Leaders of the National Association of State 911 Administrators and National Emergency Number Association are urging Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to preserve “a strong role” for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s National 911 Program amid the Trump administration’s government-wide workforce cuts. The program “has been crucial in coordinating state and local 9-1-1 systems -- an area that no other federal entity addresses,” said NASNA Executive Director Harriet Rennie-Brown and NENA CEO Brian Fontes in a letter to Duffy. “This coordination is more essential than ever as over 5,000 local 9-1-1 centers transition to” next-generation 911 technology. “Without support from the National 9-1-1 Program Office, local jurisdictions will struggle with interoperability between and among agencies and jurisdictions -- a key public safety component,” they said. “This is particularly true on our nation’s highways, where an estimated one-third of all 9-1-1 calls originate and where effective coordination and interoperability can save lives.”

The FCC will focus on making GPS and 911 calls more reliable at its March 27 open meeting, Chairman Brendan Carr announced Wednesday. The meeting will be the second with Carr at the helm. Draft meeting items are expected to be posted Thursday.

The Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation filed a paper Wednesday at the FCC on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) options other than NextNav’s proposal to use 900 MHz spectrum as an alternative to GPS (see 2404160043). The U.S. “must develop alternatives to GPS and strengthen its PNT capabilities,” the paper says. But “granting the NextNav petition is costly in terms of spectrum, not necessary to achieve this goal and likely would not even deliver a real-world improvement in the country’s PNT capabilities.” The paper, filed in docket 24-240, notes China and Russia have terrestrial PNT systems “that make them much more resilient to interference with their satellite navigation systems.” Other vendors and technologies -- including Locata, PhasorLab, the Broadcast Positioning System and enhanced long-range navigation (eLoran) -- also offer alternatives to GPS, the foundation said. “These companies have not asked the FCC for additional spectrum to implement their solutions.”

A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court signaled on Friday it will likely uphold Congress’ TikTok divestment law because the company’s Beijing ties raise legitimate security concerns.

Disagreements between Disney and Comcast over Hulu's value should be resolved in 2025, with Disney then making final payments to Comcast for its 33% ownership stake in the streaming service, S&P said Monday. A worst-case scenario for Disney has it making a $5 billion final payment, the ratings company said. Moreover, Disney's global streaming business, now profitable, should see continued improvement as the company increases subscribers globally, S&P added. Disney's streaming advertising revenue was $3.7 billion in fiscal 2024 -- more than its linear TV ad revenues, excluding ESPN -- and the streaming ad revenue should grow at a double-digit percentage for the next few years. S&P said Disney's linear TV revenue will likely decline at a 9% annual rate. It said while some legacy U.S. media and entertainment companies won't survive the pivot from a linear TV-focused ecosystem to a streaming one, Disney "is the best positioned" among legacy players due to its iconic brands, film and TV studios, theme parks, global distribution footprint and the diversity in its media and entertainment businesses. In addition, S&P raised its issuer credit rating on Disney from A- to A and short-term ratings from A-2 to A-1, based on expectations the company will maintain leverage below 2.5 times and free operating cash flow to debt above 15% long term.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff to discuss templates for wireless emergency alerts, said a filing Wednesday in docket 15-91. “The Bureau proposed two types of WEA templates for 9-1-1 outages, a static version and a fillable version that can be amended to include certain outage-specific information,” the filing said: “APCO expressed a preference for WEA templates for 9-1-1 outages that can be customized to include critical information such as the location of the outage, an alternative method to reach 9-1-1, and an embedded URL.”

Liberty Media President-CEO Greg Maffei stepping down at year-end with Chairman John Malone becoming interim CEO; Maffei to serve as senior adviser during transition ... Radcom names Benny Eppstein, ex-Amdocs, as CEO, effective Dec. 1 ... The Next Generation 9-1-1 Institute elects to board Todd Piett, Motorola Solutions; Jennifer White, RapidSOS; Manuel Silva, Frontier; Eric Hagerson, T-Mobile; and Mike Tan, AT&T.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials warned that dispatchable location of wireless calls to 911 may not happen. APCO representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The promise of dispatchable location has substantially faded since it was heralded by the industry and identified as the gold standard for public safety” in an FCC order “nearly 10 years ago,” said a filing last week in docket 07-114. “While wireless carriers may be delivering dispatchable locations for a small number of wireless 9-1-1 calls, the methods being used and whether/how any testing has been conducted are unknown,” APCO said. There is also “a lack of uniformity among the reports produced by the carriers, which makes it difficult to compare and evaluate their efforts.”

Some candidates for state utility commissions promised to take on broadband and other telecom matters if they win election this year. Eight states will elect utility regulators this year: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In addition, a New Mexico ballot question will ask voters to authorize millions of dollars for upgrading public safety communications. Meanwhile, Oregon voters will consider a universal basic income that would require Comcast and other big companies to foot the bill.

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe urged the FCC to increase the budget in Phase I of the 5G Fund, with a tribal set-aside, in a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-32. Commissioners approved a $9 billion fund in August on a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Brendan Carr dissenting (see 2408290022). The Minnesota tribe also stressed tribal engagement. “Early engagement and inclusion is critical to reach 100% of … citizens residing in the Tribal lands,” the filing said.