September 26, 2024

Los Angeles, CA — This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that they will hold a vote on October 17 to adopt new rules that would require U.S. wireless carriers to implement georouting for calls made to 9-8-8, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Georouting will ensure that calls are routed to the call center geographically closest to the caller instead of based on the caller’s area code, which could route calls to dispatchers far from the caller’s current location. The change already began last week, with Verizon and T-Mobile voluntarily implementing georouting. AT&T plans to begin over the next few months, and next month’s vote would require it of all other carriers. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has released the following statement applauding the announcement.

“When someone is facing a mental health crisis, every minute counts. We have the teams and tools to help, we’ve just lacked the ability to get the call to the right place because of how 9-8-8 identified a caller’s location. With georouting we will finally be able to get this call to someone in the caller’s area and dispatch the help they so desperately need,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “Verizon and T-Mobile have done the right thing already and now thanks to the FCC’s leadership, everyone will have access to this life-saving service no matter where they are or who their carrier is. This is an absolute game-changer for those who need us most.”

Background

Since the 9-8-8 national mental health crisis hotline launched in 2022, it has received more than 10 million calls, texts, and chats from individuals in their moments of need. But the federal legislation that created 9-8-8 designed the number to be routed to call centers based on the area code of the caller’s phone number, rather than the caller’s location. This has presented a problem in Los Angeles County because it is one of the few counties that has set 9-8-8 up to be able to connect to mobile crisis response teams when callers need an in-person response. If someone calls 9-8-8 from their cell phone with an out-of-county area code, they will not reach the Los Angeles County call center and cannot connect to mobile crisis response teams.

Last year, Supervisor Janice Hahn raised this issue with her former colleagues in Congress both in discussions in Los Angeles and meetings in Washington, D.C., seeking a fix. Both Congressman Tony Cardenas and Senator Alex Padilla have introduced legislation to fix the issue and require 9-8-8 calls to be georouted to the call center nearest to the caller rather than routed based on a caller’s area code. In March, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the FCC would pursue new rulemaking to put in place georouting without the need for Congress to pass a legislative fix. The proposed rules were published in May and Los Angeles County submitted comment in support. The vote on October 17 would publish the final rules to require georouting for all mobile carriers.