Recessionary ripple effect

While there’s much talk in official Washington about including stimulus funding and incentives for broadband deployment (and more recently about setting aside a portion of the package’s $775 billion total for a national dual-use 700 MHz network and the troubled DTV transition), it appears less attention is being paid to potential consequences of the economic crisis for public safety, the mobile-phone industry and wireless consumers at the local level.
These less visible dangers flow from the fact – according to the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures – that a slew of states already have cut billions of dollars from this year’s budgets and are projecting budget shortfalls totaling more than $100 billion through 2010.
With such a bleak picture – which could brighten somewhat when the Democratic-led Congress and incoming president Barack Obama seal the deal on economic recovery legislation – one can only imagine just how states might react. Cash-strapped states could be animated to take liberties with statutory enabling acts and shift around funds otherwise designated for 911 call-center upgrades. It’s happened before; there’s a track record here. But such a scenario would not exist in a vacuum. The inability to accurately locate distressed wireless callers during the economic downturn would be part of a perfect storm in which inadequate funding also leads to inadequate training, equipment and staffing at public safety answering points and public-safety agencies. And lives will be lost unnecessarily. Kentucky is attempting cast a wider net for PSAP funding, suing TracFone Wireless Inc. in federal court to require the prepaid giant to collect 911 surcharges from customers.
Despite its tortured history, the wireless industry and public safety have made strides to implement E-911 services. The two sides last year agreed that location accuracy should be measured at the county level for federal compliance purposes. But even while progress is being made on policy and technological fronts (though indoor and rural wireless location accuracy remains a challenge), the economic crisis is apt to hamper states in efforts to install current, state-of-the-art gear at PSAPs and prepare for next-generation technology capable of accommodating photos and streaming video from handsets.
In at least one instance, it’s not the economy’s fault. It’s the state, stupid. Pennsylvania has the money, but for whatever reasons has not sufficiently put it completely to work on a statewide E-911 system.
The zinger for wireless providers is that cities and states may even be more aggressive in taxing them – and by extension – their subscribers. Will Congress have the stomach to legislate a halt to further state/local taxation of wireless at a time when the nation’s governors and mayors are struggling to remain solvent?
None of this will make national headlines, even though the fallout – one PSAP and emergency caller at a time – is likely to be felt throughout the country.