BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 914
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:  April 28, 2003

                    ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
                                 Sarah Reyes, Chair
                     AB 914 (Reyes) - As Amended:  April 22, 2003
           
          SUBJECT  :  Public safety communications.

           SUMMARY  :  Makes clarifying changes to existing law pertaining to  
          the 911 system and requires the development of a client server  
          system to access geo-reference maps.  Specifically,  this bill  :

          1)Makes clarifying changes to the Warren 911 Emergency Services  
            Act and the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act to reflect  
            the technological changes in telecommunication systems.

          2)Requires the Department of General Services to develop a  
            client server network for the purpose of accessing a  
            geo-reference mapping system for all the public safety  
            answering points in the state.

          3)Specifies that the National Emergency Number Association  
            (NENA) standards for recommended formats and protocols for  
            data exchange and NENA recommended standards for local  
            exchange carriers, Automatic Location Identification (ALI)  
            service providers, and 911 service jurisdictions shall be  
            adopted by reference and required for all agencies, venders,  
            and telecommunications service providers having any  
            connectivity to the telecommunications emergency response  
            system.

          4)Establishes the 911 Committee to be comprised of public safety  
            user groups and requires that all reporting systems (i.e.,  
            equipment or reimbursement necessary for PSAPs or venders)  
            must have prior approval of the committee before plans for  
            funding are to be approved.

          5)Specifies that the 911 Committee evaluate the impact and make  
            recommendations on the implementation of the  
            telecommunications emergency response system by a single  
            public safety agency within its jurisdiction that may  
            adversely affect the implementation of the system by a  
            neighboring public agency or agencies.

          6)Requires the 911 Committee to report annually to the  








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            Legislature on the progress of implementation of  
            telecommunications emergency response systems and recommended  
            changes in legislation and funding.

          7)Specifies that the range of the surcharge be changed from  
            being no more than .75 percent of 1 percent or no less than .5  
            percent of 1 percent  to  no more than 2 percent or no less than  
            1 percent for the purpose of implementing this act.

          8)Specifies that a telecommunications emergency response system  
            include:

             a)   Reporting system
             b)   Approved incremental costs
             c)   A geographically referenced statewide base mapping  
               system
             d)   A regionalized master street address guide
             e)   An Automatic location identification database client  
               server system

          9)Defines a reporting system as a telecommunication system that  
            automatically connects a person who uses another  
            telecommunications service, including 911 circuits, to an  
            established public safety answering point through  
            telecommunications service facilities and is capable of  
            automatically identifying the caller's number, automatically  
            locating the caller, holding the incoming call, reconnecting  
            on the same telephone line, clearing a telephone line, or  
            automatically call routing, or any combination of these  
            capabilities.

           EXISTING LAW  : 

          1)Establishes the Warren 911 Emergency Services Act to be  
            administered by the Department of General Services for the  
            purpose of developing a network of public safety answering  
            points to respond to 911 emergency assistance calls.

          2)Establishes the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act to  
            fund the development and maintenance of the public safety  
            answering points through a surcharge on all intrastate phone  
            numbers issued by the California Public Utilities Commission.

          3)Specifies that the Department of General Services has  
            administrative responsibility over the range of the surcharge,  








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            subject to the approval by the Board of Equalization, as well  
            as reimbursements for expenditures submitted by PSAPs and  
            telephone carriers.  DGS is required to annually report to the  
            Board of Equalization on what the surcharge should be set at  
            to fund future year obligations.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  Unknown.

           COMMENTS  :

           Background  :  The first California commercial telephone exchange  
          opened in San Francisco in 1878.  The system continued to expand  
          from business to private line telephones in homes across the  
          State.  As the only means of reporting an emergency and  
          requesting a Public Safety response, thousands of emergency  
          numbers existed throughout California.

          94 years later, in 1972, the Legislature passed the Warren 911  
          Emergency Assistance Act.  This provided a single, primary  
          three-digit emergency telephone number through which emergency  
          services could be obtained, regardless of jurisdictional  
          boundaries.  In time, the system was improved to "Enhanced 911",  
          in which the caller's address would be displayed to the Public  
          Safety Answering Point.  This act also provided the funding to  
          all agencies for the necessary hardware to handle these calls,  
          and to the telephone service providers for building and  
          maintaining the network.

          While this system was a tremendous improvement to the Public  
          Safety response to an emergency at that time - the legislation  
          has been virtually unchanged for the past 31 years.  No one  
          could have foreseen the technological advances of the last three  
          decades.  The explosive rise in cellular telephone use,  
          satellite and radio transmission capabilities were unfathomable  
          in 1972.

          In the Public Safety Answering Point today, reports of emergency  
          requests for services are received from many telecommunications  
          technologies.  With today's cellular, satellite and personal  
          radio communications devices, requests for emergency services  
          extend to the wilderness areas and open waters throughout  
          California.  Automatic Crash Notification, (ACN), systems are  
          being installed in increasing numbers of vehicles each year.  To  
          this day, the public still relies on the single most utilized  
          emergency telephone number, 911.








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          But, the perception that a Public Safety Answering Point knows  
          your location when you request emergency services doesn't match  
          the reality of the current situation.  While the technology in  
          the hands of the consumer has advanced exponentially, the 911  
          system has remained at the 1972 level.  The problem is further  
          compounded by the fact that while the emergency can move rapidly  
          throughout multiple jurisdictions, the Public Safety Answering  
          Points have no common communications capability.

          Legislation must recognize the broad spectrum of  
          telecommunications emergency notification methods currently in  
          use, in addition to 911.  It must also recognize the need for  
          all agencies within California to have interoperable  
          communications available during those emergency responses.  The  
          current Emergency Telecommunications Surcharge must be enhanced  
          to fund the necessary hardware and network infrastructure for  
          such a system. 

           The purpose of this bill  :  AB 914 updates the Warren 911  
          Emergency Services Act and the Emergency Telephone Users  
          Surcharge Act by clarifying that the existing 911 system, based  
          on calls being directed to public safety answering points (PSAP)  
          by the public switch telephone network, is part of the  
          telecommunication network and not just a call termination point.  
           Furthermore, this bill adds that a client server network be  
          created that allows PSAPs to access geo-reference maps for the  
          purpose of overlaying it with location information from wireless  
          carriers to pinpoint 911 calls made from cell phones.  This bill  
          increases the existing floor for the emergency telephone users  
          surcharge from .5 percent to one (1) percent and set the ceiling  
          at two (2) percent versus at .75 percent for the purpose of  
          ensuring that all 500 plus PSAPs are able to be funded for costs  
          to upgrade and maintain the system.

           Greater use of cell phones today than in the past  :  In the  
          United States today there are more than 90 million wireless  
          phone users who make more than 115,000 emergency calls a day.  A  
          February 2003 Consumer Report noted that one in three people who  
          own a cell phone say they bought it mainly for safety reasons.   
          The report also highlighted that out of 11,500 subscribers  
          contacted in the fall of 2002, 1,880 said they tried to call 911  
          using a cell phone and 280 of them had trouble connecting to 911  
          and 4 percent or 75 people were not able to get through at all.   
          Individuals in California had the highest percentage of calls to  








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          911 that never succeeded at 12 percent and one-third of Consumer  
          Reports California respondents said they encountered some  
          difficulty getting through to 911.

          Currently, the 911 system is able to locate a caller from a  
          landline phone by pulling up their vital information.  This  
          information is transmitted to one of 500 + PSAPs, which are  
          local and state agencies that answer 911 calls, by way of an  
          Automatic Number Identification (ANI) and Automatic Location  
          Identification (ALI).  The ANI/ALI information is provided over  
          the regular phone network and in California SBC and Verizon, the  
          two incumbent local exchange carriers, receive reimbursements by  
          the state through a surcharge applied to every phone user to  
          provide the necessary information to PSAPs.

          Back in 1972 the state could not have anticipated the rapid  
          growth in the use of wireless phones as it created the Warren  
          911 Emergency Services Act and the Emergency Telephone Users  
          Surcharge Act, that developed the 911 system used to this day.   
          Today there are more than 15.8 million cell phone users in  
          California - nearly half of the state's population.

          As cell phone usage and technological improvements in wireless  
          communication has grown over the last three decades the 911  
          system has for the most part remained unchanged.  Technological  
          improvements have allowed wireless phones to be more functional  
          and affordable causing the rapid growth in the number of  
          subscribers.  Currently, after three years of the wireless 911  
          effort, only Torrance Police Department has the ability to  
          locate wireless 911 calls because either the receiving entity or  
          the transmitting entity cannot send ANI/ALI information. 

           Need for standardized statewide base map  :  The Federal  
          Communications Commission requires that wireless carriers must  
          implement Enhanced-911 (E911) within a specified period of time  
          following the date of PSAPs request to them that they have the  
          following mechanisms in place:

          1)A mechanism is in place by which PSAP will recover its cots of  
            the facilities and equipment necessary to receive and utilize  
            the E911 data elements;
          2)PSAP has ordered the equipment necessary to receive and  
            utilize the E911 data and the equipment will be installed and  
            capable of receiving and utilizing that data no later than six  
            months following its request; and








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          3)PSAP has mad a timely request to the appropriate local  
            exchange carrier (LEC) for the necessary trunking and other  
            facilities, including any necessary Automatic Identification  
            Location (ALI) database upgrades, to enable the E911 data to  
            be transmitted to PSAP.

          One of the hurdles for PSAPs in requesting wireless carriers to  
          implement E911 is that the state has yet to develop a  
          standardized base map for PSAPs to overlay ALI information with  
          in order to locate a 911 call from a wireless user.

           Proposed amendments by author  :  Delete the surcharge rate  
          increase due to funds already being available.  The Emergency  
          Telephone User Surcharge Fund has consistently carried a balance  
          at the end of year, sometimes in excess of $80 million, which  
          ultimately resulted in $63 million being transferred to the  
          General Fund in 2001-02.  The reason for maintaining the  
          existing surcharge rate is because the anticipated fund balance  
          will more than cover the initial costs for developing the plans  
          and working drawings for the client server system.  It may be  
          necessary in the future re-evaluate the adequacy of the  
          surcharge rate in order to sufficiently fund the necessary  
          upgrades to the 500 + PSAPs, including the ongoing maintenance  
          of the client server network.

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          California Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association  
          (CalNENA)
          California State Sheriffs Association
          California Fire Chiefs Association
          SEIU


           Opposition 
           
          None on file.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Daniel Kim / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083