Text-to-911 Order Remains Key FCC Priority, Turetsky Reassures EAAC

"One thing I'd like to agree wholeheartedly with is that adding text capability to the 911 system will vastly enhance accessibility for people with hearing and speech impairments,” said Turetsky, in brief remarks at the meeting. “That’s why we've launched a proceeding of making text-to-911 capabilities available as soon as possible. Taking the next steps on that, I have to say, is, at this point in time, one of my very highest priorities. It’s something I'm very focused on.” Turetsky assured the EAAC members the FCC will move forward on an interim solution “in the relatively near future.” At the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials meeting in August, Turetsky said an order could get a vote as early as the September FCC meeting.

Turetsky also conceded a solution won’t be easy to put in place. “We know that implementing text-to-911 is going to pose some challenges for carriers and [public safety answering points] alike. Our goal is to provide both carriers and PSAPs with flexibility on how to handle text messages, including options that do not require spending scarce resources on system upgrades."

The working group plans to take the report to the full EAAC in November to ask for comments, with plans to finalize it for EAAC approval in December, said Brian Daly of AT&T, working group co-chairman. The report delves into such areas as how text-to-911 would work for legacy PSAPs, next-generation PSAPs and PSAP networks, Daly said. The report also examines “who is responsible for what to get this built, to maintain it and to pay for it,” he said. The report will include an appendix with case studies and a glossary explaining technical terms, Daly said.

Daly said a few key problem areas have been identified by the group, including the need for the FCC to secure necessary liability protections for when problems occur. “Using any number besides 911 [to send an emergency text] creates a problem that the user will probably never remember it,” he said. “The short-term solution should not necessarily be the subject of all the requirements of the … long-term solutions."

The report must be ready for release no later than the end of the year, said Sheri Farinha, representing the Norcal Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing on the EAAC. “I just wanted to emphasize that we cannot afford to wait,” she said. “That report needs to proceed quickly."

The EAAC also got an update from EAAC’s Emergency Video Sign Language and Communication Assistance Services Subcommittee, which is preparing a report that will recommend a move away from a relay-service model to a direct communication model allowing the deaf and hard of hearing to more readily communicate with emergency call centers. “It is still a draft at this point,” said subcommittee Co-Chairman Chris Littlewood of the Center for Public Safety Innovation/National Terrorist Preparedness Institute. “We hope to be able to share our draft with the entire committee as early as next week just for the purpose of getting feedback.” The report stresses the need for “an end user to be able to make a direct connect … to a PSAP no matter what type of device they're using,” he said.

"I'm wondering if this group is also looking at the funding for that type of service as part of their evaluation,” said Matthew Gerst, who represents CTIA on the EAAC. “It sounds like a lot of the discussion is about technical issues.”

"Funding, especially for the PSAPs, is a very important point and is something that will need to be addressed because there certainly will be a cost factor involved there, but we have yet to address that particular issue,” Littlewood replied. “Right now we're talking about drafting something for the future here,” said Donna Platt of the Speech & Deafness Center, the other co-chair of the subcommittee. “This draft is not for the near term."

The EAAC spent more than an hour Friday debating whether it should ask to be rechartered, but in the end, put off approval of a proclamation asking for another two years of life, until later. Members agreed that there were no objections to asking that the advisory group be rechartered by the FCC.

"The commission will ultimately be the decision maker about the recharting of the advisory committee and we thought it would be nice if the committee could send something up to encourage that to happen,” said Cheryl King, who oversees the group for the FCC.

"The bottom line, as I understand it, for this document is it is one way in which this group might convince the FCC to recharter the EAAC,” said Laura Flaherty, who represents the U.S. Department of Transportation on the advisory group. “What we would do, exactly how we would do that, remains to be seen. … The reasons why it should be rechartered are important and it’s important to list enough of them to provide the evidence the FCC needs to recharter the group.”

Farinha asked why the debate on a proclamation was taking so much time. “There’s no controversy,” she said. “I think that we're expending a lot of valuable time, to be honest. There are so many other more important things that we need to get to.”

The work of the EAAC, which includes advocates for handicapped people and major industry players, has often been contentious. The EAAC released a report last year on the future of emergency communications for people with disabilities. Industry representatives on the EAAC then filed an addendum to the report questioning many of the findings (CD Dec 27 p4). At the EAAC’s February meeting, Farinha sharply criticized industry participants for distancing themselves from last year’s report (CD Feb 13 p4).