You are here: Home / Articles / Safety / Accident Prevention / 9-1-1 In The Wireless World

9-1-1 In The Wireless World

There is a serious automobile accident. One of the first on the scene calls 9-1-1 on his cell phone. The dispatcher already knows about the crash from one vehicle's Automated Collision Notification System where deployment of the airbag triggered a call to 9-1-1. The call also provided the exact location of the accident. The dispatcher asks the caller to take some photos of the scene and transmit them. She relays the photos to the EMTs so they will be better prepared when they reach the scene. She views the images to determine how many tow trucks should be sent and if a HAZMAT remediation team is needed.

This capability, and much more, could result from the Department of Transportation?s Next Generation 9-1-1, or NG 9-1-1, initiative to establish the foundation for public emergency communications services in a wireless and mobile world. It is defining the technology being developed by a consortium that includes the National Emergency Number Association, Columbia University, and Texas A&M University.

Communications have changed significantly since the first 9-1-1 call was made in 1968 in Haleyville, AL. Back then calls were made by phones attached to the telephone network via a cord. Now the landline phone is being replaced by cellular phones and VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol.) Wireless service is becoming ever more mobile through technologies like WiFi, satellite Internet and Blackberries. The current 9-1-1 system, designed around telephone technology, cannot usually handle text, data, images and video transmitted wirelessly. Emergency 9-1-1 service has not kept pace with rapidly advancing wireless and Internet based communications. The current 9-1-1 is analog technology, operating in a digital world.

Since the 1990s, the 9-1-1 system has been undergoing upgrading to handle calls from cell phones through the Wireless E9-1-1 Initiative. This required upgrades to determine position either by cell phones with embedded GPS chips or through the identification of cell towers involved in the call. As of late 2005, more than half of U.S. counties still cannot discern the location of a wireless 9-1-1 call.

VoIP is even more challenging. Here calls can originate, and subsequently be routed, through servers that can be located virtually anywhere in the world. Today, with VoIP 9-1-1 calls made via a computer, the caller must usually supply the location. This can be a real problem during an emergency when the caller may be panicking, seriously injured or lost.

Since NG 9-1-1 is based on VoIP technology, it will benefit from the current communications and networking technologies of the Internet. Being Internet-based, it will be easier to incorporate technological breakthroughs that could be added in plug and play fashion.

NG 9-1-1 will be integrated seamlessly into the current 9-1-1 system, with no degradation in services. These may still remain in operation in some locations for decades. Local government agencies will still serve as answering points and the core, operating environment is not expected to change fundamentally. However, there will be new capabilities and equipment and many changes will be needed in technical staff skills.

NG 9-1-1 communication will be two way. For example, a dispatcher could send a video demo of the Heimlich maneuver to a cell phone if someone is choking. Or a SWAT team could receive a building's floor plan before they reach the scene. It could be used in ?Reverse 9-1-1? applications where citizens could be warned that a child predator was in the neighborhood, including photos, or warned of an impending forest fire including escape routes.

As today, personal communication devices and commercial networks will remain outside NG 9-1-1 network. However, new devices for callers with disabilities will supplant existing systems. For the hard of hearing, NG 9-1-1 could use Text-over-IP or Video Relay Services (VRS), where a hearing "call taker" interprets sign language and relays the information via voice. If the caller doesn?t speak English, an Internet language translation website could be called up.

In national disaster or other major incident, PSAPs as well as responders are often overwhelmed. Using the Internet, NG 9-1-1 will permit call takers in distant locations to answer the call, determine basic caller information, enter it into databases accessible to local responders, and provide information from responders to be given to callers.

Responders can retrieve information from these databases to make triage decisions, and deploy their resources most effectively.

How will the new NG 9-1-1 be paid for? Traditional sources for 9-1-1 funding, surcharges, fees and taxes on telephone services, will decline as landlines are replaced by wireless and VoIP services. Thus, new funding sources will have to be found. Fortunately, costs for NG 9-1-1 equipment and operations should drop due to the lower costs for IP-based equipment and infrastructure.

The increased ability to transmit data over the Internet, including medical data and photos of emotionally distraught victims, raises privacy issues. Visual images and text messages would become public record that could later be obtained by news media and others. Information could be routed through servers all over the country, even the world. NG 9-1-1's proponents say that the benefits of locating victims in distress and saving lives outweighs threats to privacy. Lawmakers and the courts will probably have to decide what will be allowed. Transferring to the Internet will mean NG 9-1-1 will increase vulnerability to hackers and denial of service problems. However, the Internet already offers a wider range of tools, software and procedures to address and mitigate attacks.

Some of the first NG 9-1-1 technologies are now being tested in Virginia and Texas. This includes routing VoIP, mobile video, and text messages to 911 responders. A full-scale test using real emergency calls is planned for 2008.

The one thing that will not change with NG 9-1-1 is the mission - receive emergency calls from the public; ascertain nature, status and location of the emergency; and relay the call to the appropriate public safety agencies to response to the emergency.