Next-gen 911 requires new funding model, greater federal-government role, NENA’s Fontes says

Fontes is a member of the FCC’s Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA) and is part of the TFOPA working group that is examining 911 funding options. The working group is scheduled to present its findings during TFOPA’s July 27 meeting.

“There are more challenges, perhaps, than solutions,” Fontes said. “I think we all agree that funding really has to change. It’s not so much that funding in itself hasn’t worked. It’s worked in a bygone world relatively OK. In today’s world, it doesn’t work as OK.

“You still have states reallocating or reappropriating funding that’s been collected for 911. You have no opportunity to make an investment in next-generation 911, because no one is planning to build into their 911 fees a reserve for next-generation 911 deployment.”

Another challenge for the working group is determining what the costs of migrating to next-generation 911 will be, because it is unclear how a key component of the solution—the Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet)—will be deployed, Fontes said. Some 911 officials may prefer that each of the nation’s more than 6,000 PSAPs have its own ESInet, but the migration costs are more manageable if scalable ESInets are deployed to support multiple PSAP jurisdictions, he said.

“The more efficient route would be to have an ESInet cover multiple municipalities or a region of the state,” Fontes said.” And those who will ultimately be making decisions may have to make those decisions based on the economic realities and what states, communities and regions of states are willing to spend on next-generation 911.”

Similarly, there are questions about how revenue contributions should be made to a new 911 funding model, Fontes said.

“There are a variety of different concepts—I wouldn’t even call them constructs—that take a look at funding from the whole world of broadband connectivity,” he said. “For example, do you pay per connection and, if so, how would that work?”

Another option would be to have the federal government provide additional funding in a manner that would help remove the funding disparities that exist in the 911 arena today, Fontes said.

“There could be general-revenue allocations, where we say, ‘This is how much the government gets in general revenues. We’re going to ensure, in a five or 10-year time period, that every state presents a plan—to be reviewed and funded at the federal level, on the criteria of efficiency, service, etc.—to deploy next-generation 911,’ he said.

“And it doesn’t have to be state or federal; it could be state and federal. It could be 20% federal and 80% local, or flip it around—80% federal and 20% local—to ensure buy-in and commitment from local governments. There are a number of federal programs that have that type of relationship between federal and state contributions to funding projects—highways are an example. Why not consider something like that?”

While a new 911 funding model is developed, there are “incremental steps” that can be taken in the near term to help PSAPs upgrade to next-generation 911, Fontes said. Although there are a number of federal grants available each year that support public-safety communications, many of them do not allow the money to be spent on 911. That situation should be changed, he said.

“And that’s not even new money; that’s just access to money that may exist,” Fontes said. “To foreclose those opportunities, because 911 isn’t in the eligibility clause for the grant, I think is unfortunate.”