https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • 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
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • 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
  • 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
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • 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

Urgent Matters


Commentary

Lots of moving parts to implementing text to 911

Lots of moving parts to implementing text to 911

There are numerous challenges associated with public-safety answering points (PSAP) supporting text-to-911 service, but the need for this capability is so compelling that the 911 community must do everything possible to deploy it as soon as possible.
  • Written by
  • 1st August 2013

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column that focused on the need for text-to-911 services. There are those—count David Turetsky, chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau among them—that believe the ability to receive emergency texts will be the most vital of all the next-generation capabilities that public-safety answering points (PSAPs) someday will have at their disposal.

Indeed, text-to-911 service already has saved a few lives, which is even more impressive when you consider that there only are a few places in the U.S. that currently have this capability. For instance, earlier this year in the state of Vermont, first responders prevented a suicide after a text was received from a man who indicated that he intended to end his life.

I agree with Turetsky. It will be nice for PSAPs to receive video from the field when next-generation 911 becomes available, because it will enhance situational awareness—always a good thing when lives are at stake. However, that capability falls into the “nice to do” bucket. In contrast, the ability of a college student to text 911 when a gunman is loose in his dormitory—a situation that eliminates the possibility of making a 911 voice call, because the student couldn’t risk being discovered by the assailant—clearly lands in the “must do” bucket.

During the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference held in June, Turetsky and actress Marlee Matlin—a passionate advocate for the hard-of-hearing community, of which she is a member—implored our industry to implement text-to-911 services as soon as possible. I second that motion wholeheartedly.

But, as with most things in life, the devil is in the details, and when it comes to implementing text to 911, there are quite a few of them, according to Jay Malin, managing director of Agent511, a Northbrook, Ill.-based vendor that specializes in mobile messaging solutions for the public sector, who spoke on the topic during the NENA conference.

One is that J-STD-110—a standard developed jointly by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) to create a framework for PSAPs to receive texts from multiple carriers—has a few limitations.

“There are a lot of vendors in this space, and my concern is that this is going to leave somebody with a multitude of Web portals or different implementations on their desktop—each PSAP essentially will have to manage the total technology on a per-carrier basis,” Malin said.

“And, in the context of the interoperability analysis, there still is some slight variation amongst vendors. As a result … there needs to be [some way]—whether it’s text control at a more-localized level or a second layer of ESRP—to facilitate text messaging in the context of a region or statewide network.”

Another problem is that texting can be unreliable, Malin said. Consequently, it is imperative that PSAPS train call-takers on standard operating procedures that govern delivery failures.

“There are a few reasons for delivery failures,” Malin said. “One of them, of course, is that the device has been turned off. A second one is that there may have been a temporary network failure. As many of you know, text … is a store-and-pour, best-effort technology. You don’t often see failures due to network congestion, but nevertheless, call-takers should be aware of what a failure might look like.”

Yet another consideration concerns whether—and how—texts received by a PSAP are transferred to other public-safety entities.

“Some of the platforms will allow transfers within the PSAP, but you might have unique transfer policies such that 911 is able to transfer to the police and fire, but fire can’t transfer back to police or 911,” Malin said. “You may even have PSAP-to-PSAP policies. This is something that needs to be under consideration. What do these routing policies look like, and are you communicating them to your service provider?

Some may believe that text to 911 is too much hassle, especially when one considers that the ability to send texts using TTY phones has served the deaf and hard-of-hearing community for years. But there are a few problems with the concept of large-scale TTY emergency calls. First, mainstream America doesn’t use TTY, and it clearly would benefit from the ability to place a 911 text call. Moreover, the deaf and hard-of-hearing largely has abandoned TTY in favor of cellular technology, a point that Matlin made during her keynote address at the NENA conference. Even if TTY still was in vogue, PSAPs would need to add trunks; otherwise, a large volume of TTY calls during a major incident would tie up the center’s 911 lines, Malin said.

 Anything worth doing takes some effort, and text to 911 definitely is worth doing. I hope that the industry answers the call of Turetsky and Matlin, and puts its collective shoulder to the wheel to get this done as soon as possible.

Tags: PSAP PSAP Telecommunicators Commentary Incident Command/Situational Awareness NENA NG-911 Public Safety Training Urgent Matters Commentary

Most Recent


  • Black Hat 2022: Adapting to the growing cyberthreat landscape
    The nation’s first cybersecurity chief is warning that the growing threat landscape will get worse as society and businesses become more digitized. At the Black Hat USA 2022 conference, Chris Krebs, the first director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said he spent the last 18 months gathering information. He spoke to people […]
  • Diffusing the connected car's ticking data-privacy timebomb
    Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) collate a significant amount of data to ensure vehicle safety, requiring an always-on internet connection and hundreds of sensors. An entire industry has been developed around monitoring, logging, analyzing and monetizing it. Yet, the danger is, particularly with increasing cyber-attacks, that this data could end up being leaked and stolen. […]
  • Patch madness: Vendor bug advisories are broken, so broken
    BLACK HAT USA – Las Vegas – Keeping up with security-vulnerability patching is challenging at best, but prioritizing which bugs to focus on has become more difficult than ever before, thanks to context-lacking CVSS scores, muddy vendor advisories, and incomplete fixes that leave admins with a false sense of security. That’s the argument that Brian […]
  • What the 6 GHz band might mean to fixed-wireless access
    Fixed-wireless access (FWA) technology is gaining significant interest in the US market, as evidenced by T-Mobile and Verizon collectively adding 816,000 new FWA customers during the second quarter of this year, while Charter Communications and Comcast collectively lost around 21,000 broadband customers. Leichtman Research Group reported that, over the past year, the US broadband industry added a total […]

Related Content

Commentary


LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

  • 2
6th May 2022

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

18th April 2022

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

22nd February 2022
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Intelsat, OneWeb team on in-flight connectivity dlvr.it/SWgYb2

15th August 2022
UrgentComm

Black Hat 2022: Adapting to the growing cyberthreat landscape dlvr.it/SWgF3Y

15th August 2022
UrgentComm

Diffusing the connected car’s ticking data-privacy timebomb dlvr.it/SWdCw2

14th August 2022
UrgentComm

Patch madness: Vendor bug advisories are broken, so broken dlvr.it/SWcvFR

14th August 2022
UrgentComm

What the 6 GHz band might mean to fixed-wireless access dlvr.it/SWctfk

14th August 2022
UrgentComm

FirstNet PTT technical progress highlighted by AT&T at APCO 2022 dlvr.it/SWZtNJ

13th August 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: D.C. appeals court upholds FCC decision to share 5.9 GHz V2V spectrum with Wi-Fi dlvr.it/SWZQpx

13th August 2022
UrgentComm

Cisco confirms data breach, hacked files leaked dlvr.it/SWV8l9

12th August 2022

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”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 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.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X