Senate Republicans pushed back against the $1 trillion, 10-year infrastructure plan that Senate Democrats began unveiling Tuesday. But senators from both parties say any effort should involve broadband. The Senate Democrats’ plan attempts to pre-empt the $1 trillion package that President Donald Trump said he wants Congress to advance.

The National Emergency Number Association and others urged an end to 911 fee diversion, after the FCC released another report showing several states using 911 fees from phone bills for things not directly related to 911. Eight states and Puerto Rico together diverted nearly $220.3 million, or about 8.4 percent of total fees collected by 49 states and four territories reporting in 2015, the commission said in an annual report to Congress released Friday (see 1701130065). Some state lawmakers want to close the spigot through legislation this session; state executives defended the practice.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is still drafting 911 legislation, which could carry out FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's next-generation 911 legislative goals. Nelson first mentioned he would craft a bill on the topic during a September FCC oversight hearing, promising an introduction “in the near future” but without any movement in the months that followed. Lawmakers adjourned earlier this month, but Nelson didn’t forget his pledge.

APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and National Association of State 911 Administrators jointly expressed concerns about a CTIA proposal for quarterly 911 live call reports by the carriers, due at the FCC starting in February. “CTIA included a proposed template for the reports and explanatory information regarding the carriers’ intent to exclude certain categories of 9-1-1 calls from consideration,” the public safety groups said. But the proposal wouldn't include some important calls to 911, the associations said. “APCO, NENA, and NASNA are particularly concerned that the carriers intend to exclude 9-1-1 calls made from roaming handsets and non-service initialized (NSI) devices,” said a filing in docket 07-114. Location accuracy rules, meanwhile, “make no exceptions when it comes to the collection and reporting of aggregate live 9-1-1 call location data,” the groups said. CTIA didn't comment Wednesday.

Frontier Communications may face penalties in California over the company’ difficult transition last April after acquiring Verizon wireline customers in the state. The California Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 to support a proposed decision on rural call completion issues, including a section directing the Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division (CPED) “to investigate post-transition outage issues raised by dial-tone outages and 9-1-1 access issues following the transfer of Verizon, California to Frontier.” The decision as proposed also orders a re-evaluation of the CPUC’s transaction approval process to avoid a repeat in future telecom integrations. The commissioners' meeting was the last for Commissioner Mike Florio.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to consult with the city attorney Dec. 13​ in closed session on a proposed ordinance prohibiting landlords of multi-dwelling units from interfering with tenants’ choice of communications service providers. The board voted 9-1 Tuesday in favor of the motion for closed session on item 161110, said meeting minutes posted Wednesday evening. The Electronic Frontier Foundation supported the proposed ordinance in a Sunday blog post. “San Francisco is one of the few places in the United States with significant broadband competition, but many renters are barred from taking advantage of alternatives to large Internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T,” EFF wrote. “Many landlords agree to restrict tenants’ choice of ISP in exchange for kickbacks from the favored provider.”

Small LECs and a rural California country hit by outages supported a draft order on rural call completion issues under consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission. Cable companies urged the CPUC to do nothing and close the proceeding. Commissioner Catherine Sandoval wrote the proposed decision (PD) in docket I1405012, which may be considered at the Dec. 15 commissioners' meeting. In comments Monday, Mendocino County said evidence of service problems presented at a July hearing and seen since by rural customers "justify the PD making even stronger requirements for the Commission to adopt as they show a long-term pattern of service issues that lead to loss of dial-tone and 9-1-1 access." But the current PD is "an important step in the right direction" and a second phase of the proceeding will provide more time to address other issues, the county said. Calaveras Telecom and other rural LECs mostly supported the PD, saying it would address rural call completion issues raised by the small LECs. But they bristled at a proposal requiring carriers of last resort to report within 120 minutes of an outage of 300,000 user minutes that lasts at least 30 minutes -- a plan that Sandoval asked the FCC to consider (see 1612050050). The small RLECs urged the CPUC to reject the requirement, or at least modify time frames. For example, it’s not reasonable to require small carriers serving rural areas to quickly report outages that happen outside business hours, they said. The CPUC should qualify that, in that circumstance, carriers may report the outage 120 minutes after the start of the next business day, the small LECs said. Cox Communications and the California Cable & Telecommunications Association said the agency need not adopt new reporting requirements or keep the proceeding open to address other outage reporting issues. "The PD correctly finds that rural call completions issues have abated and in light of this finding, the PD should be modified to close this proceeding,” the cable companies commented.

A large majority of Americans remain unable to text 911 for help in emergency situations, but some local authorities continue to question calls to support SMS at public safety answering points (PSAPs), 911 officials said in interviews. The National Emergency Number Association is frustrated the rollout isn’t going faster, said NENA Director-Government Affairs Trey Forgety. “If everyone made a decision that text-to-911 had to be implemented before the end of the year 2017, it could be done easily.” Localities are sympathetic to the need for text-to-911 but worry there's not a sufficient business model to move forward, said Fire Chief Don Crowson of Arlington, Texas. “We’re not resistant. We’re concerned.”

Contenders for the House Commerce Committee chairmanship are making their cases to colleagues ahead of the GOP Steering Committee consideration later this month. Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and John Shimkus, R-Ill., have long been seen as two leading candidates. Shimkus took another step Sunday to alert his colleagues to his interest. They and other lawmakers interested in the role told us this summer they see rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act as a 2017 priority (see 1607220053).

Sharp Corp. adds to duties of Doug Albregts, who is named president-CEO, Sharp Electronics Corp., which manages Americas business; he succeeds Toshiyuki Osawa, and Albregts remains president, Sharp Imaging and Information Co. of America, which manages business-to-business operations ... LifeLock opens its first Washington, D.C., office with Kimberly Allman, ex-Corporation for National and Community Service, as vice president-government affairs and corporate social responsibility, leading LifeLock government affairs, among other initiatives ... USConnect Holdings promotes Deborah Rand to permanent CEO, USConnect Services and its seven properties ... Mishcon de Reya law firm names Joe Hancock, cybersecurity expert, cybersecurity lead ... Infoblox hires Bill McCarthy, ex-Cisco, as executive vice president-worldwide field operations.