Emergency Communications

Wireless RERC input on accessible emergency information and text-to-911 was included in recent FCC rulemaking. The first, in the Report and Order (R&O) In the Matter of Accessible Emergency Information and Apparatus Requirements…Video Description…[MB Dockets No. 12-107 and 11-43], the Wireless RERC was cited and/or included in the body of the document 17 times, influencing final rules requiring the simultaneous provision of visual and audio emergency information conveyed during non-newscast programming.

July 2013 — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Public Notice announcing that the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has filed a “petition for rulemaking requesting the Commission to revise its Part 68 hearing aid compatibility (HAC) volume control gain requirements for terminal equipment.”  The TIA specifically requests that the rules be revised to reference ANSI/TIA-4965, the latest TIA standards to address volume control requirements for HAC, in order to improve access to emergency services and provide “regulatory certainty for manufacturers.”  Comments on the

July 2013 —The Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a report outlining “gaps in NENA i3 NG9-1-1 specifications related to EAAC Accessibility reports.” The report reviews the NENA Functional and Interface Standards for Next Generations 9-1-1 (NENA i3), a document widely used in the development of NG9-1-1, and notes that certain gaps in the NENA i3 may prevent accessibility within NG9-1-1.  Specifically, the EAAC notes that future versions of NENA i3 need to address many items, including the need for standards to address e

July 2013 — Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile released reports outlining their progress to deployment of text-to-911.  These reports were issued following an agreement made between the wireless providers, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), and APCO International to offer text-to-911 services to subscribers.  The reports note that while the four providers all deliver bounce-back messages to subscribers who attempt to send text messages to 911 in areas where the services is not yet provided, each provider is currently in a different state of text-to-911 deployment.

June 2013 — Wireless RERC principal investigator, Dr. Helena Mitchell, presented 9-1-1 & Alert Trends for People with Disabilities at the National Emergency Number Associations’ (NENA) annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. NENA’s educational tracks, among other things, addressed NG911, accessibility, text-to-911, public outreach, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).