https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Public Safety


Public safety seeks money for 911 upgrades

Public safety seeks money for 911 upgrades

ORLANDO—Technical, operational and logistical challenges faced by public safety answering points (PSAPs) wanting to evolve to a next-generation 911 system can resolved, but funding the massive buildout continues to be a problem
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 13th February 2007

ORLANDO—Technical, operational and logistical challenges faced by public safety answering points (PSAPs) wanting to evolve to a next-generation 911 system can resolved, but funding the massive buildout continues to be a problem, speakers at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Winter Summit said this week.

Next-generation PSAPs will be based on IP technologies and will enable users to employ a variety of media—voice, text, photos and video—to communicate an emergency situation to a dispatch center. Specifications of what will constitute a next-generation PSAP are not expected to be finished until the second quarter of this year, but that’s not the delay that concerns APCO President Wanda McCarley.
When asked about the major roadblocks facing PSAPs from realizing the promise of a next-generation architecture, McCarley said, “Funding, funding and funding—and then technical [issues].”

Indeed, securing funding has been a problem for many PSAPs, half of which are not equipped to locate wireless 911 callers and some of which still do not have basic wireline 911 service. The Enhance 911 Act of 2004 authorized $1.25 billion in federal grant money for Phase II wireless upgrades, but none of the money has been appropriated to date.

“Our biggest impediment is incompetence,” said Greg Rohde, executive director for the E911 Institute. “The 109th Congress will probably go down as the most incompetent Congress ever. We didn’t have a vote in the U.S. Senate on most of the appropriations bills last year … and Congress only passed two appropriations bills last year.

“We don’t have any funding at all for the one federal grant program that’s supposed to help PSAPs upgrade. That’s something that needs to get addressed, and I think it will be [by the new Democrat-controlled Congress].”

But having enough funding is not the only challenge facing the 911 systems. Rohde noted that ensuring the security of 911 information may be as important as funding, and interoperability remains a critical concern.
Steve Marzolf, ISP manager for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, said he believes there is enough money available to upgrade 911 systems via public-private partnerships if the proper model can be found. Virginia has such an information-technology agreement with Northrup Grumman, and the state is considering the possibility of pursuing a similar deal in the 911 arena.

“We have not convinced the next-gen partners that they can make money doing this,” he said. “Because, if they can’t make money doing this, it’s not going to happen—they’re not a charity.”
When funding is available, 911 agencies must plan well to ensure that the money is spent wisely—something that has not always happened in the past with Department of Homeland Security grants, Marzolf said.

“We buy a lot of boxes that look really cool and have a lot of blinking lights, but we have to operationalize them,” he said. “I’m hopeful that we’ll get money, but we better be ready to spend it appropriately … Otherwise, I fear it will be another windfall of funding that becomes money in search of a problem rather than a problem in search of money. We have to be diligent and make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Tags: content Public Safety

Most Recent


  • Crown Castle's fiber and small cell business under fire – again
    Elliott Investment Management, an activist investor firm, is taking aim at Crown Castle again, arguing the company needs to overhaul its management and potentially put its fiber business up for sale. Importantly, Elliott said it now owns roughly $2 billion in Crown Castle stock. That’s double what the company owned in 2020 when it embarked on […]
  • GSMA calls for EU 'fair share' and mergers support amid traffic growth
    The GSMA has backed ‘fair share’ demands for Big Tech to contribute to network costs and called for more European Union leniency on telco mergers in the latest version of its annual European Mobile Economy Report, which forecasts continued growth in data traffic with 5G adoption. The report from the non-profit group forecasts that mobile data […]
  • Scattered Spider hops nimbly from cloud to on-prem in complex attack
    The group behind the high-profile MGM cyberattack in September has resurfaced in yet another sophisticated ransomware attack, in which the actor pivoted from a third-party service environment to the target organization’s on-premise network in only an hour. The attack by Scattered Spider, an ALPHV/Black Cat ransomware affiliate, sealed the group’s position as a formidable adversary for large enterprises […]
  • AI-powered robot dogs tested to find explosive devices
    The U.K. government recently hosted a hackathon to test the use of AI-enabled robot dogs for bomb disposal tasks, reporting promising results. Organized by the Defence AI Center (DAIC), the hackathon saw 40 programmers leveraging AI and robotics to complete several hazardous tasks that would otherwise be undertaken by Army bomb disposal experts. Throughout the […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • New Orleans-area 911 center inks multiyear APEX deal with Carbyne to replace call-handling system
  • Public safety seeks money for 911 upgrades
    Newscan: Feds recover millions from pipeline ransom hackers, hint at U.S. Internet tactic
  • Cyber is the new Cold War, and AI is the arms race
  • Private wireless networks in the US start going public

Commentary


Land mobile radio (LMR) systems are just as vulnerable to cyberattacks as any other networks used in the public-safety sector. Here’s what to do about it.

  • 1
7th November 2023

September 3GPP Plenary meetings feature Release 18 progress, Release 19 beginnings

13th October 2023

Better technology can help solve the public-safety staffing crisis

26th June 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.