Richard Barnes
& Brian Rosen
IEEE Spectrum
April 2014
IS 376
November 13, 2014
Basic 911
Started in the 1960s on a community-by-community basis, 911 emergency calls
originally were routed through the telephone exchange system to an emergency
communications center (a Public Safety Answering Point), where a call taker
would look up the appropriate emergency number in a book and route the call.
FCC Master PSAP Registry
Legend
Type of
Change
NC
O
A
M
S
PSAP ID
Description
No Changes have been made.
Orphaned PSAP no longer considered a primary call taking answering point. Refrain from using these in future filings.
PSAP was added since the original posting of the FCC Registry.
PSAP Name, State, County or City text has been modified since the original posting.
Secondary PSAP associated with a Primary PSAP. Use the Primary PSAP in future filings.
PSAP Name
State
3 Alakanuk Police Department
AK
34 Alaska Region Communications AK
Center
City
Type of
Change
Wade Hampton Census
Matanuska-susitna
Borough
Alakanuk
Denali National
Park
NC
M
Bethel
Anchorage
A
Fairbanks-north Star
Borough
Fairbanks
M
Prince Of Wales-outer
Ketchikan
Ketchikan
M
4 Alaska State Troopers Soldotna AK
Post - E Detatchment
Kenai Peninsula Borough
Soldotna
M
7 Anchor Point Volunteer Fire
And Rescue Inc
AK
Kenai Peninsula Borough
Anchor Point
O
8 Anchorage Fire Department
10 Anchorage Police Department
AK
AK
Anchorage Borough
Anchorage Borough
Anchorage
Anchorage
NC
M
11 Anderson Volunteer Fire
Department-ems
12 Angoon Public Safety
AK
Anderson
NC
Angoon
NC
13 Aniak Volunteer Fire
Department
14 Atqasuk Volunteer Fire
Department
15 Barrow Volunteer Fire
Department
16 Bassett Army Community
Hospital
17 Bear Creek Volunteer Fire And
Rescue
AK
Yukon-koyukuk Census
Area
Skagway-yakutat-angoon
Census Area
Bethel Census Area
Aniak
NC
AK
North Slope Borough
Atqasuk
NC
AK
North Slope Borough
Barrow
NC
AK
Fairbanks-north Star
Borough
Kenai Peninsula Borough
Fort Wainwright
NC
Seward
O
8410 Alaska State Troopers
AK
Anchorage Post - C
Detatchment
6 Alaska State Troopers
AK
Fairbanks Post - D
Detatchment
5 Alaska State Troopers
AK
Ketchikan Post - A Detatchment
IS 376
November 13, 2014
County
AK
AK
911 for the 21st Century
Comments
PSAP Name, State, County or City text has been
modified since the original posting of the FCC
Registry.
PSAP was added since the original posting of
the FCC Registry.
PSAP Name, State, County or City text has been
modified since the original posting of the FCC
Registry.
PSAP Name, State, County or City text has been
modified since the original posting of the FCC
Registry.
PSAP Name, State, County or City text has been
modified since the original posting of the FCC
Registry.
Orphaned PSAP no longer considered a primary
call taking answering point. Refrain from using
these in future filings.
PSAP Name, State, County or City text has been
modified since the original posting of the FCC
Registry.
Orphaned PSAP no longer considered a primary
call taking answering point. Refrain from using
these in future filings.
Page 2
Enhanced 911
The process became more automated in the 1980s, when 911 calls were routed
to a specialized router that would immediately direct them to the correct Public
Safety Answering Point, based on the location of the caller.
The E911 system was reliant on landlines, however, and wouldn’t work with the
newly developing mobile phone system.
The PSAP
coordinates
with the MPC,
which uses
GPS data,
triangulation
between cell
towers, or (as
a last resort)
the cell tower
address to
localize the
caller.
This was
remedied in the
1990s by having
each mobile
phone company
set up a Mobile
Positioning Center
which assigns
each 911 call a
fake landline
number that allows
the correct PSAP
to be contacted.
IS 376
November 13, 2014
911 for the 21st Century
Page 3
E911 Status – April 2013
IS 376
November 13, 2014
911 for the 21st Century
Page 4
East Coast Derecho – June 2012
When a fast-moving storm (called a
derecho) hit several states in June 2012,
it resulted in 22 deaths, widespread
damage, and large-scale E911
communications failures.
The sharp increase in reports to the
Network Outage Reporting System were
ultimately attributed to the failure of
backup power systems designed to
maintain service during commercial
power outages.
The E911 dependency on the circuit-switched wireline network increased its
vulnerability, which wasn’t helped by poor maintenance of backup cell batteries.
IS 376
November 13, 2014
911 for the 21st Century
Page 5
Multistate Outage – April 2014
On April 9, 2014, a call-routing
facility in Englewood, Colorado,
stopped directing emergency calls
to eighty-one 911 call centers
(Public Safety Answering Points)
in seven states.
The outage was caused by a
software failure in the Colorado
facility, and resulted in a loss of
911 service for more than 11
million people for up to six hours.
Over 6,600 calls to 911 never
reached a PSAP.
IS 376
November 13, 2014
911 for the 21st Century
Page 6
Wireless E911 Mislocation
FCC data from July-September 2013 indicate that the vast majority of wireless
911 calls in Washington D.C. were unable to locate the caller’s longitude and
latitude (although they could locate the cell tower being used).
Cell tower position is unreliable for determining caller position because calls are
frequently not picked up by the nearest cell tower.
IS 376
November 13, 2014
911 for the 21st Century
Page 7
Next Generation 911
Rather than attempting to retrofit newer Internet and 4G mobile calls to the old
PSAP-based E911 system, NG911 adapts the old circuit-switched and 3G
mobile calls to fit the new Emergency Services IP Network platform.
IS 376
November 13, 2014
911 for the 21st Century
Page 8
NG911 Progress – August 2014
IS 376
November 13, 2014
911 for the 21st Century
Page 9