Memo #5-Public Service Announcement on Funding 9-1-1

FROM: THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER ASSOCIATION: NEXT-GENERATION EMERGENCY 9-1-1 PARTNERSHIP

Change is good, but the process of change means tough choices as to deal with the effects of change.

For years, the Emergency 9-1-1 service has been funded by collecting subscriber fees for 9-1-1 service, assessed on all wireline and wireless phone bills and are collected by telecommunications providers. The telecommunications providers then remitted these fees to the local governments to ensure community-wide access to the Emergency 9-1-1 service. This blanket fee ensured that the Emergency 9-1-1 service was paid by, and available to, everyone in the community. The Emergency 9-1-1 service has saved countless lives by connecting the community to the emergency services they need. But the current technological and economic revolutions are threatening to erode the funding for this vital public service. Traditional telephone service is being challenged by the cellular phone and the Internet phone. These challenges to the traditional system are resulting in lower prices and better services for those who choose them; a choice that does nothing but benefit society.

However, a difficult choice must be made. The move away from the traditional sources of funding of Emergency 9-1-1 threatens to erode the very service that has saved and protected the society at large. The other issue is that the providers of Internet telephone service lack the ability to connect to the existing Emergency 9-1-1 service, the willingness to provide such connection, and no method to help provide the funding. As a result, Emergency 9-1-1 is threatened.

However, there are tough choices that can be made that would alleviate these concerns. First, write your congressman and senator and put pressure on them to actually appropriate the $25 Million dollars in Emergency 9-1-1 funding that was authorized in 2005, allowing these public funds to be released to the states and local governments. The release of this money will pay for necessary upgrades to the Emergency 9-1-1 system to ensure that the existing system will be work in conjunction with the new telecommunication technologies.

This release is a short term solution. For the long-term, the local consumers of Emergency 9-1-1 service need to provide direct, reliable sources of funding that applies to all members of the community. As such, please encourage your local city councils, county commissioners and public utility commissioners to encourage the adoption of the small surcharge on access infrastructure providers proposal advocated for by the NENA. This small surcharge, which is lower then the surcharge imposed on the telephone providers in the past, will apply to wireless, wireline, and Internet telephone providers by imposing the small surcharge on the access providers. Businesses, homes and other entities all need an access infrastructure provider to interconnect, and this fee proposal ensures that everyone in the community is providing for Emergency 9-1-1 services. By spreading the cost to all connections, the NENA proposal will keep the individual cost low, lower then what has traditionally been paid. Finally, this fee will ensure that Emergency 9-1-1 services will be paid for and responsive to the local developments.

The NENA knows that imposing a fee on every connection is a tough pill to swallow, but it is a decision that is necessary to ensure Emergency 9-1-1 service will be available to all who need it. Your life, the life of those you care about may depend on it.