West’s Safety Services selected to develop and operate database to enhance 911 caller-location data for PSAPs

Establishing the NEAD database is a significant step in meeting 911 location rules approved by the FCC in early 2015. Those rules require that the number of access points included in the NEAD represent at least 25% of the population for in a given market area. The FCC rules require that this threshold be met in the top 25 markets in 2021 and in the top50 markets in 2023, according to Marinho.

“It demonstrates the industry’s commitment to stand up that database, which is something very significant as a national resource to enhance the ability to deliver 911 location accuracy,” he said. “It builds upon a lot of the improvements and technologies that the industry already has invested in, but it makes 911 better by delivering those capabilities.”

Marinho said that there is a validation process to ensure that the location information for the Wi-Fi access points and the Bluetooth beacons is accurate. In addition, a plan to protect the privacy and security of the NEAD—a database to be used only for 911 purposes—is scheduled to be submitted to the FCC in February, he said.

Two testbed regions—San Francisco and Atlanta—have completed the first stage of testing existing location technologies, and “the results look very promising,” Marinho said. Testing of new location technologies is expected to begin soon in the testbed regions, he said.

While these technologies are expected to greatly improve the location information associated with a 911 call from a cell phone used inside a building, their implementation—possibly as soon as 2018—does not mean that existing GPS-based technologies will be discarded, Marinho said.

“One point that is often forgotten is the fact that this system is really complementary to the existing systems that are out there, to help improve on them,” Marinho said. “But, in the event that—for whatever reason—the information doesn’t pass the sanity check, you always default to the existing capabilities, so you always have the ability to process a 911 call.”