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Next-Gen 911 Planning Bill Gets California Legislature’s Approval

In particular, the bill would require OES to coordinate infrastructure with FirstNet, and give advance notice of the 911 customer surcharge and projected costs of text-to-911 and Next-Gen 911 capabilities.

Next up on Gov. Brown’s desk: legislation that would require the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) to develop a plan and timeline for testing, implementing and operating a Next Generation 911 emergency communication system.

 
In particular, the bill would require OES to coordinate infrastructure with FirstNet, the national public safety broadband network that’s under development; and give advance notice of the 911 customer surcharge and projected costs of text-to-911 and Next-Gen 911 capabilities.
 
Introduced by State Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), SB 1211 unanimously passed the Assembly and Senate this week with amendments.
 
“As we modernize our 911 system, my bill will help integrate texting to 911 into California’s statewide 911 system. Texting to 911 will enhance emergency response in hostage situations or home break-ins when a voice call would be dangerous,” Padilla said earlier this year.
 
Next-Gen 911 typically allows users to send test messages, photos and other media — as well as voice calls — to 911 emergency call centers, which are known as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). There are 458 PSAPs that receive 25 million 911 voice calls per year, according to a Senate Rules Committee staff analysis of SB 1211.
 
The nation’s four major wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon — agreed to offer text-to-911 service by May 15, 2014. Some PSAPs are not yet set up to handle that type of data; those that cannot are supposed to relay a bounce-back message to users notifying them that text messaging service is unavailable.
 
This story was originally published by TechWire, a sister publication to Government Technology that covers IT in California state and local government.