Rhode Island lawmakers might consider ending 911 fee diversion next year, Rhode Island House Finance Vice Chairman Kenneth Marshall (D) told us Friday. Seeking a more immediate fix, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and state Rep. Robert Lancia (R) slammed a proposed Rhode Island budget that renames rather than restricts the state 911 fund. “The citizens of your state deserve more than just a name change,” said O’Rielly in a Friday letter to Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) and Rhode Island House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello (D). Raimondo earlier supported legislators ending diversion (see 1803200052).

The fight against state 911 fee diversion "has had mixed results," FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly blogged Friday. "Of the five self-reported diverting states and seven states and territories that did not respond to the Commission’s inquiry ... two states remedied filing errors to clarify that they are not diverters, one state and one territory are in the process (one with firm commitments) of ending diversion within their borders, one state started exploring ways to stop the practice, and seven states and territories have not yet made progress on either providing the Commission with their state data or ending the despicable practice of stealing 9-1-1 fees for their own personal spending." O'Rielly included a table with updates. O'Rielly is to speak June 21 in Trenton about New Jersey 911 fee diversion at a news conference event hosted by the New Jersey Association of Counties and the New Jersey Wireless Association. Some New Jersey lawmakers at an April legislative hearing backed a constitutional amendment to guarantee revenue collected for the emergency system goes to that purpose (see 1804050042). O'Rielly suggested to us "creative options" to increase pressure on diverting states (see 1805220034).

Any Michigan Public Service Commission order on IP-based 911 should recognize that the technology is new and the record may need refreshing in a few years, AT&T said in Friday comments in docket U-20146. The PSC, which asked comment on what costs should be reimbursed for IP-based 911 service providers, should give itself the option to later update its conclusions, AT&T said. “As the industry and the Commission gain experience, they will be in a better position to understand and appreciate how costs are incurred and how reimbursement requests for allowable costs should be evaluated.” Frontier raised concerns about conversion costs of service providers that aren't a county's 911 service provider. “These costs are substantial and do not appear to be explicitly addressed in the suggested Cost Categories,” it said. “These costs may include rerouting of circuits, interface testing, and ‘months' of project management.” Don’t base rates on “discreet measures such as the population of a county,” but rather “the actual circuit or numbers/location information stored for the routing of 9-1-1 call[s] to avoid any windfall profit or loss,” it said.

Many 911 stakeholders pushed next-generation services to help end the problem of misrouted calls, in comments posted this week in docket 18-64. CTIA said the FCC should weigh the costs versus benefits of various call-routing options as it considers how to make wireless calls to 911 more reliable. Public safety groups and others stressed the importance of NG-911. In March, the FCC released a notice of inquiry on ways to ensure wireless 911 calls are routed directly to the appropriate public safety answering point (see 1803230023).

Illinois incorrectly reported to the FCC that it diverted 911 fees to unrelated purposes in 2016, but it diverted funds in previous years, Illinois Statewide 9-1-1 Administrator Cindy Barbera-Brelle said in a Monday letter to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. “911 Funds were diverted in the past,” she wrote. “Funds were not diverted in 2016 or 2017.” Illinois diverted $3 million in 2014 and $7.5 million in 2015, said attached reports. O’Rielly replied, in a letter the same day, that he would forward the updated materials to the Public Safety Bureau “for verification and consideration in our next report, assuming the state’s status remains the same.” Last week, O’Rielly obtained assurances from Puerto Rico that it will end 911 fee diversion (see 1805040034), and pressure is building to end the practice in Rhode Island (see 1805020005), New Jersey (see 1804050042) and New York (see 1804230042).

Commissioner Mike O'Rielly supported an FCC item giving additional USF support to Puerto Rico after receiving assurances from the territory it would end 911 fee diversion, O'Rielly aide Brooke Ericson told us Friday. O'Rielly's backing means a majority supports Chairman Ajit Pai's March draft order and NPRM seeking to provide $256 million in additional USF support and repurpose another $698 million to help restore and upgrade storm-damaged communications networks, with $750 million for Puerto Rico and $204 million for the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 1805030026). O’Rielly last month threatened to withhold additional USF funding for hurricane recovery if the territory kept using the 911 money for unrelated purposes (see 1804240069). Puerto Rico won’t allow any more 911 fee diversion, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares (New Progressive Party) said in a Wednesday letter to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Puerto Rico, which prepared but failed to send information on time to the FCC about 2016 diversion due to “clerical error,” diverted $243,100 of the 911 revenue, Rosselló said March 7. Wednesday, he said diversion is the fault of Puerto Rico’s previous administration. “To be clear, we will not allow any utilization of 9-1-1 funds for purposes other than those authorized under applicable laws, rules, and regulations. To that effect, we have also initiated steps to submit amendments to the current state law that led to said diversion of funds, and we will be withholding future payments to the Treasury Department.”

The National Public Safety Telecommunication Council asked the FCC to make clear to the wireless industry it needs to follow the agency’s definition of “dispatchable location.” As the FCC defines it that term means “the verified or corroborated street address of the calling party plus additional information such as floor, suite, apartment or similar information that may be needed to adequately identify the location of the calling party,” NPSTC said. Providing that information is vital to call centers, the group said. “With this information in hand, 9-1-1 professionals can help direct field responders to the scene of the emergency and enable them to provide life-saving assistance more quickly.” NPSTC filed in docket 07-114.

Many communications outages may have been prevented during 2017 severe storms in California if wireline providers had more reliable cable facilities and wireless providers more widely used backup power, the California Public Utilities Commission reported. Staff analyzed carrier reporting data to examine causes of 911 call failures and network outages from January to February 2017, when California experienced the most rainfall in recorded history. Carriers said it was an unusually bad storm, and a former commissioner said companies must do better. Meanwhile, in the District of Columbia, the Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC) urged the Public Service Commission to reject Verizon’s dismissal of proposed rules for more detailed outage reporting.

Puerto Rico may risk additional USF funding for rebuilding communications infrastructure if the territory keeps diverting 911 fee revenue to unrelated purposes, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a Tuesday letter to Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares (New Progressive Party). The FCC is weighing sending more support to the hurricane-slammed territory (see 1804230065). “As a steward of such ratepayer collected funding, I would find it difficult to support such a move without strong assurances that Puerto Rico is prepared to put an end to fee diversion practices once and for all," O'Rielly said. "Without this guarantee, the Commission is putting precious USF support at risk for being wasted or diverted.” Puerto Rico, which prepared but failed to send information on time to the FCC about 2016 diversion due to “clerical error,” diverted $243,100 of the 911 revenue, Rosselló said in a March 7 letter to O’Rielly. Diversion was legal under Article 19 of Act No. 66-2014, which required all savings in areas including 911 fees must be transferred to the Workforce and Economic Development Promotion Fund under Puerto Rico Trade and Export Co., Rosselló said. To prevent future failures to file with the FCC, the Puerto Rico 911 Office will create a compliance guide for all state and federal request forms, he said. O’Rielly appreciates Puerto Rico eventually filing the information but said it’s “extremely disturbing” the territory diverted. “Of all places, I do not think I need to remind you how important 9-1-1 services can be during critical times,” O’Rielly wrote. “If a surplus of 9-1-1 fees is amassed and revenue is not needed for these purposes, fees should not be collected from the consumer, especially given the devastation and personal losses your residents have endured over the last year.” O’Rielly asked Rosselló for “any concrete plans” to end the fund movement: If it's required by law, “are you prepared to help take steps to amend this act to ensure that all savings should be returned to the ratepayer or invested in network upgrades rather than diverted to a separate fund?” O’Rielly asked if Rosselló alternatively has authority to bypass the law’s diverting requirements. Hurricanes Irma and Maria last year tested Puerto Rico 911 systems and showed need for upgrades (see 1801030008).

Don’t cite state law to justify New York diversion of 911 fees for things not directly related to 911, an aide to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday. O’Rielly and Rep. Chris Collins (R) condemned New York diversion Friday while visiting the Niagara County Emergency Management Office public safety answering point in Buffalo. A New York department said it uses fee revenue for first responder communications and state tax law prevents the state from using the money differently. But Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour said the policy keeps 911 funding from counties responsible for handling many emergency calls.