VoIP E9-1-1

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Non-Service Initialized Phones and 9-1-1
Michigan 2009 Fall Forum on Next Generation 9-1-1
and Other Emerging Technologies November 3, 2009
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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is an NSI phone?
• The Challenge of NSI phones

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TCS Fast Facts

• Established in 1987
• Annapolis HQ, Seattle, Tampa, London
• Data Centers in WA, AZ, MD
• NOCs in Seattle and Annapolis
• NASDAQ TSYS
• Strategic Offers
• Wireless Location Messaging Solutions
• Satellite Services and Deployable Systems
• Homeland Security
• Professional Services
• Industry Relations
• Founding Member SMS Forum, PAM Forum, IN Forum
• Member 3GPP, CTIA, ETSI, GSM, NENA, APCO, OMA,
  TIA, ESIF, NRIC VII, IETF

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TCS E9-1-1 Solutions

• Meets wireless E9-1-1 Phase I and Phase II FCC
  requirements
• Provides standards-based VoIP i2 E9-1-1 service
  (Owns the original i2 patent)
• Displays caller location to police, fire and
  emergency personnel (life-saving information)
• Supports 24/7 monitoring and operations
• Operates 2 fully redundant data centers
• Serves over 100 million subscribers
• Processes over 125,000 calls/day
• Has completed over 100,000,000 E9-1-1 calls to
  date
• Operates the only TL9000 certified NOC in the 911
  industry

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TCS Facilities/NOC/Data Center
Seattle Network Operations Center
Backup NOC Data Center Phoenix, AZ
Seattle Data Center
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What is an NSI Phone?

• Every cell phone is unique and must be positively
  identified via an electronic handshake with the
  wireless switch before service is activated.
• An NSI phone is one that has not completed the
  handshake, or has failed the handshake.
• Discarded (failed)
• Newly purchased (failed)
• Power up (not complete)
• Service lost/restored (not complete)

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Why are NSI Phones Capable of 9-1-1?

• Congressional pressure (Eshoo, D-Ca)
• FCC Mandate
• Similar to warm dial tone for landline
• For 9-1-1 calls, carriers skip the handshake
• The road to hell..

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How do NSI Phones Work?

• Call routing based on cell sector (same as normal
  wireless call)
• PSAP receives ESRK, but no CBN
• The CBN is typically 911 7 digits of Electronic
  Serial Number
• Location info is provided (assuming capability of
  phone and PSAP)
• Accuracy not adequate to pinpoint user (same as
  normal Phase 2)

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NSI Phones Are Perfect Harrassment Tools

• No phone numberno CBN, in exact location, not
  traceable
• Many children find amusement by playing with
  their NSI phones
• Older users are malicious
• No good deed goes unpunished

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Consequences

• Dispatcher in Chicago, victimized by one too many
  prank calls, chastised child for playing with the
  phone. The call was legitimate, however, with
  tragic results and lawsuits.
• Numerous anecdotal reports of false reports of
  serious crimes causing responders to kick in the
  doors of innocent, sleeping, unsuspecting victims
• Intentional misdirection of police away from a
  crime in progress.

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Statistics

• Tennessee
• 2 of NSI calls are legit
• Oct-Dec 06 54 different callers dialed 9-1-1
  from an NSI phone more than 10 times (max140)
• Of these 54 people, 8 were children

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More Statistics

• Florida
• 12-county survey for one month
• 4 of all NSI calls were legit
• Michigan
• 2-month survey
• .05 of 1000 NSI calls were legit (5 calls)
• Washington
• Snohomish County-6 week survey
• 2 of 553 NSI calls were legit

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What is Being Done About NSI Phones?

• FCC has amended the NSI mandate to allow carriers
  to block harassment calls
• Carriers are reluctant to block calls due to
  liability concerns and cost considerations
• Who has authority to identify a harasser?
• No existing technology to block specific NSI
  calls.

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What is Being Done About NSI Phones?

• Petition to FCC
• NENA, APCO, NASNA, several states
• Petition called for FCC Notice of Inquiry
• FCC Notice of Inquiry (Nov 3, 2003)
• 70 Respondants with various recommendations
• Block all NSI Phones terminate NSI requirement
• Block specific NSI Phones using various
  technologies
• NENA submitted reply response

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NENA Response to FCC Notice of Inquiry

• Opposed termination of NSI requirement and
  supported blocking of individual calls
• Called for Advisory Working Group for negotiated
  rule making
• Identified issues to be resolved
• What technology to be used to block calls?
• How to define a harassment call what triggers
  blocking?
• Liability
• How long should blocking persist on any one
  phone?
• Funding/Cost Recovery

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Options

• Terminate all 9-1-1 service for NSI phones (if
  the phones dont work for regular calls, why
  should there be an expectation for 9-1-1?)
• Or,
• Block Harassment Calls from specific phones

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Technology for Blocking Individual NSI Calls

• Block at the PSAP
• Recommended by carriers
• Assuages liability concerns
• Places burden for blocking on the entity that
  wants the calls blocked
• Does hardware/software exist to block NSI calls?
• Can calls be routed to recording?

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Technology for Blocking Individual NSI Calls

• Block at the MSC/MPC
• Development work required
• How to communicate block order?
• Automated timer on blocks
• Calls can be routed to recording
• Possible call processing delays for all 911 calls

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Potential issues if all NSI wireless handsets are
blocked

•  The carrier processing the call may not be able
  to distinguish a handset that has no active
  account with any carrier from a handset
  subscribed to a carrier with whom the carrier
  processing the call does not have an automatic
  roaming agreement.
• A carrier may block a 911 call due to billing
  errors or disputes or a simple case of a check
  lost in the mail.
• Immediately and for several seconds after power
  on, MSC to MSC handoff, recovery from loss of
  service in a tunnel etc, system "reboots", and
  other normal network events a handset will appear
  to be non-initialized and be blocked from making
  911 calls.

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Potential Issues if we block individual wireless
handsets

• Each suspect handset will have to be blocked on
  every carrier with a compatible air interface or
  the handset will simply roam to another
  compatible network.
• Bad actors will simply get another NSI handset at
  a yard sale or thrift store. There is a virtually
  unlimited supply of such handsets.
• Bad actors may donate the blocked handset to a
  thrift store which could prevent a decent citizen
  from making a 911 call to request help for
  someone else who really needs it.
• Call processing can be delayed or complicated as
  the telephones electronic serial number on every
  911 call will have to be compared to a list of
  blocked serial numbers.
• Because it is extremely difficult, perhaps
  impossible, to uniquely identify NSI handsets
  even using the ESN of the handset, the wrong
  handset may be blocked when attempting to block a
  harassing caller or other inappropriate 911
  calls.

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Thank you

• Dick Dickinson
• Sr. Director, Public Safety
• TeleCommunication Systems, Inc
• 206-792-2224
• ddickinson_at_telecomsys.com