911 Call Centers Won't Be Ready For E911 Deadline

from the too-much-spending-on-boots... dept

Tue, Feb 10th 2004 1:28am — Mike Masnick

Last year we had a story about how the money that NY was supposedly collecting for E911 service (so police have the ability to locate mobile phone callers), was instead put into "dry cleaning bills, ballpoint pens, travel, car leases, grounds maintenance for precincts and winter boots." In response to this revelation, a bill was introduced in NY State to give more money to governments that don't divert the funds. You read that right, the plan to save the system was to give more money to governments that actually do what they're supposed to - rather than throwing away money on other things. So, is it really any surprise to find out now that a new study shows that 50% of all 911 emergency call centers won't be ready in time for the deadline? Apparently, they need more money. Perhaps if they hadn't squandered the money specifically earmarked for this purpose there wouldn't be a problem. It sounds like many of the call centers haven't even started the process of getting ready, despite knowing about the deadline for many years. The wireless carriers have fulfilled their end of the bargain and should all be ready when the December 31, 2005 deadline hits. It's just the local governments that have been ignoring the mandate in favor of spending money elsewhere. In the meantime, don't be surprised if the E911 fees on your mobile phone bill go up as the local governments need to make back all the money that went into those boots and ballpoint pens. Hope those new boots are comfy and the ballpoint pens write smoothly.

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Beck, 10 Feb 2004 @ 7:05am

Mobile Carrier Fees
Don't know about E911 fees, but this month Verizon started a new .40 charge on my wireless bill to pay the costs of cell phone number portability. I haven't switched carriers, but apparently I get to pay for all of the people who do switch.
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Oliver Wendell Jones, 10 Feb 2004 @ 10:31am

Re: Mobile Carrier Fees
$0.40? You're lucky. Sprint PCS is charging me $1.10 per phone for each of two phones on my account, or $2.20. I'm paying more than 5x what you are...
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Andrew Klossner, 10 Feb 2004 @ 11:06am

state govt, not federal
A closer read of the article shows that the bill was introduced, not in Congress, but in the New York state legislature.
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Mike (profile), 10 Feb 2004 @ 11:51am

Re: state govt, not federal
Whoops. Thanks. Corrected.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2004 @ 4:22pm

Re: Mobile Carrier Fees
Yeah, really. I don't have any kids, how come I have to pay for all these schools?
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Beck, 10 Feb 2004 @ 5:10pm

Re: Mobile Carrier Fees
You're right, it's exactly the same thing.
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Jim, 10 Feb 2004 @ 8:51pm

mobile carrier fees
The exact nature of the article is not the fees for E911, but rather, the clasic attitude of "government". Here in my own community in SW Washington State, we have regularly paid into a small reserve fund for the day when our landfill (dump) was full and other means would have to be done.

One of our county commisioners, when that reserve fund was transfered to another use, when pressed stated that it was "Their money" Huh ? Where did that money come from.
In NY, that is just normal, whether it is Federal, State or Local.
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