Transcript VoIP E9-1-1

Non-Service Initialized
Phones and 9-1-1
Gulf Coast NENA Conference
October 13, 2009
Agenda
• Introduction
• What is an NSI phone?
• The Challenge of NSI phones
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TCS Fast Facts
Established in 1987
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Annapolis HQ, Seattle, Tampa, London
Data Centers in WA, AZ, MD
NOCs in Seattle and Annapolis
NASDAQ: TSYS
Strategic Offers
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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 (lifesaving 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
Seattle Data Center
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Backup NOC &
Data Center
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Phoenix, AZ
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.
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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 number=no 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
(max=140)
– 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 don’t 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
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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.
• 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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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 telephone’s
electronic serial number on every 911 call will have to be compared
to a list of blocked serial numbers.
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Thank you
Dick Dickinson
Sr. Director, Public Safety
TeleCommunication Systems, Inc
206-792-2224
[email protected]
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