The FCC should set national standards to make sure the location of E-911 calls can be identified when callers are on multiline telephone systems (MLTS), several organizations told the FCC in comments filed Mon. Although Verizon disagreed and said a national standard would be too restrictive, many said the FCC shouldn’t wait any longer for states to act.

The next FCC chair should appoint one commissioner to lead the agency’s homeland security efforts, FCC Comr. Copps recommended in a speech Mon. at a National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) forum. The FCC has expertise that would be valuable to homeland security planning but “needs a higher profile,” Copps said. There’s precedent for targeting one commissioner for a particular task, he said. For example, ex- Chmn. William Kennard named then-Comr. Powell to lead Y2K efforts in 1999, Copps said. It’s been 3-1/2 years since the terrorist attacks on N.Y. and Washington, and little has been done to solve communications problems that occurred at the time and were cited in a report last year, he said. Interoperability problems among emergency workers, mobile phones that didn’t work inside damaged buildings and other problems haven’t been fully fixed, Copps said. The FCC has allocated more spectrum to public safety and is tackling a number of homeland security issues such as CALEA but the proceedings remain “a work in progress,” he told NENA. There has to be a plan with “deliverables and timetables,” he said, adding that there needs to be “clarity on where the FCC fits in.” While no one agency can solve preparedness problems, the FCC could play more of a role in coordinating efforts by various entities, Copps said. Copps also recommended the FCC create an office to “focus exclusively” on helping public safety organizations share ideas, prepare plans so govt entities and public safety groups don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” every time they undertake a new initiative. He said the FCC should be working more “proactively with Congress” to help make sure the digital TV spectrum transition is done right “by providing Congress with the good date it needs to make an informed decision.” Copps said the FCC should be able to tell Congress “how much spectrum public safety requires,” but he said he has “never seen a survey of what spectrum public safety is using, what frequencies are working and which are limited by their physical characteristics and interference.”

Lack of funding and lack of awareness are the major obstacles to implementing the telecom service priority (TSP) program by the public safety, speakers said Thurs. during a TSP summit hosted by the FCC. The program has been in operation since 1988, when the FCC authorized telecom service providers to provide priority restoration of pre-designed circuits in times of emergency. But the panelists said that so far it has attracted less than 10% of PSAPs. For example, they said, there were still at least 20 states which local emergency centers had no TSP coverage. Okla. Corp. Commission Comr. Denise Bode estimated it would take $7.2 million to cover the uncovered circuits.

Supporters of E-911 will spend this congressional session lobbying for additional funding for E-911 programs. After the Bush Administration declined to fund E-911 in its 2006 budget request, E-911 advocates said Thurs. they would look to Congress and other sources for funding.

The VoIP industry has made a “great progress” in implementing 911 technologies in the past year, the VON Coalition said in a progress report on its agreement with NENA (CD Dec 2 p1) expected to be released today (Wed.). “Industry is already stepping into the marketplace with E911 solutions that are more technologically sophisticated than were available at the time the agreement was developed,” the report said: “With additional development, VoIP 911 services promise to be far superior to the services offered to wireline customers today.” The report is expected to be handed to policy-makers, as well as widely distributed among the VoIP industry and 911 community, officials said.

The Senate sent telecom legislation to President Bush on Wed. evening in a literal 11th-hour vote. By approving HR-5419, the Senate approved 3 legislative measures and ended weeks of political infighting about everything from Congressional Budget Office scoring to appropriators’ authority and boxing regulation. Sources said the White House would sign the act, which includes the spectrum relocation trust fund, E-911 funding and a temporary fix to accounting problems in the E-rate program. The junk fax bill, HR-4600, was the only legislation that had a reasonable chance to pass and didn’t. “The legislation brings needed changes that will promote homeland security and increase wireless broadband opportunities,” FCC Chmn. Powell said.

A coalition of leading universities, hardware makers and local emergency districts is developing a new generation of Internet-based 911 technologies and standards. The I-911 initiative is a 2-year, $1.2 million project that will investigate open-standard VoIP location approaches as well as IM and on-scene video. The project is funded in part by the NTIA and coordinated by the Internet 2 Consortium.

The VoIP industry has made significant progress on 911 in the past year, the VON Coalition said Wed. Celebrating the first anniversary of the original 911 agreement with NENA (CD Dec 2'03 p1), the Coalition released a survey saying all the respondents that offer residential VoIP service also offer 911 service that allows a caller to connect to an emergency answering center. The survey covers 14 VoIP providers that either signed the original VON-NENA agreement or are VON Coalition members. It found that 60% offer E911 access with automatic call-back number and location information to emergency call centers similar to traditional wireline service. It said 30% expected to offer this service within a year, and 10% to roll out new services as the next generation I2 service is developed. “In just a year, the VoIP industry is stepping forward, making great progress and providing 911 solutions compatible with traditional E911 functionality -- a level of functionality that took the wireless industry more than a decade to begin offering,” said NENA Dir.-Operations Issues Rick Jones. He said NENA looked forward to “continuing to work collaboratively with the VoIP community in the weeks ahead to find additional steps we can take together in order to ensure continued progress on delivering E911 for VoIP.” The study also found: (1) 56% of VoIP companies allow call routing to the 10 digit number for the PSAP, and several companies provide both a 10 digit solution for nomadic users and an E911 service for fixed users. (2) 63% provide 911 as a standard feature with their service. (3) 75% of those that signed the agreement with NENA collect and remit state and local 911 fees for VoIP customers, and 25% indicate they will when they gain access to incumbent trunking and other databases. (4) All will adopt more-advanced 911 solutions within a year after standards and solutions are developed; 63% expected to do so immediately, 38 in 6-12 months. (5) All inform customers about the level of 911 service provided and 75% also inform the emergency response centers about their approach to 911 service. (6) More than 1,000 calls to 911 have been delivered to emergency personnel since Dec. 1, 2003, when the agreement was signed. (7) All believe that when fully implemented, IP-based 911 solutions can be more robust than the solutions provided by the current network.

In a move strongly supported by FCC Chmn. Powell, the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) kicked off its Next Generation (NG) E911 Program on Wed. It urged industry leaders to work with federal, state and local officials and NENA members to update and improve the technical, operational and policy foundations of the nation’s 911 system. NENA officials said they had approached a number of groups and organizations and now were urging them to join forces. The early program partners include SBC, TruePosition, Vonage, TeleCommunications Systems, TelControl and HBF Group.

BOSTON - VoIP industry speakers warned the FCC here that E911 shouldn’t be required of VoIP, unlike wireless. “With the technology evolving so quickly, it would be a great mistake for federal and state regulators to impose an E911 mandate based on the network topologies and capabilities of yesterday,” said MCI Vp-Federal Law & Policy Richard Whitt. He said “the preferable approach is to allow the industry to work closely with NENA and other responsible organizations to devise feature-rich and innovative emergency service applications and networks.” Alcatel Senior Vp-Research & Innovation Jack Jachner agreed, saying it would be “helpful” of the FCC to emphasize the importance of VoIP E911 and let the industry find the technologies.