The FCC Public Safety Bureau will refresh the record on...
The FCC Public Safety Bureau will refresh the record on what it should do about prank calls to 911 from “nonservice-initialized” (NSI) handsets -- cellphones no longer connected to a carrier network. In 2008, the FCC sought comments in response…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
to a petition from public safety groups (CD March 5 p5/08). Many of the calls come from teens aware that calls on old cellphones must be forwarded by carriers under FCC rules, but can’t be traced. The FCC in 1996 at the urging of public safety imposed a requirement that NSI handsets can still make 911 calls. In seeking additional comment, the bureau cited a recent filing by the National Emergency Number Association. “According to NENA, ‘PSAPs face an ever-growing onslaught of non-emergency calls to 911 from NSI devices,'” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1528R3X). “Moreover, in recently filed comments in another docket, NENA states that there is now a ‘consensus view that the promotion of NSI devices does more harm than good.’ NENA further asserts that ‘most charities and domestic violence advocates [have] abandoned the practice of distributing NSI devices.'” Comments and replies will be due following publication in the Federal Register.