Published: November 19, 2005 08:34 pm      

City can’t go it alone on new 911 costs

Dec. 13 vote asks cell phone users for 50 cents a month

EDMOND — City officials say residents should not count on Edmond to implement enhanced wireless 911 on its own.

“We really can’t do it without ACOG because it’s countywide,” said Nancy Nichols, city clerk.

Oklahoma and Logan county voters are being asked to say yes in a Dec. 13 special multiple-countywide election to help put new technology in place to answer the growing number of wireless 911 calls. The proposition asks cell phone users to accept a 50 cent a month fee that will pay for improving 911 call center technology.

Already in Edmond more than 50 percent of 911 calls are made from cell phones. The problem, officials say, is that the 911 system now in place does not show the location of cell phone users when they place a call for help.

Wireless phone providers have been required by the FCC to help solve the technology problem in new phones by the end of December. And if voters approve of the 50-cent a month fee, it could take up to 18 months for the central Oklahoma region to implement the two-phases of computer and software improvements, including training for dispatchers.

The Association of Central Oklahoma Governments, which is the overseer of the 911 system in central Oklahoma, estimates it will cost $7.2 million to implement the improvements by 2007. That’s a first-year cost estimate alone.

Steve Willoughby, director of ACOG’s E-911 and Public Safety Programs, extrapolates that Edmond’s cost, if it went ahead alone in implementing E-911, could cost up to $1.15 million.

He notes that even with the revenue for 911 coming in from a fee charged to landline telephone users, if the Dec. 13 vote fails there will be a $5.76 million shortfall in funds needed for the enhancements.

Edmond’s proportional amount of the regional system’s fee is $233,215. With that money, it would leave a $917,333 shortfall without the new fee to wireless phone users.

One reason for the new fee, officials say, is that more and more telephone users are going totally wireless and no longer having a regular telephone in their homes. No phone equals no fee that’s already in place. ACOG’s 911 fee has been decreasing steadily, Willoughby said.

Edmond’s interim Emergency Management Director Mike Magee said no funds are budgeted in Edmond at this time for implementing Enhanced 911 on its own. And he doesn’t see that as a feasible option anyway.

Part of the estimated costs provided by ACOG reflect volume discounts because the software and hardware needed for the improvements will be bought in bulk.

If implemented, the Enhanced 911 will allow two ways of finding wireless phone users. One way is through GPS technology from a chip in the cell phones. A second way — and the one more likely to be used by ACOG — is called triangulation. The computer software will be able to triangulate a caller’s location from detecting the signal off the three closest wireless phone towers.

Magee said the whole point of Enhanced 911 is to save lives.

He uses the example of why parents buy cell phones for teenagers. Parents want to be able to know where their children are and be able to check on their safety. Meanwhile, teenagers are often just learning to drive. If in an accident, they are often not going to be able to tell a 911 dispatcher their precise location, Magee said. That’s why 911 call centers need the improved technology to be able to pinpoint those calls immediately, he said.

Willoughby said it takes 911 dispatchers three times longer to process wireless phone calls than a call from a landline telephone.

However, not all are for the new fee for cell phone users.

Clark Duffe of Edmond plans to debate the issue at noon Wednesday during the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee’s meeting at the Golden Corral.

“I’m not against a wireless 911 system, but this particular plan is riddled with faults,” he stated in a press release, noting he believes it will cost more than 50 cents a month per user to implement.