Calendar No. 255

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 800

[Report No. 106–138]

A BILL

To promote and enhance public safety through use

less services, and for other purposes.uitous, and reliable networks for personal wireof construction and operation of seamless, ubiqpabilities and related functions, encouragementservice, support of States in upgrading 9-1-1 canumber, further deployment of wireless 9-1-1of 9-1-1 as the universal emergency assistance

AUGUST 4, 1999

Reported with amendments
II

Calendar No. 255

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 800

[Report No. 106–138]

To promote and enhance public safety through use of 9-1-1 as the universal

emergency assistance number, further deployment of wireless 9-1-1 service, support of States in upgrading 9-1-1 capabilities and related functions, encouragement of construction and operation of seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable networks for personal wireless services, and for other

purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 14, 1999

Mr. BURNS (for himself, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. DORGAN, and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

AUGUST 4, 1999

Reported by Mr. MCCAIN, with amendments

[Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in italic]

A BILL

To promote and enhance public safety through use of

9-1-1 as the universal emergency assistance number, further deployment of wireless 9-1-1 service, support of

States in upgrading 9-1-1 capabilities and related functions, encouragement of construction and operation of

seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable networks for personal

wireless services, and for other purposes.
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1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wireless Communica5 tions and Public Safety Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—

8 (1) the establishment and maintenance of an

9 end-to-end communications infrastructure among

10 members of the public, emergency safety, fire service

11 and law enforcement officials, emergency dispatch

12 providers, transportation officials, and hospital

13 emergency and trauma care facilities will reduce re14 sponse times for the delivery of emergency care, as15 sist in delivering appropriate care, and thereby pre16 vent fatalities, substantially reduce the severity and

17 extent of injuries, reduce time lost from work, and

18 save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in

19 health care costs;

20 (2) the rapid, efficient deployment of emergency

21 telecommunications service requires statewide coordi22 nation of the efforts of local public safety, fire serv23 ice and law enforcement officials, emergency dis24 patch providers, and transportation officials; the es25 tablishment of sources of adequate funding for car-
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1 rier and public safety, fire service and law enforce2 ment agency technology development and deploy3 ment; the coordination and integration of emergency

4 communications with traffic control and manage5 ment systems and the designation of 9-1-1 as the

6 number to call in emergencies throughout the Na7 tion;

8 (3) emerging technologies can be a critical com9 ponent of the end-to-end communications infrastruc10 ture connecting the public with emergency medical

11 service providers and emergency dispatch providers,

12 public safety, fire service and law enforcement offi13 cials, and hospital emergency and trauma care facili14 ties, to reduce emergency response times and provide

15 appropriate care;

16 (4) improved public safety remains an impor17 tant public health objective of Federal, State, and

18 local governments and substantially facilitates inter19 state and foreign commerce;

20 (5) emergency care systems, particularly in

21 rural areas of the Nation, will improve with the ena22 bling of prompt notification of emergency services

23 when motor vehicle crashes occur; and

24 (6) the construction and operation of seamless.

25 ubiquitous, and reliable wireless telecommunications
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1 systems promote public safety and provide imme2 diate and critical communications links among mem3 bers of the public; emergency medical service pro4 viders and emergency dispatch providers; public

5 safety, fire service and law enforcement officials;

6 transportation officials, and hospital emergency and

7 trauma care facilities.

8 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to encour9 age and facilitate the prompt deployment throughout the

10 United States of a seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable end11 to-end infrastructure for communications, including wire12 less communications, to meet the Nation’s public safety

13 and other communications needs.

14 SEC. 3. UNIVERSAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBER.

15 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSAL EMERGENCY

16 TELEPHONE NUMBER.—Section 251(e) of the Commu17 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)) is amended by

18 adding at the end the following new paragraph:

19 ‘‘(3) UNIVERSAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE

20 NUMBER.—The Commission and any agency or enti21 ty to which the Commission has delegated authority

22 under this subsection shall designate 9-1-1 as the

23 universal emergency telephone number within the

24 United States for reporting an emergency to appro25 priate authorities and requesting assistance. The
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1 designation shall apply to both wireline and wireless

2 telephone service. In making the designation, the

3 Commission (and any such agency or entity) shall

4 provide appropriate transition periods for areas in

5 which 9-1-1 is not in use as an emergency telephone

6 number on the date of enactment of the Wireless

7 Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999.’’.

8 (b) SUPPORT.—The Federal Communications Com9 mission shall encourage and support efforts by States to

10 deploy comprehensive end-to-end emergency communica11 tions infrastructure and programs, based on coordinated

12 statewide plans, including seamless, ubiquitous, reliable

13 wireless telecommunications networks and enhanced wire14 less 9-1-1 service. In encouraging and supporting that de15 ployment, the Commission shall consult and cooperate

16 with State and local officials responsible for emergency

17 services and public safety, the telecommunications indus18 try (specifically including the cellular and other wireless

19 telecommunications service providers), the motor vehicle

20 manufacturing industry, emergency medical service pro21 viders and emergency dispatch providers, transportation

22 officials, special 9-1-1 districts, public safety, fire service

23 and law enforcement officials, consumer groups, and hos24 pital emergency and trauma care personnel (including

25 emergency physicians, trauma surgeons, and nurses). The
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1 Commission shall encourage each State to develop and im2 plement coordinated statewide deployment plans, through

3 an entity designated by the governor, and to include rep4 resentatives of the foregoing organizations and entities in

5 development and implementation of such plans. Nothing

6 in this subsection shall be construed to authorize or re7 quire the Commission to impose obligations or costs on

8 any person.

9 SEC. 4. PARITY OF PROTECTION FOR PROVISION OR USE

10 OF WIRELESS 9-1-1 SERVICE.

11 (a) PROVIDER PARITY.—A wireless carrier, and its

12 officers, directors, employees, vendors, and agents, shall

13 have immunity or other protection from liability in a State

14 of a scope and extent that is not less than the scope and

15 extent of immunity or other protection from liability that

16 any local exchange company, and its officers, directors,

17 employees, vendors, or agents, have under Federal and

18 State law (whether through statute, judicial decision, tar19 iffs filed by such local exchange company, or otherwise)

20 applicable in such State, including in connection with an

21 act or omission involving—

22 (1) development, design, installation, operation,

23 maintenance, performance, or provision of tele24 communications service (including 9-1-1 service);
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1 (2) transmission errors, failures, network out2 ages, or other technical difficulties that may arise in

3 the course of handling emergency calls or providing

4 emergency services (including 9-1-1 service); or

5 (3) release to a PSAP, emergency medical serv6 ice provider or emergency dispatch provider, public

7 safety, fire service or law enforcement official, or

8 hospital emergency or trauma care facility of sub9 scriber information related to emergency calls or

10 emergency services.

11 involving the release to a PSAP, emergency medical service

12 provider or emergency dispatch provider, public safety, fire

13 service or law enforcement official, or hospital emergency

14 or trauma care facility of subscriber information related

15 to emergency calls or emergency services.

16 (b) USER PARITY.—A person using wireless 9-1-1

17 service shall have immunity or other protection from liabil18 ity of a scope and extent that is not less than the scope

19 and extent of immunity or other protection from liability

20 under applicable law in similar circumstances of a person

21 using 9-1-1 service that is not wireless.

22 (c) PSAP PARITY.—In matters related to wireless 9-

23 1-1 communications, a PSAP, and its employees, vendors,

24 agents, and authorizing government entity (if any) shall

25 have immunity or other protection from liability of a scope
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1 and extent that is not less than the scope and extent of

2 immunity or other protection from liability under applica3 ble law accorded to such PSAP, employees, vendors,

4 agents, and authorizing government entity, respectively, in

5 matters related to 9-1-1 communications that are not

6 wireless.

7 (d) BASIS FOR ENACTMENT.—This section is enacted

8 as an exercise of the enforcement power of the Congress

9 under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Con10 stitution and the power of the Congress to regulate com11 merce with foreign nations, among the several States, and

12 with Indian tribes.

13 SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE CUSTOMER INFORMA14 TION.

15 Section 222 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

16 U.S.C. 222) is amended—

17 (1) in subsection (d)—

18 (A) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of para19 graph (2);

20 (B) by striking the period at the end of

21 paragraph (3) and inserting a semicolon and

22 ‘‘and’’; and

23 (C) by adding at the end the following:
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1 ‘‘(4) to provide call location information con2 cerning the user of a commercial mobile service (as

3 such term is defined in section 332(d))—

4 ‘‘(A) to a public safety answering point,

5 emergency medical service provider or emer6 gency dispatch provider, public safety, fire serv7 ice, or law enforcement official, or hospital

8 emergency or trauma care facility, in order to

9 respond to the user’s call for emergency serv10 ices;

11 ‘‘(B) to inform the user’s legal guardian or

12 members of the user’s immediate family of the

13 user’s location in an emergency situation that

14 involves the risk of death or serious physical

15 harm; or

16 ‘‘(C) to providers of information or data17 base management services solely for purposes of

18 assisting in the delivery of emergency services

19 in response to an emergency.’’.

20 (2) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub21 section (h) and by inserting the following after sub22 section (e):

23 ‘‘(f) AUTHORITY TO USE WIRELESS LOCATION IN24 FORMATION.—For purposes of subsection (c)(1), without

25 the express prior authorization of the customer, a cus-
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1 tomer shall not be considered to have approved the use

2 or disclosure of or access to—

3 ‘‘(1) call location information concerning the

4 user of a commercial mobile service (as such term is

5 defined in section 332(d)), other than in accordance

6 with subsection (d)(4); or

7 ‘‘(2) automatic crash notification information to

8 any person other than for use in the operation of an

9 automatic crash notification system.

10 ‘‘(g) SUBSCRIBER LISTED AND UNLISTED INFORMA11 TION FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES.—Notwithstanding sub12 sections (b), (c), and (d), a telecommunications carrier

13 that provides telephone exchange service shall provide in14 formation described in subsection (i)(3)(A) (including in15 formation pertaining to subscribers whose information is

16 unlisted or unpublished) that is in its possession or control

17 (including information pertaining to subscribers of other

18 carriers) on a timely and unbundled basis, under non19 discriminatory and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions

20 to providers of emergency services, and providers of emer21 gency support services, solely for purposes of delivering

22 or assisting in the delivery of emergency services.’’;

23 (3) by inserting ‘‘location,’’ after ‘‘destination,’’

24 in subsection (h)(1)(A) (as redesignated by para25 graph (2)); and
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1 (4) by adding at the end of subsection (h) (as

2 redesignated), the following:

3 ‘‘(4) PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT.—The

4 term ‘public safety answering point’ means a facility

5 that has been designated to receive emergency calls

6 and route them to emergency service personnel.

7 ‘‘(5) EMERGENCY SERVICES.—The term ‘emer8 gency services’ means 9-1-1 emergency services and

9 emergency notification services.

10 ‘‘(6) EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SERVICES.—

11 The term ‘emergency notification services’ means

12 services that notify the public of an emergency.

13 ‘‘(7) EMERGENCY SUPPORT SERVICES.—The

14 term ‘emergency support services’ means informa15 tion or data base management services used in sup16 port of emergency services.’’.

17 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

18 As used in this Act:

19 (1) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

20 the Secretary of Transportation.

21 (2) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of

22 the several States, the District of Columbia, or any

23 territory or possession of the United States.

24 (3) PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT;

25 PSAP.—The term ‘‘public safety answering point’’
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1 or ‘‘PSAP’’ means a facility that has been des2 ignated to receive 9-1-1 calls and route them to

3 emergency service personnel.

4 (4) WIRELESS CARRIER.—The term ‘‘wireless

5 carrier’’ means a provider of commercial mobile

6 services or any other radio communications service

7 that the Federal Communications Commission re8 quires to provide wireless 9-1-1 service.

9 (5) ENHANCED WIRELESS 9-1-1 SERVICE.—The

10 term ‘‘enhanced wireless 9-1-1 service’’ means any

11 enhanced 9-1-1 service so designated by the Federal

12 Communications Commission in the proceeding enti13 tled ‘‘Revision of the Commission’s Rules to Ensure

14 Compatibility with Enhanced 9-1-1 Emergency Call15 ing Systems’’ (CC Docket No. 94-102; RM-8143), or

16 any successor proceeding.

17 (6) WIRELESS 9-1-1 SERVICE.—The term ‘‘wire18 less 9-1-1 service’’ means any 9-1-1 service provided

19 by a wireless carrier, including enhanced wireless 9-

20 1-1 service.

21 (7) EMERGENCY DISPATCH PROVIDERS.—The

22 term ‘‘emergency dispatch providers’’ shall include

23 governmental and non-governmental providers of

24 emergency dispatch services.