The 911 Fee Integrity Act (HR-6424) and two other public safety telecom-related bills drew bipartisan backing during a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing, though some Democrats insisted more federal funding will be needed for the legislation to be effective. House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and others invoked the Next Generation 9-1-1 Act (HR-4672/S-2061). The subcommittee also examined the National Non-Emergency Mobile Number Act (HR-5700) and Anti-Swatting Act (HR-6003).

A Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee on the 911 Fee Integrity Act (HR-6424) and other public safety telecom-related bills will likely be focused on whether there's a path to potentially move those bills later this year, lawyers and lobbyists told us. The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn. HR-6424 would bar states from engaging in 911 fee diversion and give the FCC the power to decide on “acceptable” uses for the money. FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly is a backer of the bill but won't testify on its behalf (see 1808170023).

The ATIS Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) supported industry best practices and opposed new rules in response to a June FCC Public Safety Bureau notice seeking comment on network resilience during and after the 2017 hurricanes. NSRC said it formed a Situational Awareness for 9-1-1 Outages Task Force, which has identified "areas for future work and is developing a set of requirements,” the ATIS committee said. “The group is focusing on the possible development of a [public safety answering point] database and a standardized process for updating the information in the database.” On backhaul, the NRSC suggested “industry examine resiliency-related best practices to see if gaps exist vis-à-vis backhaul providers.” NSRC members met with Public Safety Bureau staff, said a filing in docket 11-60.

NARUC said it generally endorses some FCC proposals in a draft NPRM to improve 911 dialing from multiline telephone systems in buildings and complexes and ensure "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with 911 calls, regardless of technology. A 2014 NARUC resolution commended FCC efforts to ensure public safety answering points get "accurate information to identify the indoor location of wireless 9-1-1 callers and supported adoption of effective location technologies for indoor and outdoor 9-1-1 calls," said the group's filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-261 on meetings with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel. It said a November 2017 resolution backed federal and state actions to require enterprise communications systems to allow direct 911 dialing (without extra digits) and provide location information precise enough to find callers. "Both NARUC resolutions suggest that any federal rules should be written to permit States to impose additional requirements 'presuming that such additional requirements do not contradict or conflict with federal requirements,'" it said. The NPRM is on the agenda for the Sept. 26 commissioners' meeting (see 1809050056). The filing also made arguments opposing an FCC proposal in a 2017 NPRM to eliminate resellers from its Lifeline USF program, and urging changes to telco jurisdictional separations rules without bypassing a federal-state joint board.

The FCC should add a regional or state 911 authority to the definition of “covered 911 service provider,” Motorola Solutions said in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 13-75. “Without this addition, an entity providing 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities or their functional equivalent may not be subject to the covered 911 service provider rules if it provided the services pursuant to direct contract with a regional or state 9-1-1 authority,” Motorola said.

T-Mobile's buying Sprint faced numerous oppositions last month (see 1808280038) but this week got considerable love. Replies were due Monday to oppositions and many were posted Tuesday (see 1809170025). Many of the filings in FCC docket 18-197 questioned whether Sprint would survive without T-Mobile. T-Mobile and Sprint said they would be stronger together. Both have “standalone plans to deploy 5G networks, [but] the New T-Mobile network will be far superior and will create expanded capacity and lower costs so that American consumers will pay less and get more,” the carriers said. “Notably,” none of the oppositions disputes this point, they said. “Opponents insist either that the merger is unnecessary to build such a nationwide 5G network or that the standalone companies have alternatives to merging. They further hypothesize that the transaction will result in harmful effects on specific segments of the wireless market, rural areas, and company employment.” A recurring criticism is the deal would reduce service or raise process for prepaid plans “attractive to cost-conscious and low-income customers,” the deal partners said. “These concerns, like those raised on T-Mobile acquired MetroPCS, are unfounded. Following this merger, all MetroPCS, Boost Mobile, and Virgin Mobile USA customers with compatible handsets will benefit from the increased capacity and improved service quality that the New T-Mobile nationwide network will provide.” The transaction "comes at a precarious time for Sprint, which has been struggling for years as the nation’s fourth-largest wireless carrier,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute commented. “As the most highly leveraged S&P 500 company, with $32 billion of net debt, Sprint faces an uncertain future as a nationwide wireless carrier capable of competing with larger rivals.” The combined company “will be in a far better position to deploy wireless services to all Americans than would either company alone,” TechFreedom said. The group said many opponents “understate” how competitive the U.S. wireless market is. “In perhaps no other industry are the economies of scale larger than in broadband, and wireless broadband in particular,” TechFreedom said. The National Emergency Number Association said it rarely files on transactions but sees the deal as potentially benefiting emergency calling. T-Mobile is a leader in efforts to improve 911 calling, doing most work in-house, NENA said. “Such work, if carried over to the combined companies, will benefit T-Mobile customers when dialing 9-1-1 from their mobile devices."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau Monday sought comment on an August report by CTIA and the national wireless carriers on vertical accuracy (z-axis) for wireless calls to 911. The report by Location Technologies Test Bed, the test bed administrator, “describes the testing process used to assess vertical location solutions … and provides the results of the testing,” the bureau said. The report notes that two vendors, NextNav and Polaris, took part in tests. The technologies they offer “rely on barometric pressure sensor information from mobile wireless handsets to determine an estimated altitude of an indoor wireless 9-1-1 call,” the bureau said. Comments are due Oct. 1 in docket 07-114, replies Oct. 11.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) unveiled a $10 million grant program for 911 response and emergency dispatch, but FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly (R) questioned why the state continues to divert state 911 fee revenue. The New York Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) will award grants this year and next to counties, the governor’s office said Monday. "It is critical that first responders have access to the services and technology they need to respond to situations where every second counts," Cuomo said. DHSES Commissioner Roger Parrino said the money will fund next-generation 911 and text-to-911. O’Rielly said it’s “great that New York will provide some new money to counties to operate and maintain their 9-1-1 call centers, but the grant is pittance compared to the many millions New York siphons off from collected 9-1-1 fees.” The FCC has flagged New York as a 911 fee diverter every year since the agency’s 2009 report to Congress. New York didn’t report to the FCC in 2016, the last year for which figures have been released, but the commission said the state diverted 42 percent ($77.3 million) in 2015 (see 1804230042). Congress is weighing a bill to discourage states from the practice (see 1808170023). Cuomo's office didn't comment Monday about diversion.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC understands that the wireless location accuracy of 911 calls remains a major issue for 911 call centers, Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth told an APCO Conference audience. Other officials at the conference told us repeatedly they're still having difficulty locating wireless callers, years after the FCC started to take on the issue (see 1808070037). The FCC imposed updated requirements in 2015.

The FCC wants governors associations to help get state responses to information requests on 911 fee diversion, said Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel in a Tuesday letter to Democratic Governors Association Chair Jay Inslee of Washington state and Republican Governors Association Chair Bill Haslam of Tennessee. “Consider efforts to halt 9-1-1 fee diversion going forward and encourage those states that have diverted fees in the past to commit to corrective measures.” DGA and RGA didn’t comment. O’Rielly and Rosenworcel tweeted, with the Democrat writing it’s “not right when states charge you a ‘911 fee’ on your phone bill but then turn around and use the funds for other things.” O’Rielly is corresponding with states and territories, and House Commerce Committee leaders last week asked the FCC for more information (see 1807300033).