Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act

H.R. 438 / S. 800

The NVFC strongly supported the passage of the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act to ensure that the nation's public safety communications needs were met. PRESIDENT ClINTON SIGNED THIS BILL INTO LAW ON OCTOBER 26, 1999 (PL-106-81).

Issue: Currently, public safety organizations in the United States are often prohibited from communicating with each other at disaster scenes because of the lack of a single communications frequency. The Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act will encourage and facilitate the prompt deployment throughout the United States of a seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable end-to-end infrastructure for communications, including wireless communications, to meet the Nation's public safety and other communications needs.

This legislation amends the Communications Act of 1934 to direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (and any other agency or entity to which the FCC has delegated such authority) to designate 911 as the universal emergency telephone number within the United States for reporting an emergency to appropriate authorities and requesting assistance. It applies such designation to both wireline and wireless telephone service and requires the FCC to provide technical support to States for the deployment and functioning of a comprehensive emergency communications infrastructure, including enhanced wireless 911 service, on a coordinated statewide basis.

Additionally, the legislation provides immunity from liability, to the same extent as provided to local telephone exchange companies, for providers of wireless 911 service and provides immunity for users of wireless 911 service to the same extent as provided to users of 911 service that is not wireless.

H.R. 438 and S. 800, introduced by Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL) in the House and Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) introduced it in the Senate, authorizes telecommunications carriers to:

(1) provide call location information concerning the user of a commercial mobile service to providers of emergency services, to inform such user's legal guardian or family members of the user's location in an emergency situation involving the risk of death or serious bodily injury, or to providers of information services to assist in the delivery of emergency response services; and (2) transmit automatic crash notification system information as part of the operation of such a system. It requires the express prior customer authorization of the use of either of the above information for other than the stated purposes.

Finally, the legislation requires a telecommunications carrier that provides telephone exchange service to provide subscriber list information (including information on unlisted subscribers) that is in its sole possession or control to providers of emergency services and emergency support services for use solely in delivering, or assisting in delivering, emergency services.

For more information contact:
Craig Sharman csharman@nvfc.org
NVFC Government Affairs Specialist
1-888-ASK-NVFC (275-6832) or 202/887-5700