliable, is seriously antiquated.
"Indeed, it turns out that the existing wireline E911 infrastructure is built upon
not only an outdated technology, but one that was originally designed for an
entirely different purpose. It is an analog technology in an overwhelmingly
digital world. Yet it is a critical building block in the implementation of
wireless E911," Hatfield said in the report.

From a national policy perspective, this observation is troubling for a number of
reasons. For one thing, it means that the additional network elements and
functions necessary to handle the increasing volume of wireless E911 calls are
being built upon a platform that has serious limitations in terms of speed,
scalability, and adaptability.

Additionally, it is troubling because these limitations not only burden the
development of wireless E911 services, but they will also constrain the industry's
ability to extend E911 access to a rapidly growing number of non-traditional
devices (e.g., PDAs), systems (e.g., telematics) and networks (e.g., voice
networks that employ Voice-over-the-Internet Protocol. or VoIP).

Also, it is troubling because of uncertainty surrounding the willingness and
ability of PSAPs to pay for wireless E911, let alone the other, long-term upgrades
to the local exchange carriers' networks and their own customer premises equipment
necessary to provide E911 access to these emerging devices, systems, and networks.
The Burns-Clinton legislation doesn't directly address any of these issues, thus
leaving the door open for additional legislation that does.

What The Burns-Clinton Bill Would Do

Provisions in the Burns-Clinton Enhanced 911 Emergency Act of 2003 include:
Creation of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
Task Force. This requires the administrator of NTIA to establish an Emergency
Communications Task Force to facilitate coordination between federal, state, and
local communications systems;

Authorization of $500 million per year for grants to enhance emergency
communications services through planning, infrastructure improvements, equipment
purchases, and personnel training and acquisition. Fifty percent matching grants
would be available to state, local, and tribal governments;
To be administered by the NTIA, the grant program would require consultation with
the US Department of Homeland Security. Preference in grants would go to
applications that coordinated with PSAPs and integrated public and commercial
services;

The FCC will be required twice a year to review fees for E911 services.  States
would be required to certify that no E911 fees are being used for other purposes;

The FCC will be required to notify Congress of states that divert E911 funds and
the NTIA will be required to withhold grant funds to states that are found by the
FCC to be diverting E911 funds.

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