The Colorado Public Utilities Commission extended comment and reply comment dates and pushed back a public hearing on possible revisions to its 911 rules in response to recent legislation and in response to recent events that affected 9-1-1 network reliability in Colorado, including recent catastrophic fires and floods, said a notice from the PUC mailed on Wednesday. The deadline for comments is June 25, with replies July 17. The public hearing is June 26, the filing said.

Google and other digital industry players have increased European lobbying spending, according to our review of public records and interviews with industry lawyers. And U.S. telecom companies each spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on European lobbying last year. Though it coincided with the digital single market (DSM) and "connected continent" debates, lawyers said it's unclear whether those policy debates caused increased high-tech lobbying spending. Lobbying registrations also are up.

The FCC Wireless Bureau established a pleading cycle on AT&T’s proposed buy of two cellular A-block licenses in two cellular market areas (CMAs) in Illinois from Cellular Properties Inc. Petitions to deny are due June 19, oppositions June 29 and replies July 7. “Our preliminary review indicates that AT&T would be assigned 25 megahertz of cellular spectrum in eleven counties covering all of CMA 400 (Illinois 7-Vermilion) and part of CMA 402 (Illinois 9-Clay),” the bureau said of cellular market areas. “Post-transaction, AT&T would hold 101 to 173 megahertz of spectrum in total, and 31 to 68 megahertz of below-1-GHz spectrum, in these two CMAs in Illinois.” The bureau also sent letters to both companies asking additional questions on the deal.

The biggest disagreement over how to prevent 911 outages centers on whether new FCC regulations, industry standards, best practices, state and local regulation or just better service contracts are the answer, APCO said in reply comments to an FCC NPRM released after an April 2014 multistate 911 outage. “To some extent, the answer is ‘all of the above,’” APCO said. Initial comments were filed at the agency in March (see 1503240049) on the November NPRM. In October, the FCC released a report on the outage. Reply comments were posted this week by the FCC.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered China-based Shenzhen Tangreat Technology to show cause why certification shouldn't be revoked for a device it offers as a Part 15 Class B computing peripheral for preprocessing data. The device is also an illegal cell-signal jammer, the bureau alleged Tuesday. “We take this action based on evidence that Shenzhen apparently misrepresented to the Commission the equipment to be marketed and sold under the Disputed Authorization,” the bureau said. “Instead of the approved use, Shenzhen apparently marketed and sold jammer equipment, in violation of Sections 302(b) and 333 of the Communications Act of 1934.” In November 2010, agents from the bureau’s Atlanta Field Office examined a unit of the TxTStopper, manufactured under the certification, installed in a vehicle owned by Just Driver Training, a driver’s education training school in Canton, Georgia, the bureau said. “Tests conducted by the agents indicated that the TxTStopper was in fact a cellular/PCS jamming device and that, when installed in a vehicle, the TxTStopper was capable of blocking cellular communications initiated from both inside and outside of the vehicle, apparently including 9-1-1 and other emergency calls,” the bureau said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau said Monday it reached a $16 million settlement with CenturyLink and a $1.4 million settlement with Intrado Communications over the companies’ roles in the April 2014 multistate 911 outage. The FCC found in October that the outage, which affected seven states and resulted in more than 6,600 emergency calls not reaching public safety answering points (PSAPs), stemmed from a software error at an Intrado 911 call processing center in Englewood, Colorado (see 1410170057). The bureau said it calculated the fines against CenturyLink and Intrado based on the number of PSAPs served by the companies.

State and local 911 stakeholders urged the FCC in filings on the commission’s 911 governance NPRM (docket 14-193) to not usurp state and local jurisdiction on 911 issues in its pursuit of revised rules that will curb 911 outages like the April 2014 multistate event. The FCC’s rulemaking proposal followed that widespread outage, which the FCC later determined was caused by a software error at an Intrado 911 call processing center in Englewood, Colorado (see 1410170057). Carriers and public safety groups urged the FCC to consider a consensus proposal from the groups that would curb 911 outages without requiring the implementation of new rules (see 1503240049).

Carriers and public safety groups are working together on consensus rules aimed at curbing 911 outages, the National Emergency Number Association said in comments at the FCC, posted by the agency Tuesday. Various industry groups and companies warned against imposing new rules. Comments were filed in docket 14-193. The NPRM came in the wake of the April 2014 multistate 911 outage, the subject of an October report by the FCC.

APCO, the National Emergency Number Association, USTelecom and others jointly asked the FCC to extend the deadline for filing comments on its Nov. 21 911 governance NPRM. “The Notice raises a large number of jurisdictional, governance, and legal authority questions with implications to every aspect of 9-1-1 service,” the group said. “Given the scope and complexity of the issues raised in the notice, the Joint Petitioners believe that an extension of the comment filing deadlines would be in the public interest.” Comments should be due no earlier than March 23, replies no earlier than April 21, the filing said. Comments are currently due Monday, replies April 7. The filing was posted Friday in docket 13-75.

The Public Safety Bureau circulated for FCC action an item addressing call-forwarding requirements for non-service-initialized phones. Public safety officials said Tuesday that the commission circulated an NPRM that will pose various questions and help the FCC develop a time table for sunsetting a requirement that out-of-service cellphones can still call 911. Public safety answering points have complained of myriad prank 911 calls made from old, untraceable phones. APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators filed a petition in 2008 at the FCC seeking action in effort to stop fraudulent calls to 911 (see 0803050126).