Talk:Enhanced 911

Six Minute Requirement for Location Data

After reading through FCC rules part 20.18, I can't find any mention of a time requirement for providing location data to a PSAP. The sources cited in this article only deal with the accuracy requirement, and an internet search turned up a CNN article which claims to quote something from the FCC on the subject, but doesn't specify which document. Does anyone have a better citation for the claim that mobile providers must provide location data to a PSAP within six minutes of a request? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.138.117.98 (talk) 20:15, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Confusion

This article uses a lot of acronyms, which tend to bewilder and confuse those unfamiliar with the system being described. It might be possible to convert many of these to their corresponding expansions, or a more descriptive common noun that refers to the same thing. -- Beland 01:33, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

More points of confusion...

• The acronym CAMA is unexplained.
• I'm not sure I got the expansion for ESN right.
• The acronum MF is unexplained.
• I'm not sure what's going on with all the business about trunks in the "Wireline Enhanced 911" section; perhaps someone who understands the connection sequence can clarify.
• The phrase "the ANI" is confusing and should be avoided.
• The legal penalty in most states for ALI database lookup failure is a strict requirement that they fix the database entry eventually. I'm not sure if there's actual penalty which is not mentioned, or if this is supposed to say something like In most states, the ___ is required to (eventually) fix the database if a lookup failure occurs. What is the timeframe for "eventually", anyway?
• There is some amount of overlap and inconsistency with the article 9-1-1.
• I am confused by the phrase "Phase II". Has Phase II been implemented? By everyone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.132.196.178 (talk) 14:57, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

-- Beland 02:07, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

To fix some of the confusion points above:

• modified most of the ANI references to refer to calling party number
• linked MF to the article for MF. The article for MF is not much better, but better than nothing.
• clarified how the calling party number is used with the ALI database
• reworded the 'legal penalty' section. removed word 'eventually' as it is ambiguous.
• reworded the selective router section; hopefully it is clearer.
• rewroded the trunking descriptions; hopefully it is clearer.
• it is possible that the trunking section belongs in the general 911 article; the 'enhanced 911' description simply needs to state that ANI must be passed on the trunks for enhanced 911 to work; perhaps a separate 'technical function of 911' section?
• fixed ESN expansion

-- John (not registered) 20:30, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

ANI/ALI - These terms are used interchangeably but only ALI is defined - incorrectly. From a 911 point of view these are treated as one service called ANI/ALI (Automatic Number Identification/Automatic Location Identification). The article uses the terms where it's more appropriate to use the other term or both. There's a page on ALI which could be linked to, but an ANI/ALI section on this page would make sense (allowing for the Wireline section to be tidied up). -- Leonstr 12:31, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

i think this article should be tagged for being messy! --hoborg —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.173.210.163 (talk) 06:51, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone for all their untangling work. I've just given the article a final push, and I removed the {{confusing}} tag, since hopefully it's not anymore. -- Beland (talk) 05:09, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Street Naming

I would like to see something on the requirement that municipalities give every building a street number, which in turn required them to name previously unnamed streets in order to comply with E-911 requirements. All at once across the country during the late 1990s, shared driveways were given often-whimsical names by their residents. Historic roads were renamed to reduce confusion as well. --Editing 17:41, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

the text of the enhanced 911 Act itself

i'm wondering is it very difficult to show the text of the enhanced 911 act itself. anyone who can help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by User:Castorcnn (talk) --Kgfleischmann (talk) 19:34, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Brief quotes relevant to the article make very good sense, and would look great. But the full text would be excessive, since the full text is easily available online. --Lexein (talk) 13:07, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

US focused

I had to put the {{worldview}} tag on because especially under the VOIP section, it's very US-centered. What about Canada and Mexico? Me-123567-Me (talk) 23:43, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Good point - can you help? I don't read Spanish, and I'm unfamiliar with Canadian tel regs and regulators. 911 does seem have been first in the U.S., "first" dates would certainly be good to establish in other nations. In fact, how about Central America? I'm not advocating an exhaustive list, of course. --Lexein (talk) 13:06, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure where to find reliable sources to make additions in regards to Canada. Me-123567-Me (talk) 16:11, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

I am new to wikipedia and apologize in advance for any faux pas in how I have approached the process of editing. I have tried to address the US centric concern with some additional historical context by providing links to articles that focus on the application of the Enhanced 9-1-1 concept outside North America. I don’t have expertise on 9-1-1 VoIP outside North America and can’t help there. I have domain expertise on E9-1-1 as it pertains to enterprise style organizations and how public safety agencies manage incoming emergency calls. I have added information on how E9-1-1 applies to enterprise style organization who use Multi-line Telephone Systems. There is an important distinction and often misunderstood between E9-1-1 for the MLTS and VoIP E9-1-1. I hope you find this a worthy addition. I will work to improove this infomrtion over time. Any comments on how I can be a more effective contributor are greatly appreciated. --E9-1-1SME (talk) 14:30, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for what you have done. I'm sure it's an improvement. Continue to be bold. Me-123567-Me (talk) 16:11, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

REMOVED TAG I removed the globalize/worldview tag as the issue appears to have been handled: the intro indicates where in the world 911 is used, and addresses emergency number systems used in other parts of the world. There are also more location-specific details elsewhere in the article.

Beyond that, I'm not sure if this tag was suitably applied, as even in the version at the time of tagging, it was made clear that Enhanced 911 is specific to North America; systems with similar functions used elsewhere would be separate topics. (If I'm wrong in my interpretation of the worldview/systemic bias tag...sorry.) --Tsavage (talk) 12:22, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Assisted GPS clarification?

Article currently mentions "Assisted GPS (wireless or television) allows use of GPS even indoors".

I hadn't heard of television assisted GPS, and found a bit about a company called Rosum that recently sold their patent portfolio on the technology; couldn't find anything specifically about that on WP.

The current link to "wireless" also appears to be off target.

Would it be better to just leave the one link to "Assisted GPS" and drop the qualifying parenthetical statement?--NapoliRoma (talk) 18:33, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Diagram

I added the diagram "9-1-1 System.svg" to this page and a link on the plain 911 page as well. Egmason (talk) 02:26, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

UPDATE REQUEST:. I noticed a typo in the definition underneath "PSTN" The word is "Telephone" but it contains an extra 'o': Telepohone (sp.). The diagram is complete and does not need revision as far as I can tell, but I believe it would be best if the original author has a crack at editing the artwork. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikebellman (talk • contribs) 18:08, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Diagram corrected. Egmason (talk) 02:00, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Wireless enhanced 911 - Technology

The location section explains a mobile phone can be located using triangulation, GPS... But that means the location information is send from the phone ? Does it means each phone will communicate some information to the phone network provider about the position ? Is there some kind of world-standard ? Even old phones are capable of doing that ? What about the case where the SIM card is not used ?

If the information is only base on the provider's observation and not the phone, how can he do triangulation ? I thought the provider had only the information about the cell the phone is connected to.

Maybe this section should be more explicit about that. --Martvefun (talk) 17:20, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Removed Merge to 911 tag

Removed the tag suggesting this article be merged with 911, placed in 2011, for the following reasons:

• The article here appears substantial in its own right, and too long and detailed to be a section within another article.
• The article at 9-1-1 has a section on the Enhanced 911 topic that points here as the Main article.
• The related section in 9-1-1 is currently long and unwieldy, and seems in need of editing down and merging with this article.

--Tsavage (talk) 12:51, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Proposed merge of Next Generation 9-1-1 into Enhanced 911

It appears that the NG9-1-1 initiative was superseded a decade ago by Enhanced 911. The clearly outdated article NG9-1-1 is based predominantly one a single primary source that's no longer online, and ventures heavily into WP:CRYSTALBALL area. I suggest a heavy trim, and salvageable content merged into Enhanced 911. — kashmīrī ^TALK 18:27, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

Agree per nom. 83.168.137.1 (talk) 22:39, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

Incorrect. NG9-1-1 is a complete replacement for Enhanced 911. Enhanced 911 is the system we are using today. NG9-1-1 is currently being implemented in the U.S. and Canada. The two systems are completely different, except for the intent - getting help to someone who needs it as quickly as possible. I haven't looked at the NG9-1-1 article or the Enhanced 911 article in many years. I suspect the E911 article is probably pretty accurate, since that system has been in place for decades and hasn't changed much in recent years. NG9-1-1, however, has evolved as implementations have been rolled out, so I suspect that this article might benefit from some updates.

At any rate, merging this into the Enhanced 911 article, which is about the legacy 911 system, would not be helpful. It would be harmful if people didn't understand that NG9-1-1 is currently replacing E911.

Side note: The European Emergency Number Association (EENA) has published their NG112 standard, which is based on, and compatible with, the North American NG9-1-1 standard published by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) in the U.S. and Canada. The goal is a single, worldwide standard for emergency services communications.

Maybe interested parties could work together to update this article and bring it into line with recent developments! Dashunderscore (talk) 18:24, 31 January 2024 (UTC)

@Dashunderscore Thanks for this. I'm not sure there are that many editors as knowledgeable of the subject matter as you – do you think you'll find time to bring the NG911 article up to date?

Also, it appears that more modern sources all use NG911 spelling, not "NG9-1-1". Would you have any objections against renaming the article accordingly? Cheers, — kashmīrī ^TALK 21:53, 31 January 2024 (UTC)