FCC Approves Rulemaking That May Stretch 911 Reporting Requirements to VoIP, Broadband
The FCC unanimously (4-0) approved a rulemaking notice during its open meeting Thursday that asks whether and how the commission should apply 911 outage reporting rules to voice over Internet protocol and broadband networks. Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell approved the rulemaking, but concurred, “narrowly,” on the section that asks whether the FCC has the power to mandate data collection. “All Americans rightly expect their calls to go through,” he said, but “we do not have Congress’s authority to act as suggested.”
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Chairman Julius Genachowski said the recent tornadoes in the American South “remind us how important it is that our communication network is reliable and resilient” and said he was sure that Thursday’s vote represented progress. Nearly 30 percent of the 89 million residential telephone subscriptions were provided by interconnected VoIP, the commission said. “What we did today was to launch a notice that identified a real issue,” Genachowski said in a post-meeting news conference. “The rules we have in effect no longer match the developments in how people are communicating and how we call 911.”
Democrat Michael Copps said with Thursday’s vote “we launch an important inquiry,” but reiterated his disappointment that the commission hasn’t classified VoIP as a telecom service. The rulemaking “is not the first time that we have considered the ancillary authority route to take important steps to protect users of these services,” Copps said. “I would be remiss if I didn’t say this is not my preferred approach, and I hope that one day soon the Commission will look more broadly at the proper classification of Voice over Internet Protocol. Our charge to protect the safety of the American people is clear and should never have to hinge on semantics or distinctions without a difference.”
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was more sanguine about the order. “Section 615a-1 of the Communications Act gives the Commission authority to modify its regulations, when necessary, to ensure that IP enabled voice service providers allow their customers to make 9-1-1 calls,” she said. “Last year alone, there were a number of instances in which interconnected VoIP service customers lost service for several hours."
Voice on the Net Coalition Executive Director Glenn Richards said: “VoIP providers take very seriously their responsibilities for network reliability and delivery of 911 calls; and that is demonstrated by the spectacular increase in VoIP subscribership by both residential and business consumers. Additional reporting requirements will not change that commitment.” But “the trickier issue is whether the FCC has authority to require these filings from broadband providers,” one industry lobbyist told us. Broadband providers already submit data on form 477 and might push back if the commission mandates further reporting.
Speaking after Thursday’s meeting, FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick said the commission’s broadband authority comes from the “necessary and proper” language of Part 4(i) of the Telecom Act. “And you can’t have VoIP without broadband or broadband backbone,” Schlick said. Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett said at the same news conference that the commission simply doesn’t know how many emergency VoIP calls are dropped because the current rules aren’t adequate. It’s an “irony” of the VoIP world that if Hurricane Katrina were to hit today, the commission would actually know less about outages that it did in 2005, Barnett said.