Nationwide adoption of Next Generation 9-1-1, a system that would allow the public to send multimedia messages to emergency call centers, would cost between $1.44 billion and $2.68 billion over 10 years, says the Federal Communications Commission.

The commission issued Sept. 22 a white paper on cost estimates during a public meeting of the commission, along with a notice of proposed rulemaking soliciting comment on whether it should speed development and deployment of NG9-1-1 and how it might do so.

The cost estimates depend on a number of assumptions, including that some safety answering points would buy network services from third party providers rather than owning outright all the equipment. Hosted solutions, the white paper says, are generally cheaper, although they may not offer as many customization options as full equipment ownership.

The $1.44 billion figure assumes that consolidations of emergency call centers would reduce the number of public safety answering points by 35 percent and a greater degree of hosted solution penetration than the $2.68 billion figure, which assumes no consolidation and a lower proportion of hosted solutions.

The notice of proposed rulemaking seeks comment on a number of issues, including whether it should permit SMS as a means for contacting 9-1-1 as an interim solution. SMS has considerable limitations, such as not containing any information about the tester's location nor identifying which cell tower received the SMS from the end-user device. The service is also delivered to intended recipients on a network capacity-available basis and returns no confirmation of receipt to end users. But, it can be deployed quickly and most mobile devices support SMS.

"Balancing these considerations, we believe that PSAPs, providers, and vendors should have the option to implement SMS-to-911 as a short-term alternative," the notice states.

For more:
- go to a webcast of the Sept. 22 FCC open commission meeting
- download the white paper (.pdf)
- download the NPRM (.pdf)
- download a FCC press release on NG9-1-1

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