Public safety groups asked the FCC to examine the responsibilities carriers and public safety answering points have regarding 911 calls from old phones no longer part of a valid service plan. PSAP officials complain they're inundated with prank calls made using old phones that can’t be traced since carriers still allow 911 calls from the phones. Tennessee officials say PSAPs there had to deal with more than 10,000 of the calls in a single three-month period.

The National Emergency Number Association issued a warning to consumers that they may lose access to 911 Feb. 19 after several U.S. carriers turn off their analog networks. NENA said carriers affected include AT&T, Alltel, Cellular One, Dobson, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless. “This is a particularly important issue for people who have received older cellular phones from Donated Phone Programs,” NENA said. Many of these phones require the analog networks and recipients may not be able to contact 911 after the February cut-off date: “Subscribers using digital phones would not be affected.”

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) wrote to House and Senate appropriators asking that they keep money in a final funding bill. This would let NTIA award grants to public safety answering points to upgrade their technology. The House version of the Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies appropriations bill provides $5 million for grants. NENA and APCO want the money to be in a final version of the spending bill when it clears a conference committee. “The ENHANCE 911 Act authorized up to $250 million per year for grants to ensure 911 centers have modern technology capable of locating wireless 911 calls,” the letter states. “Yet, to date, none of these monies have been appropriated. We believe that the House-approved $5 million, while only a start, could address the emergency communications concerns in the areas of most dire need, mostly in rural America, where the funding has not been made available at the state or local level.”

AT&T warned that the FCC is on perilous legal ground in approving rules for E-911 location measurement before it wrapped up a broader rulemaking. Carriers are widely expected to challenge the Sept. 11 order in federal court (CD Sept 11 Special Bulletin). Carriers were upset last week when the FCC established a five-year deadline, with benchmarks, for measuring success in locating wireless E- 911 callers at the public safety answering point (PSAP) level rather than using statewide averaging. The FCC action was stage one of a two-part E-911 rulemaking, which focused on measurement standards. Reply comments in the next phase, looking at broader E-911 issues, were due this week.

A compromise FCC order giving wireless carriers five years to upgrade systems before their success in locating callers will be measured at the public safety answering point (PSAP) level (CD Sept 11 Special Bulletin) landed with a thud among carriers. The FCC approved the order late Tuesday in an unusual night meeting.

On the eve of an FCC vote on new rules for locating wireless E-911 callers, public safety offered carriers a compromise, which is likely to be adopted in some form by the commission Tuesday. Under the compromise, carriers would have up to five years to meet new standards based on success in locating callers at the level of public safety answering points, but carriers would also have to meet various benchmarks before that deadline.

By naming a board to oversee the public safety licensee to be created in the 700 MHz band the FCC will “strengthen the link” between the public and first responders, the National Emergency Number Association said Monday. NENA is one of 11 members of the board announced by the FCC in a 321- page July 31 order outlining band plan and service rules for the 700 MHz spectrum becoming available in 2009 when broadcasters leave it. Nine board members will represent public safety and government groups: The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the International City/County Management Association, the National Governor’s Association, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, the National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials and NENA. The other two will be chosen by the FCC’s Public Safety Bureau and the Wireless Bureau. The FCC order said makeup of the board, which will have voting power over the public safety licensee’s decisions, “ensures that local public safety agencies and governments will continue to have a voice in the use of the 700 MHz public safety broadband spectrum, as the overwhelming number of first responders are local government employees or volunteers.” The public safety licensee will operate in partnership with the licensee getting one of the commercial spectrum blocks to be auctioned next year. (See separate item in this issue.) - - EH

Wireless carriers warned the FCC it is pushing too hard for stricter standards for E-911 location accuracy. Carriers said they would not be able to meet identification requirements using current technology if measured by public safety answering point (PSAP), as requested by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO). The CTIA, the Rural Cellular Association, and AT&T called for a special committee to examine the feasibility of stricter E-911 location standards, in responses to a rulemaking the agency approved at its May meeting (CD June 1 p2).

The FCC Thurs. approved a rulemaking proposing that wireless carriers be required to improve their systems so they can more accurately locate subscribers who make 911 calls. The FCC also began an examination of whether carriers should have to report by PSAP, rather than by statewide averaging, how they perform in reaching emergency callers rather than through statewide averaging. PSAP reporting is more lenient and is favored by carriers. The Commission is also examining requirements for VoIP providers.

House Homeland Security Committee Chmn. Thompson (D- Miss.) had a firm message Tues. for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Undersecy. David Paulison: Finish a plan coordinating local, state and federal emergency response efforts and end bureaucratic turf skirmishes. Paulison irked Thompson when he said the plan, due June 1, won’t be ready until close to July 1. Ranking Member King (R-N.Y.) pressed Paulison about a current International Trade Commission case that could affect first responders’ access to cellphones.