Second Report and Order and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

In this , we affirm the Commission’s commitment to ensuring access to emergency services for all Americans.

The need to provide text-to-911 service in a timely manner is made more pressing because many consumers believe text-to-911 is already an available service, because of the unique value of text-to-911 for the millions of Americans with hearing or speech disabilities, and because of the crucial role it can play in protecting life and property when making a voice call would be dangerous, impractical, or impossible due to transmission problems.

We therefore take action to ensure that the potentially life-saving benefits of text-to-911 are available to all consumers as swiftly as possible. We require that Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) providers and other providers of interconnected text messaging applications be capable of supporting text-to-911 service by December 31, 2014. Covered text providers will have until June 30, 2015, or six months from the date of a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) request, whichever is later, to implement text-to-911 for that PSAP.

In the Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we seek comment on technical issues related to the provision of enhanced location information and support for roaming for texts to 911, as well as the capabilities of future texting services.