Phase II wireless 911 ongoing, evaluation coming in the near future

The country’s policy makers and industry players need to refocus their attention on the development and widespread deployment of enhanced 911 (E911) for wireless service, according to the lead of the Phase II wireless 911 trial in Toronto. A significant amount of attention has been paid to the problems of implementing basic 911 and enhanced 911 specifically for VoIP. But Judy Broomfield, E911 voice services coordinator with the Toronto Police Service, says other areas deserve attention as well. "We have to turn our focus back to the wireless issue," she tells Report on Wireless in an interview at the APCO Canada/NENA Ontario 911 in Any Language conference in Toronto this week. "We were so concerned about that we really had so much focus on that particular technology when the reality is 40% or more of our 911 calls everyday are from cell phones. So 40% of the time we don’t have good location information." But progress is being made, despite the fact that wireless 911 seems to have been pushed to the back burner. E911 for wireless, also known as Phase II wireless 911, is currently on trial in the downtown core of the Greater Toronto Area. The project involves the big four primary responders – police, fire, ambulance, and the Ontario Provincial Police – as well as Bell Mobility. Phase II wireless 911 is testing the ability to provide enhanced 911 services in a fully mobile environment. The use of assisted GPS technology is one of the key building blocks for this service and this provides the geographic location of the caller. When a wireless 911 call is made within the specific coverage area of the trial, the latitude and longitude of the caller is delivered to the 911 operator. What was initially supposed to be a six-month trial has been extended, but Broomfield says it’s unclear how much longer the trial will continue. But she hopes the plug isn’t entirely pulled on the project when a decision is made to officially end the trial. "We would like to see it remain…because if you know the interface exists and you know the information could be available and could help save somebody’s life, why would you pull the plug?" Broomfield states. "You didn’t pull the plug on basic 911 so you could enhanced, you built a better product ." According to Broomfield, the next step in the project is to conduct "an assessment of how valuable have we found the information, how useful was it how accurate it is. So we’re working right now to go through what would our assessment criteria be?" Following the assessment process, the hope is movement on wireless E911 will start. "Hopefully at the end of the trial we will have a good solid basis to assess what’s needed, get the other carriers at the table to discuss what the standards would be for everybody," says Broomfield. "Once we’ve gone through our assessment and present it to the rest of the industry, and if we’re in agreement, that’ll also be motivation for the commission to say, ‘Okay it is technically feasible, make it so.’"

Phase II wireless 911 ongoing, evaluation coming in the near future

News | October 6, 2006

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