The National Public Safety Telecommunication Council asked the FCC to make clear to the wireless industry it needs to follow the agency’s definition of “dispatchable location.” As the FCC defines it that term means “the verified or corroborated street address of the calling party plus additional information such as floor, suite, apartment or similar information that may be needed to adequately identify the location of the calling party,” NPSTC said. Providing that information is vital to call centers, the group said. “With this information in hand, 9-1-1 professionals can help direct field responders to the scene of the emergency and enable them to provide life-saving assistance more quickly.” NPSTC filed in docket 07-114.

The Hawaii State Legislature passed a small-cells bill, and the San Jose City Council OK’d a small-cells deal with AT&T, in votes Tuesday. The Hawaii Senate voted 22-3 and the House voted unanimously for HB-2651, which aims to streamline 5G deployment by pre-empting local authority in the right of way (see 1804300034). Meanwhile, the San Jose City Council voted 9-1 to approve the AT&T small-cells agreement for the carrier to install 170 small cells on light poles across the city in its first phase. AT&T may install 1,000 more in a subsequent phase, San Jose Smart City Lead Dolan Beckel said in the webcast meeting. The deal also sets up a digital inclusion fund using revenue from lease agreements. AT&T will make an $850,000 up-front permit payment and $1,500 per year per small-cell site license for the first five years, with an annual inflation escalator of 3 per cent starting year six. Also, the carrier will make a $1 million grant to help the city speed permitting processes for small-cell deployments. The city felt it got a fair price for its assets, considering what else it got in the agreement, said Deputy City Manager Kip Harkness. Mayor Sam Liccardo (D), who resigned in protest from the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (see 1801250049), supported the accord in an April 27 memo. “These new broadband deployments offer the opportunity to create more equity in our city -- both through incentivizing the private sector to provide more balanced deployments across historically neglected areas of the city … as well as providing much needed funding to close the digital divide.” AT&T California President Ken McNeely emailed: “The public private partnership between San Jose and AT&T will help the community become safer, more sustainable, and more digitally inclusive. This investment in mobile infrastructure will also enable technologies for smart city solutions that can help reduce traffic congestion, enhance public safety response, and increase online educational opportunities."

Many communications outages may have been prevented during 2017 severe storms in California if wireline providers had more reliable cable facilities and wireless providers more widely used backup power, the California Public Utilities Commission reported. Staff analyzed carrier reporting data to examine causes of 911 call failures and network outages from January to February 2017, when California experienced the most rainfall in recorded history. Carriers said it was an unusually bad storm, and a former commissioner said companies must do better. Meanwhile, in the District of Columbia, the Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC) urged the Public Service Commission to reject Verizon’s dismissal of proposed rules for more detailed outage reporting.

Puerto Rico may risk additional USF funding for rebuilding communications infrastructure if the territory keeps diverting 911 fee revenue to unrelated purposes, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a Tuesday letter to Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares (New Progressive Party). The FCC is weighing sending more support to the hurricane-slammed territory (see 1804230065). “As a steward of such ratepayer collected funding, I would find it difficult to support such a move without strong assurances that Puerto Rico is prepared to put an end to fee diversion practices once and for all," O'Rielly said. "Without this guarantee, the Commission is putting precious USF support at risk for being wasted or diverted.” 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 in a March 7 letter to O’Rielly. Diversion was legal under Article 19 of Act No. 66-2014, which required all savings in areas including 911 fees must be transferred to the Workforce and Economic Development Promotion Fund under Puerto Rico Trade and Export Co., Rosselló said. To prevent future failures to file with the FCC, the Puerto Rico 911 Office will create a compliance guide for all state and federal request forms, he said. O’Rielly appreciates Puerto Rico eventually filing the information but said it’s “extremely disturbing” the territory diverted. “Of all places, I do not think I need to remind you how important 9-1-1 services can be during critical times,” O’Rielly wrote. “If a surplus of 9-1-1 fees is amassed and revenue is not needed for these purposes, fees should not be collected from the consumer, especially given the devastation and personal losses your residents have endured over the last year.” O’Rielly asked Rosselló for “any concrete plans” to end the fund movement: If it's required by law, “are you prepared to help take steps to amend this act to ensure that all savings should be returned to the ratepayer or invested in network upgrades rather than diverted to a separate fund?” O’Rielly asked if Rosselló alternatively has authority to bypass the law’s diverting requirements. Hurricanes Irma and Maria last year tested Puerto Rico 911 systems and showed need for upgrades (see 1801030008).

Don’t cite state law to justify New York diversion of 911 fees for things not directly related to 911, an aide to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday. O’Rielly and Rep. Chris Collins (R) condemned New York diversion Friday while visiting the Niagara County Emergency Management Office public safety answering point in Buffalo. A New York department said it uses fee revenue for first responder communications and state tax law prevents the state from using the money differently. But Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour said the policy keeps 911 funding from counties responsible for handling many emergency calls.

New local number portability administrator iconectiv said its system was working smoothly Monday after taking over operations from Neustar in the Southeast, the first regional handoff. North American Portability Management (NAPM), charged by the FCC with overseeing the LNPA transition, also said the Southeast cutover was successful Sunday, and it reached a contingency agreement with Neustar, if a rollback to the incumbent becomes necessary. An iconectiv official didn't anticipate that need. Neustar said it wasn't aware of any significant problems.

Representatives from APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and CTIA met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff on changes to 911 and the role that could be played by apps and the like. “Supplemental data solutions can offer Automatic Location Information (ALI), routing information, or other data relevant to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) for a wireless 9-1-1 call,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 07-114. That comes with risks, the groups warned. “To maintain the integrity, reliability and resiliency of the evolving 9-1-1 system, the parties encouraged the Commission to issue guidance to ensure that such solutions are reliable and secure.”

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly asked for Rhode Island’s next steps in stopping 911 fee diversion. A Tuesday letter to Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) said O'Rielly was “heartened” by his visit to the state last month, during which Raimondo staff said the governor was receptive to updating state law to end diversion (see 1803200052). “I am interested to know if you plan to make a formal legislative recommendation on this matter to the State General Assembly and if the creation of a new dedicated 9-1-1 fund will be contained within a supplemental budget submission or await next year’s budget preparation,” O’Rielly wrote. “It is important to know whether any excess 9-1-1 fees that currently go to the State’s General Fund will be reduced to the appropriate level or reserved to modernize the state’s 9-1-1 system.” Raimondo didn’t comment.

The FCC approved changes to wireless infrastructure rules, aimed at speeding deployment of small cells to pave the way for 5G, 3-2 Thursday over dissents by Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, as expected (see 1803070044). Both said the order had problems that need to be fixed and a vote should have been postponed. Tribes and groups representing local and state governments raised repeated objections. Security removed a protester complaining about RF issues after the vote at what was a lightly attended meeting. A robocalling FNPRM also drew some concerns (see 1803220028), while some other items were less controversial (see 1803220037).

Commissioner Mike O'Rielly slammed a New Jersey bill on 911 fees set for hearing Thursday in the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee that would require at least 10 percent of state 911 fee revenue to be used for public safety answering point (PSAP) technology upgrades and maintenance. But FCC commissioners and the state wireless association earlier admonished New Jersey for diverting 89 percent ($108.1 million) of its 911 fee revenue to unrelated purposes in 2016, as shown in an FCC report last month (see 1802230012). “I appreciate that the New Jersey state legislature is looking at the issue but my initial read of this particular legislation is that it is far from fixing the problem," O'Rielly emailed. "Instead, it appears to authorize the stealing of 90 percent of the funds that are supposed to go to the public safety 9-1-1 system. New Jersey residents and its public safety officials, who have answered the call so many times, deserve better." The New Jersey Wireless Association plans to say at Thursday’s hearing that the 10 percent proposed in AB-2371 won't solve fee diversion, NJWA President Rob Ivanoff said. The Assembly Committee also plans to hear AB-122, which would require all publicly and privately owned public safety dispatch points to meet the same operational, equipment and staffing standards as PSAPs. PSAPs and dispatch points would also be required to have “a master street address guide or computer aided dispatch system that allows each call center to share 9-1-1 address data electronically.” The bill would require dispatching within 90 seconds of a 911 call, even if the call was transferred between call centers. And it would require PSAPs and dispatch points to keep detailed records of every 911 call received. The committee also plans to hear two other bills that haven't been introduced. AB-3742 would fund and require next-generation 911, while making texting 911 without need a fourth-degree crime. AB-3743 would impose a 90 cents 911 fee at the point of sale when buying prepaid wireless telephone service. Momentum grew to end Rhode Island 911 fee diversion after a state legislative effort there gained national attention (see 1803200052).