A “negligible” amount of Skype customers expect to be able to make emergency calls from their accounts, the company told the FCC in reply comments on docket 11-117. Skype hired research company Penn Schoen Berland to do an online survey of 1,001 paying Skype customers about their attitude to the service, the company said. It found that “less than 5” percent of Skype customers “indicate they would be likely to use Skype to place an emergency call,” the company said.

FCC rules should be based on the assumption that the public will expect that any outbound-only VoIP service is capable of reaching 911, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials said in reply comments filed at the FCC in response to a July 13 FCC notice of proposed rulemaking. “Even if a VoIP service subscriber uses a particular service without an expectation of making domestic outbound calls (let alone calling 911), to the extent a phone-like device is capable of doing so, others (such as a family member, friend, visitor, customer, or employee of a subscriber) may use that device in an emergency situation with a clear expectation that they will be able reach 911,” APCO said (http://xrl.us/bmho3t). “A subscriber might also obtain a VoIP service with the intention of using it in narrow circumstances (e.g., international calls), and then begin to use it more broadly over time, creating new expectations of its capabilities by the time an emergency occurs.” APCO conceded “there may be some basis for creating FCC-recognized consensus guidelines and standard of care best practices for situations that clearly do (or do not) create reasonable expectations of 911 capability” but those cases should be seen as an exception, APCO said. The National Emergency Number Association largely agreed with APCO in its reply comments. “Since the Commission adopted its existing definition of interconnected VoIP service in 2005, the consumer market for such service has changed dramatically,” NENA said (http://xrl.us/bmho4b). “While it was initially only facilities-based VoIP providers who marketed their services as true replacements for home telephone service, non-facilities-based providers now aggressively market their services to residential subscribers, emphasizing low cost and ease of use as key selling points. Indeed, even services that have not marketed themselves as replacements for POTS [plain old telephone service] are increasingly offering products that emulate the residential POTS experience.” The FCC previously imposed location-accuracy requirements on VoIP providers that originate and terminate calls on the public switched telephone network and is now examining whether similar requirements should apply to increasingly popular VoIP services like SkypeOut that allow outbound only calls. The commission sought comment in an NPRM approved at its July 12 meeting (CD July 13 p7).

National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes and others from the group discussed the “role and importance of standards in enabling innovative, consumer-focused emergency-calling services.” The discussion came during a meeting Friday with Chairman Julius Genachowski and others at the commission. “Second, we explained our view of how the Commission could facilitate the roll-out of [next generation] 911 by working collaboratively with state utility commissions. In particular, we noted that some regulations based on legacy service models such as monopoly wireline service may impede or outright prohibit the provisioning of NG 911 service by competitive entrants or the disaggregation of various aspects of NG 911 service,” NENA said in a filing at the commission (http://xrl.us/bma3ae). “Finally, we discussed the importance of interoperability considerations [to] the broader emergency communications enterprise.”

The National Emergency Number Association supported the AT&T/T-Mobile merger in a filing at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bkzstz). “NENA believes this merger will benefit the public safety and emergency response community as well as the public-at-large by speeding the build-out and expanding the foot-print of the combined entity’s advanced LTE network,” NENA said. “While the combined AT&T/T-Mobile network will operate in spectrum distinct from that of public safety services, the proposed merger will nonetheless produce economies of scale and scope in the market for LTE-capable infrastructure and equipment that will reduce the overall cost of providing service to the public safety community."

T-Mobile fired back at the National Emergency Number Association in a filing on testing requirements as the commission implements new E911 location accuracy rules. In a filing posted by the FCC Tuesday, NENA accused T-Mobile of advocating weakened rules (http://xrl.us/bkzca8). “As T-Mobile would have it, no network would be subject to a testing requirement unless localized position uncertainties grow beyond some threshold value or confidence metrics decline to unsatisfactory levels,” NENA suggested. “T-Mobile reads the [revised rules] to require testing only as means to remediate degradation of location over time.” Neither statement is true, T-Mobile said (http://xrl.us/bkzcb9) Wednesday. “Under the Second Report and Order, carriers will have to demonstrate compliance in each county for which they claim compliance. That requires empirical testing of county-level accuracy,” T-Mobile contended. The debate regarding periodic maintenance testing is only about what happens after compliance at the county level has already been established empirically, with uncertainty baselines."

Eight technology vendors Thursday backed the National Emergency Number Association’s Next Generation 911 Architecture Interface Standard (i3). “We fully advocate that NENA remain the ‘Voice of 911’ and continue its NG911 standards development and evolution efforts,” the companies said in a joint statement. “Doing so will enable the public safety community” end-user agencies and business ecosystem members “to enhance and accelerate the development and deployment of NG911 emergency communication solutions,” they said. They are: 911 Datamaster, Avaya, Cassidian Communications, Digital Data Technologies, GeoComm, RedSky Technologies, Solacom and TeleCommunication Systems.

The FCC should use its ancillary authority under Section 154(i) of the Telecom Act to apply anti-Caller-ID “spoofing” rules to VoIP providers, the Department of Justice said in a filing at the FCC. “Although the Commission has not classified interconnected VoIP service as a telecommunications service for the general purposes of Title II, it has previously used its ancillary authority … to extend many common carrier obligations to VoIP providers,” said criminal division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein in Justice’s comments. “Here, the Commission’s ancillary authority under Section 154(i), in conjunction with the provisions of the Truth in Caller ID Act, is sufficient to empower the Commission to regulate such providers.” The commission is in the midst of a rulemaking on how to implement the 2009 Act, and comments came pouring into docket 11-39 this week.

A wireless booster rulemaking notice is scheduled for a vote at Thursday’s FCC meeting, after concerns raised by Verizon Wireless and public safety were addressed in recent days. The order was placed on the sunshine agenda circulated by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, cutting off further lobbying at the FCC. The FCC is also slated to vote on a data roaming order as well as high-profile orders on pole attachments and the video relay service program, among other items.

A wireless signal booster order scheduled for a vote at the FCC’s April 7 meeting could get pulled for further work, after Verizon Wireless, the National Emergency Number Association and APCO raised 911 concerns, agency officials said Tuesday. Verizon Wireless, joined by NENA, flagged a technical concern in rules for acceptable booster design in a series of meetings at the FCC. “Verizon explained that the proposed safeguards relating to automatic gain control and oscillation detection are insufficient to address harmful interference to E-911 network operation and services,” said an ex parte filing. “NENA expressed concern about the threats to public safety from unauthorized and/or improperly installed signal boosters, including harmful interference to commercial users attempting to dial 911 and degrading the performance of E-911 location accuracy technology.” APCO sent the commission a letter Tuesday also raising concerns. “The docket in this proceeding includes evidence that boosters can create dangerous interference to other cellular users (including those who may be trying to dial 9-1-1) and to public safety land mobile operations in adjacent portions of the 800 MHz frequency band,” APCO said.

The FCC is preparing a notice of inquiry asking how to integrate broadband alerts into next-generation 911, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Deputy Chief Jennifer Manner said Wednesday. The inquiry will be broadly worded -- focusing on such questions as what should be covered and how to coordinate with other agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- and will come out in the late spring or early summer, Manner said. She spoke on a panel about the National Broadband Plan’s first anniversary.