BILL ANALYSIS
AB 424
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 28, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 424 (Torres) - As Amended: April 22, 2009
SUBJECT : Mobile radio service: 911 services: disclosures.
SUMMARY : Imposes additional disclosure and education
requirements regarding the enhanced 911 capability of commercial
mobile radio services and handsets, as specified. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires any person providing commercial mobile radio service
to disclose, orally and in writing as part of and in the same
language as the sales communication, whether the service
includes Phase I enhanced 911 service and Phase II enhanced
911 service as specified by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC).
2)Requires any person that provides a non-service initialized
handset, or a 911-only handset that is not capable of
providing enhanced 911 services, to undertake a public
education campaign regarding the limitation of these handsets,
as specified.
3)Requires the State 911 Advisory Board (Board) to assist the
Telecommunications Division of the Department of General
Services (DGS-TD) in developing a public education campaign to
instruct the public on appropriate and inappropriate uses of
the 911 system, and to recommend to the DGS-TD how to
incorporate the campaign into specified plans and funds.
EXISTING LAW
1)Makes it unlawful to sell any cordless telephone manufactured
after January 1, 1992, that does not provide increased
protection from unintentional line seizure, dialing, and
ringing.
2)Requires sellers of specified telephone equipment to disclose
whether the equipment employs pulse, tone, pulse-or-tone, or
other signaling methods, and to provide a general description
of the services it can or cannot access.
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3)Provides that the Board advises the DGS-TD on various
subjects, including, but not limited to, policies, practices,
and procedures for the California 911 Emergency Communications
Office and training standards for county coordinators and
Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) managers.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Purpose of the bill . According to the author's office,
"Assemblywoman Torres has worked as a 911 dispatcher for the
past 18 years and is currently on leave from the Los Angeles
Police Department to serve in the Assembly. Her experience is
that many wireless phone users do not understand that their
emergency call using a wireless handset may not provide a
dispatcher with the caller's location automatically and that
they will have to provide their location by voice. Knowing the
capability of the phone [service] to provide location
automatically is crucial, often life-saving information for the
caller and for the dispatcher.
Providers of wireless phone [services] should disclose to person
receiving the [services] whether the [services] are capable of
providing Automatic Location Information - Enhanced 911 - to the
dispatcher. AB 424 is intended to afford consumers that
information."
Background . According to the FCC, "The number of 911 calls
placed by people using wireless phones has radically increased.
Public safety personnel estimate that about 50 percent of the
millions of 911 calls they receive daily are placed from
wireless phones, and that percentage is growing.
"For many Americans, the ability to call 911 for help in an
emergency is one of the main reasons they own a wireless phone.
Other wireless 911 calls come from "Good Samaritans" reporting
traffic accidents, crimes or other emergencies. Prompt delivery
of these and other wireless 911 calls to public safety
organizations benefits the public by promoting safety of life
and property.
While wireless phones can be an important public safety tool,
they also create unique challenges for public safety and
emergency response personnel and for wireless service providers.
Because wireless phones are mobile, they are not associated
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with one fixed location or address. A caller using a wireless
phone could be calling from anywhere. While the location of the
cell site closest to the caller may provide a very general
indication of the caller's location, that information is not
usually specific enough for rescue personnel to deliver
assistance to the caller quickly."
According to information provided by the author, "The FCC in
1999 ordered cellular carriers to deploy equipment that would
permit automatic location identification for 911 calls, and
established timelines for deployment. During 2001 and 2002
carriers filed compliance plans, which have been in the process
of implementation but are not completely implemented. There are
several different technologies in use by the major carriers.
Each requires activation by the service provider."
Enhanced 911 wireless services . According to the FCC, "As part
of its efforts to improve public safety, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted rules aimed at
improving the reliability of wireless 911 services and the
accuracy of the location information transmitted with a wireless
911 call. Such improvements enable emergency response personnel
to provide assistance to 911 callers much more quickly.
"The FCC's wireless 911 rules apply to all wireless licensees,
broadband Personal Communications Service (PCS) licensees, and
certain Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) licensees. Here are the
specific requirements.
1)Basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to transmit
all 911 calls to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP),
regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider's
service or not.
2)Phase I Enhanced 911 (E911) rules require wireless service
providers to within six months of a valid request by a PSAP,
provide the PSAP with the telephone number of the originator
of a wireless 911 call and the location of the cell site or
base station transmitting the call.
3)Phase II E911 rules require wireless service providers to:
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a) within six months of a valid request by a PSAP, provide
more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically,
the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information
must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending on
the type of technology used.
b) by September 11, 2012, provide even more precise
location information, specifically, information accurate to
the closest PSAP. The FCC established a five year phase-in
period for this requirement to allow wireless service
providers more time to develop this capability. Wireless
service providers must report to the FCC annually on their
progress in supplying this more accurate location
information for PSAPs with Phase II E911 capability.
"Wireless service providers may comply with certain FCC E911
rules by ensuring that 95 percent of their customers' handsets
are E911-capable (also referred to as location-capable). The
FCC's rules permit providers to choose how they will meet this
requirement. Some providers may provide incentives to encourage
customers without location-capable phones to obtain new,
location-capable phones. For example, they may offer
location-capable handsets at a discount. Some providers may
choose to prevent reactivation of older handsets that don't have
E911 capability, or may adopt various other measures.
"If a provider declines to reactivate a handset that is not
location-capable, the FCC requires the provider to still deliver
a 911 call from that handset to the appropriate PSAP.
"The provider, however, may not be able to accurately and
automatically determine your location for the PSAP. Therefore,
when replacing your handset, you should always ask about the new
handset's E911 capabilities."
Uninitialized phones . According to information provided by the
author, "When the FCC issued its original rules on wireless 911,
they required carriers to accept and pass along 911 calls from
any wireless phone, even those who had not been subscribed with
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a carrier. This was intended to ensure that emergency calls
would have a higher probability of being processed and then
received at the PSAP.
"Since these so-called uninitialized phones have no number, they
cannot be called back by a dispatcher. Calls from the phones
will also not display a telephone number in Phase I or II
implementations.
Now, on-line companies are selling unsubscribed phones and
promoting them for personal safety. Non-profit and community
groups are collecting wireless phones donated by the public,
tweaking them to dial 911 only, and handing them out to victims
of domestic violence, taxi drivers, mail carriers, crossing
guards, community watch groups and others."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
Opposition
CTIA - The Wireless Association
Sprint Nextel
T-Mobile USA
Verizon wireless
Analysis Prepared by : Whitney Clark / B. & P. / (916)
319-3301