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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 123 / Wednesday, June 30, 2021 / Proposed Rules outage notifications to any official who has been designated by the management of the affected PSAP as the providers contact person for communications outages at that facility. 47 CFR 4.9a4, c2iv, e1v, f4, g1i, h. To ensure that PSAPs receive the information they need about 911
outages, the Commission proposes to require originating service providers and covered 911 service providers to develop and implement procedures for gathering, maintaining, and updating PSAP contact information. Because time is of the essence when a 911 outage occurs, originating service providers and covered 911 service providers must notify the right contacts at PSAPs so that the PSAPs can take prompt measures to help the public continue to reach emergency services.
26. The Commission proposes to amend 4.9h of its rules to require both originating service providers and covered 911 service providers to identify the PSAPs they serve and to maintain up-to-date contact information for those PSAPs. In particular, the Commission proposes to require that originating and covered 911 service providers develop and implement standard procedures to: 1 Maintain current contact information for officials designated to receive outage notifications at each PSAP in areas that they serve; and 2 on a routine basis, at least annually, review and update their PSAP contact information to ensure it remains current. The Commission seeks comment on this proposal. The Commission also seeks comment on whether to require originating service providers and covered 911 service providers to offer contact information reciprocally to PSAPs. The Commission does not, however, propose to specify the procedures that service providers must develop or follow to elicit PSAP
contact information to retain flexibility in this regard. The Commission seeks comment on this approach.
27. The Commission seeks comment on the cost and benefits of originating service providers and covered 911
service providers to maintain up-to-date contact information for PSAPs in areas they serve. The Commission anticipates that the actual costs that originating service providers and covered 911
service providers would incur to comply with this requirement may be substantially lower than the estimate below because the Commissions rules already require these service providers to notify PSAPs of 911 outages and, as such, they should already have accurate PSAP outage contact information on hand. Insofar as service providers already have up to date PSAP contact
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information, the Commission does not anticipate that compliance with this proposed requirement would present an incremental cost.
28. The Commission also notes that in November 2019, the NRSC Task Force approved standard operating procedures for updating PSAP contact information in a centralized PSAP contact database.
In that document, the Task Force suggested that a centralized database would potentially relieve service providers of the need to maintain their own internal processes and responsibilities to work independently with each 911 authority. Subsequently, in October 2020, the NRSC noted efforts by public safety organizations such as NENA to develop a PSAP contact database. The NRSC stated that to encourage broad use of a PSAP contact information database, it would need to be made available at little or no cost for service providers. The NRSC also expressed concerns regarding data integrity and who would be responsible for updating contact information. As such, the NRSC argued that industry adoption of such a database could prove challenging due to the potential for liability associated with reliance on the database.
29. The Bureau sought comment on the NRSC letter in December 2020. 86
FR 4074. In response, USTelecom called a PSAP contact information database critically important for industry and PSAP coordination during emergencies. NENA, which operates a voluntary PSAP registry service, stated that there is an immediate need for an authoritative service that can provide contact information for PSAPs during emergencies. APCO continued its support of a PSAP contact information database and urged the Commission to require service providers to establish and maintain a secure two-way contact information database. These comments indicate strong interest in a PSAP
contact information database to facilitate reliable and rapid communication between service providers and PSAPs in an emergency.
30. Therefore, the Commission seeks comment on whether a mandatory PSAP
contact information database accessible to and updated by originating and covered 911 service providers, as well as PSAPs, would warrant the Commission adopting alternative requirements other than those proposed above. The Commission seeks comment on the contours of such a database.
31. As a threshold question, the Commission asks how such a database would be administered. Should the Commission, as APCO International suggests, require service providers to
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host and operate the database? Are originating service providers and covered 911 service providers already participating in the development of a centralized PSAP contact database? The Commission notes the efforts of wireless carriers previously to establish the National Emergency Address Database NEAD to facilitate provision of 911
dispatchable location information for wireless callers. 80 FR 45897. However, wireless carriers notified the Commission that they had abandoned the NEAD after failing to secure necessary agreements with other entities. The Commission notes further the commitment of several wireless provider signatories to the Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework Framework to establish a provider/
PSAP contact database to enhance coordination during an emergency, the existence of which may mitigate the costs of creating a PSAP contact information database, particularly for those wireless provider signatories. 78
FR 69018. What particular lessons learned may be relevant for a similar service provider-operated PSAP contact information database? The Commission seeks comment on the utility of a database developed, owned, and operated by both originating and covered 911 service providers.
32. The Commission also seeks comment on how such a database would be funded and how such a funding mechanism would impact smaller service providers. As noted below, charging PSAPs and public safety entities for access to the database could inhibit PSAP participation in the database, which would be inconsistent with the Commissions stated goal of enhancing public safety. What funding mechanisms would work for such a database? How much would the creation and maintenance of such a PSAP
contact information database cost for initial setup? Given that many service providers already maintain updated PSAP contact information, the Commission seeks comment on the ease and costs of transitioning from many independent databases to a unified database. What would the recurring costs of maintaining and updating a PSAP contact information database be?
While such a database would appear to provide certain informational benefits, how significant would these benefits be in practice? The Commission also asks commenters to describe these or any other potential benefits with specificity.
33. The Commission is especially interested in how a PSAP contact information database would best be kept current and accurate, as well as where
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