More than two-thirds of the nation's population now resides in areas where wireless 911 includes delivery of the caller's call-back number and location to the appropriate public safety answering point, according to the National Emergency Number Association. However, there are still large areas of the country (57.3% of counties) not providing this service.

“The 911 community and wireless industry can be proud of reaching this benchmark,” said NENA President David Jones. “However, much work still needs to be done to provide this life-saving service in the significantly high number of counties, predominately rural, where it is still not available. The public needs and deserves wireless E-911, regardless of where they live or where they may visit or travel through.”

NENA recently published current wireless E-911 statistics measuring the number of counties, individual Pubic Safety Answering Points, and total population covered by Phase I and Phase II wireless location technology. Phase I includes delivery of the caller's phone number and the cell site being used for the call. Phase II includes delivery of the caller's location and the caller's phone number.

Nearly 70% of counties contain PSAPs receiving Phase I data while 42.7% of counties have PSAPs accepting Phase II calls. The percentages for individual PSAPs are slightly improved, with 79.3% receiving Phase I calls and 53.9% Phase II capable. The PSAP statistics translate to 84.5% of the U.S. population covered by Phase I — enabled and 66.7% covered by Phase II — enabled PSAPs.

These statistics, part of an ongoing wireless deployment project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, are available on the NENA Web site at www.nena.org/911_facts/911fastfacts.htm. More detailed county-by-county statistics can be found on the wireless deployment section of the NENA Web site at http://nena.ddti.net/.