I am writing to urge your agency to continue improving and assisting our community and local 9-1-1 Centers by requiring companies to obtain subscriber information at the time of a phone purchase.
As you know, numerous companies are contacted by 9-1-1 Communication Centers daily for traces and subscriber information.
Unfortunately, companies are not always able to provide 9-1-1 with such information. Generally, this is due to the customer not providing such information when making their phone purchase/account set-up. This issue is especially common with pre-paid phones.
For example, anyone can walk into a local Walmart and put their alias name on the account and provide no further information.
Subscriber information is extremely essential and could be the difference between life and death. This allows 9-1-1 to, at a minimum, dispatch a unit(s) to the address on file for the customer and do a welfare check.
If someone wishes not to provide subscriber information, they shall be granted that right and may sign a form stating that they understand that it is harder to assist them in emergency situations.
Again, I urge you to require subscriber information to be collected at the time of purchase. This is a very important issue and I thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Why is this important?
As a former 9-1-1 Dispatcher, I know the importance of subscriber information. We need to urge the FCC to improve and assist our community and local 9-1-1 Centers by requiring companies to obtain subscriber information at the time of a phone purchase. This helps 9-1-1 know where the caller lives, and they can then send help to that location if they have nothing else to work on.
