Congress should consider legislation to withhold federal funds from states that spend 911 money for unrelated purposes, said a public safety coalition including the National Emergency Number Association. In a letter Wednesday to House and Senate Commerce Committee chairmen and ranking members, the coalition said states including Georgia, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin “raided or diverted” money last year in violation of federal restrictions. “In the current budget climate, the message should be clear that Congress will not provide federal funds for 9-1-1 and homeland security to a state that does not properly spend money already in its coffers,” the coalition said. Congress could require the FCC to share results of its annual report on state 911 activities with the Office of Management and Budget and all federal agencies that run public-safety grant programs, it said. “This information could then be taken into consideration as a factor when determining eligibility for federal public safety grants.” Congress should ask the FCC what additional steps the commission can take to prevent the practice, the coalition said. “For example, while the FCC is tasked with enforcing ’truth in billing’ requirements on commercial licensees, the Commission could also enforce a requirement that states be truthful about the fees they impose on consumers that are collected by carriers."

A proposed Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC) would be housed at the FCC in the Public Safety Bureau and would come under a Public Safety Advisory Board, according to a concept paper posted on the FCC website. Meanwhile, public safety groups and companies that serve them said they liked what they heard at Thursday’s FCC meeting about public safety recommendations coming in the National Broadband Plan -- especially a recommendation on the need for a next-generation 911 network.

The FCC was flooded with more than 100,000 comments and other filings on its October rulemaking notice that would deepen the FCC’s oversight of net neutrality as well as expand the rules to cover wireless. There were few surprises, with lines long drawn in the battle. Some major industry players including AT&T and Verizon are hinting at a legal challenge if the rules are adopted as proposed. A few traditional opponents found room for compromise.

Government needs to play a much larger role in getting broadband to the most rural consumers if this country “is serious” about making the Internet ubiquitous, said Daniel Mitchell, vice president of legal affairs for the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, a trade association that represents small rural providers. He spoke at the Pike & Fischer broadband conference Thursday.

AT&T and Sprint Nextel urged the FCC to abolish a telecom relay service rule requiring conventional Teletype TRS providers to automatically and immediately call the appropriate public safety answering point when they get a 711 emergency call from an interconnected-VoIP user. In separate comments last week at the FCC, AT&T and Sprint said such users make too few of the calls to justify the costs of building the system needed to comply. But consumer groups said “people with disabilities must have the same access to emergency services as any person without disabilities.”

Venture capitalist Ram Shriram urged the FCC to make more unlicensed spectrum available. The comments came during remarks at a Free Press conference Thursday. Shriram said a review of how spectrum is used shows continuing inefficiency. “I don’t think the spectrum that’s available is being fully utilized,” he said. “And there is a severe lack of unlicensed spectrum below 9 GHz. Even if you combine it with what’s available at 2.4 and 5.8 [GHz], I think you need some available at sub-1 GHz to build some sort of commercially viable last-mile broadband access.” He also expressed concerns about the lack of openness on wireless broadband networks: “The Internet is moving to the wireless world and we don’t have the equivalent of the openness and this notion of any-device-any-application.”

Working-group leaders reported progress on privacy and location, emergency communications and IPv6 specifications, in discussions at an international meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force in San Francisco. The conclusions of working group sessions at the meeting all last week are subject to broader discussion on its e-mail list and then approval by the Internet Engineering Steering Group. The open, volunteer organization runs by so-called rough consensus: Action requires the support of the great majority of those taking part.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed 21-9 Tuesday an economic recovery bill that include $9 billion for broadband grants to be administered by NTIA. The Senate Finance Committee held a day-long markup on the bill. An amendment offered by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., for broadband tax credits was included in the Finance provisions considered at markup. At our deadline the committee was still debating the legislation.

As FairPoint brings new back-office systems on line in the coming weeks, scammers may try to hoodwink customers into revealing confidential information, the Maine Public Utility Commission warned. “We've received reports of businesses getting calls saying that their account numbers are needed right away to help with the transition,” said Sharon Reishus, who chairs the agency. “It’s not true.” The shift involves major data transfers from former Verizon New England systems to FairPoint’s updated hardware and software. Consumers should educate themselves about how this may affect phone service, Reishus said. “No one should lose their telephone service as a result of the system changes, and E-9-1-1, repair and storm recovery services should go on as usual.” According to FairPoint, between Jan. 23 and Feb. 9, the company won’t be able to process orders for new phone service, transfer service to new locations or add new options to existing service. The company expects to resume processing of such orders after Feb. 9, but fulfillment may be delayed if, as expected, a backlog develops, the company said. Some non-FairPoint customers may be affected if their phone companies contract with FairPoint, the commission said. It’s paying close heed to the cutover, getting periodic updates from FairPoint, which will alert members to any issues that arise, it said.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission Jan. 21 ordered the state Department of Public Safety to file new rate proposals for 911 call-answering and dispatch services to political subdivisions. The department has until Jan. 29 to comply. A 2008 state law mandates equitable payment for 911 services, directing the commission to establish a proceeding to set fees that the safety department may charge for such services. The ruling disallows some revenue the department proposed to recover from municipalities in its initial two- year, $16.2 million budget, the commission said. The regulator’s action will reduce that budget at least $1.96 million, or 12 percent, it said. “This case presented some novel challenges for the Commission,” said Sharon Reishus, who chairs the Commission. The Legislature required the commission to analyze the safety department budget as if it were that of a regulated utility, although the commission can’t order budgetary changes by a state agency as it can for regulated utilities, she said: “Today’s decision will allow DPS to recover costs it rightly needs to maintain reliable E 9-1-1 service for Mainers. … At the same time, we sought to ensure that municipal taxpayers do not pay more than their fair share.” The costs that safety officials sought to recover from municipalities, but which the commission disallowed, include some associated with retroactive pay for unionized safety department workers, those associated with the proposed relocation of the Orono Regional Communications Center and construction of a new communications tower and salary costs for added positions not yet approved by the legislature. Work has not begun on the Orono center relocation or the new communications tower, the commission noted. In its order, the commission also required DPS to calculate and remove from its request the cost of running the Orono center, which now does not directly serve any municipalities. Commissioners made clear that should safety officials have to change their 911 services budget, expedited review will be possible.