T-Mobile asked the FCC not to adopt new requirements for dual-mode CMRS-VoIP phones as the commission revises rules for VoIP E-911. The dual-mode phone issue loomed large last month as commissioners debated a rulemaking required by the NET 911 Improvement Act. Other commenters said the dual-mode issue appears unique to T-Mobile and asked the FCC to table the issue to focus on the Act’s main thrust: Ensuring that interconnected VoIP providers have access to E911 services.

The FCC shouldn’t allow relay providers to forward 911 calls to other providers, Sorenson and other Internet relay providers said in reply comments. Earlier this month, in initial comments on a rulemaking about the FCC 10-digit numbering plan for Internet relay, the National Emergency Number Association said the FCC should require relay providers to forward 911 calls to other providers if they don’t answer in a set period (CD Aug 12 p6). In a reply, AT&T opposed imposing slamming and other new customer privacy rules on relay providers.

The National Emergency Number Association, APCO and AT&T together proposed revised E-911 location rules. In a Monday letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, the parties said they “worked together to develop technologically feasible compliance measurements that improve the ability of providers to locate customers making calls to 9-1-1 from wireless phones.” The proposal doesn’t compete with a similar one (CD Aug 22 p2) made last week by Verizon Wireless, NENA and APCO, but covers different technologies. AT&T’s proposal relates to tracking via cellphone tower triangulation, whereas Verizon’s involves GPS tracking. The AT&T plan would measure wireless 911 location accuracy at the county level, said AT&T, NENA and APCO. However, “it is not technically feasible for carriers to meet the current accuracy standard in all counties using location accuracy technology currently available,” they said. “Any location accuracy rules that the Commission adopts for carriers that employ network-based solutions must be limited” to metrics and schedules in the group’s proposal, they said. AT&T and other carriers using network-based location solutions “may be expected to deploy handset-based solutions as an overlay to existing network-based solutions in order to meet the more stringent county-level requirements,” the group said. Their proposal would allow network-based carriers to “elect to use a system of blended reporting for their accuracy measurements,” or to report “based solely on the handset-based accuracy standards,” the group said.

The National Emergency Number Association, APCO and Verizon Wireless together proposed revised E-911 location rules with new targets and a new timetable. The rules would apply the same standard to GSM and CDMA networks and allow an exception for heavily forested counties where systems wouldn’t work as well as elsewhere. Industry sources said the plan emerged in talks between public safety groups and the two largest carriers - AT&T and Verizon Wireless -- held at the urging of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. AT&T didn’t sign on to a letter that Verizon Wireless and the associations filed at the FCC. AT&T is expected to submit a separate letter on the proposal.

Deaf interest groups, telecom relay providers and others argued details on an FCC plan to give 10-digit phone numbers to deaf people using Internet-based TRS services. They filed comments Friday on a rulemaking (CD June 26 p2) on the 10-digit numbering plan. The FCC sought comment on 911 and other issues, as well as how it might apply customer proprietary network information (CPNI), slamming and other customer privacy rules to relay providers. Relay providers have until Dec. 31 to implement a 10-digit plan.

Some public safety officials are reaching out to both sides trying to mend a rift between APCO and the National Emergency Number Association and the Public Safety Spectrum Trust -- the licensee for the portion of the 700 MHz band reserved for public safety, APCO and other officials said. FCC sources said the fight between the PSST and public safety groups could complicate commission efforts to develop a nationwide network for public safety in the 700 MHz band.

The FCC backed away from a fight with wireless carriers over revised E-911 rules. The commission asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate a stay the court issued in March of the FCC’s location-accuracy rules, which carriers insisted were unrealistically tough. The filing came while the APCO conference was taking place in Kansas City, Mo.

APCO is alerting the FCC that it is ready to sever ties with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, saying so in meetings with commissioners and their staffs, we have learned. Top officials from APCO and the PSST are to testify Wednesday at the FCC en banc on the future of the D-block at the Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City.

APCO and the National Emergency Number Association are backing down from demands for what carriers have insisted were unrealistically tough requirements in E-911 location- accuracy rules approved by the FCC in 2007. APCO and NENA said in a letter to the FCC they would be comfortable changing a central requirement approved by the commission at a special Sept. 11 meeting.

Wireless carriers led by CTIA asked the FCC to keep a requirement that they forward all 911 calls to a public safety answering point, even if from a discarded cellphone no longer part of a service plan. That stance puts carriers at odds with public safety groups APCO and the National Emergency Number Association, which asked the FCC for a rule change.