Wisconsin has not begun implementing Federal Communication Commission’s rules outlining preparation of 911 response centers for locating distress calls made from cellular phones.
An estimated 1.5 million Wisconsin residents subscribe to cell-phone services.
“Its become a necessity in that our wireless calls now surpass our wire-line calls and actually have surpassed wire-line calls for about a year and a half,” said Duke Ellingson, Operations Manager of Dane County Public Safety Communications.
The FCC’s wireless enhanced 911 rules are divided into two phases. The first phase allows 911 response centers to request the number of the phone from which the call was made, and the second phase requires wireless companies to provide much more precise location information.
“On a wire-line call, of course, the name, number and address of the subscriber pop up on the dispatcher’s screen when a call comes in,” Ellingson said. “On a cell call, every minute we spend questioning a person to figure out where they are is a minute we lose in response time.”
Ellingson said before a 911 response center or Public Safety Answering Point can request wireless providers to report numbers of cellular subscribers and their precise locations when making a 911 call, the PSAP must first have the technology to receive the information. Before a PSAP can acquire the hardware to receive such information, it must have a cost recovery plan in place.
“With Republicans capturing control of the state senate, this bill could come back up without some of the partisan moves that derailed it last session,” said state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald was the head of a senate subcommittee examining how to fund the 911-enhancement.
“The technology is coming along, and it basically allows any cell phone to incorporate a GPS (Global Positioning System),” Fitzgerald said. “Based on the testimony we’ve had, it happens a lot that people really don’t know where they are, and this technology can locate them to within 10 meters.”
Ellingson agreed that many callers do not know where they are when they call 911.
“Even if you knew an area well, if you were driving your car out on the Beltline and rolled your car on the Beltline, you’d probably be disorientated and not remember where you are,” Ellingson said.
Fitzgerald said people who move frequently, like college students, might never establish a permanent wire-line because of affordable cellular plans with few charges for services such as long distance.
FCC E911 rules were originally meant to be in effect by 2001.
Wireless companies petitioned the FCC, and in response the commission rolled back the implementation deadline to Dec. 31, 2005.
Fitzgerald’s subcommittee proposed in its failed bill a 50 cent to a dollar surcharge on cellular phone bills.
The subcommittee estimated such a surcharge could raise as much as $16 million to start the 911-enhancement.
Fitzgerald said there are a number of small surcharges already implemented on phone bills, and legislators were wary of a public that historically reacts negatively to additional charges.
“We don’t have either phase started in Wisconsin. In this state, and in about a dozen others, there are no cost recovery plans,” Ellingson said. “Cost recovery doesn’t necessarily have to be a surcharge, but that’s how they’re doing it in other states.”
Fitzgerald noted that surcharges may be necessary.
“We just don’t have the money for this exciting technology without levying some sort of surcharge on cell-phone users,” Fitzgerald said.
