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This week, a coalition of nine national organizations sent a letter to Congress urging them to pass legislation that would allow states to deploy next-generation 911. The bill is an internet-based system that experts say is a much-needed replacement for aging systems. , a telephone-based emergency communications infrastructure used throughout the United States for decades.
If passed, HR 3565, known as the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act, which the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved in 2023, would provide $14.8 billion to help state and local governments upgrade their 911 emergency notification systems. Federal funding would be provided in the amount of $.
The letter notes that the country’s existing 911 infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle system failures, cyberattacks, and the current number of emergency calls (estimated at 240 million a year, according to a 2021 public safety survey). It claims not to have done so.
The coalition, which includes the National Emergency Number Association, the National Association of State 911 Administrators and the Emergency Response Technology Industry Council, argues that the NG911 system will improve location accuracy and provide better protection against cyber threats. ing. Interoperability between 911 centers has also been improved.
“Federal funding is critical to ensuring that no region of the country is left behind as we transition to the next generation of 911 systems,” said Brian from the National Emergency Number Association, one of the signatories.・CEO Fontes stated in a letter to Congress. “Given the bipartisan and unanimous support for this bill in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, we urge the House and Senate to adopt a framework to fund NG911 in line with HR 3565. “This is a widely supported and urgently needed aid measure that will provide every state and community with a robust, safe, and future-proof emergency response capability.” ”
The letter argues that funding for the upgrades would have no impact on the federal budget because the funding would be provided through a federal auction for access to airwaves. Spectrum auctions conducted by the Federal Communications Commission often generate billions of dollars by allowing companies to bid for access to various spectrum bands.
Fontes told StateScoop that 90% of 911 calls originate from wireless devices such as smartphones that can process audio, video and image data – data that is rarely used in current 911 systems. .
“All of this rich information that could be associated with a 911 call is stripped away by legacy technology and boiled down to voice communication,” Fontes told StateScoop in an interview Thursday.
The letter states that people with disabilities, including those who are deaf, hard of hearing, and visually impaired, should have the ability to send text messages, videos, or images to 911 dispatchers instead of relying solely on verbal communication. It is said that you will benefit from it.
Fontes said the NG911 is also useful in emergencies where assistance is needed but verbal communication is limited, such as domestic violence emergencies.
“In some cases, and obviously domestic violence is one of them, the caller doesn’t want to talk,” he says. “But if the caller can turn on the camera, the 911 experts can see what’s going on in the environment without the caller saying anything.”
Even without federal support, 38 states have state-wide NG911 plans that include text message 911 reporting services, according to the 2021 National 911 Annual Report prepared by National 911 Programs and the National Association of State 911 Administrators. We are hiring.
“As the country moves toward NG911, more states are gaining the ability and ability to provide text-to-911 service. Text-to-911 is frequently deployed at the local or regional level. but are increasingly being implemented at a statewide level to provide a consistent level of service,” the report states.
Fontes said the timeline for the deployment and implementation of NG911 could take anywhere from a few years to more than a decade, depending on how prepared countries are with equipment, software and training. That’s why Congress needs to approve federal funding as soon as possible, he said.
“We cannot get through this century with the lack of data from last century, so there is an urgent need to put this funding mechanism in place now,” he said. [and] Voice-based methods are a way to communicate the need for a public safety response. ”
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