The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC should address misrouting of 911 calls to public safety answering points. “Occurrence of 9-1-1 ‘misroutes’ is significant enough to merit action,” NENA said. Most industry players with replies in docket 18-64 urged caution and suggested the FCC wait for an industry-supported solution to emerge. In March, the agency released a notice of inquiry on ways to ensure wireless 911 calls are routed directly to the appropriate call center (see 1803230023). Initial comments were posted in May (see 1805080040).

The Fairfax County, Virginia, 9-1-1 System urged the FCC to allow third-party applications and providers to deliver supplementary location information for wireless 911 calls directly to public safety answering points without going through carrier’s routing elements. “To stifle the ability of third-party providers and applications by mandating they only work through the carrier interconnect routing elements is against the public interest,” the county said in docket 18-64. “Several recent cases in the news have demonstrated that lives of emergency callers have been lost due to the inability to locate a caller because of the inadequacy of the current wireless location technologies in use in the 9-1-1 industry.”

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly urged Guam to end alleged 911 fee diversion, asking for a second time why the territory didn’t respond to the FCC seeking information for its state 911 fees report. In a Wednesday letter to Gov. Eddie Calvo (R), O’Rielly said he never received an official response to his first letter four months ago, but a Guam fire chief told a local newspaper the territory diverted $488,000 in 2016 and $840,000 last year to purposes unrelated to 911. “It appears that from 2014 to 2017, almost $4 million was transferred out of Guam’s 9-1-1 fund,” O’Rielly said. “Such a shortfall is incredibly concerning.” O’Rielly, who reported progress ending the practice in New Mexico in another letter this week (see 1806190017), plans to speak about New Jersey 911 fee diversion Thursday in Trenton.

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).

New York attorney general now is Barbara Underwood, OK'd 190-1 by legislature, spokesman tells us; Underwood had been acting AG after Eric Schneiderman resigned (see this section of this publication's May 9 issue) ... Analog Devices hires from FujitsuMichael Clauser to head government affairs ... Saban Capital Group taps from Exeter Property Greg Ivancich as chief financial officer, succeeding Fred Gluckman, resigns effective June 1.

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.”