On August 10, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced his five-step action plan to chart the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1^(?) (NG9-1-1^(?)) services. Working with the public safety community, carriers, manufacturers and other service providers, Chairman Genachowski’s goal is to ensure that effective emergency response is a critical element of the broadband environment.

 

Under the Chairman’s five-step action plan, the FCC will: (1) develop automatic location accuracy mechanisms for NG9-1-1, (2) facilitate the completion and implementation of NG9-1-1 technical standards for the hardware and software that carriers and public safety answering points (PSAPs) use to communicate NG9-1-1 information, (3) work with state 9-1-1 authorities, other Federal agencies, and other governing entities to provide technical expertise and develop a coordinated approach to NG9-1-1 governance, (4) develop an NG9-1-1 Funding Model focused on the cost-effectiveness of the NG9-1-1 network infrastructure linking PSAPs and carriers and (5) enable consumers to send text, photos, and videos to PSAPs.

 

Next month, the FCC is expected to launch a rulemaking to consider how to accelerate NG9-1-1 adoption to help answer practical, technical questions about how to enable text, photo, and video transmission to 9-1-1, including how to ensure adequate broadband infrastructure to deliver the bandwidth PSAPs will need to provide NG9-1-1. As part of the proceeding, the FCC will examine interim solutions for ensuring that carriers and service providers support transmission of text-to-9-1-1.