The telecom industry lined up against a California anti-robocalls bill but couldn’t stop a Senate panel from passing the bill by wide margin at a Wednesday hearing. A state patchwork would slow a national effort, said cable, wireless and wireline lobbyists. Similar bills to crack down on caller ID spoofing, which have seen bipartisan groundswell this year (see 1902150048), moved forward in Arkansas and Mississippi.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Norma Torres, D-Calif., seek co-sponsors for their forthcoming 911 Saves Act, to change the federal government's classification of public safety call-takers and dispatchers (see 1902280029) as “protective service occupations.” The Standard Occupational Classification system classifies those jobs as “office and administrative support occupations,” which “includes secretaries, office clerks, and taxicab dispatchers,” Fitzpatrick and Torres wrote colleagues. “We believe this is based on an outdated, misinformed view of the work performed.” The protective service occupations classification encompasses “a broad range of 'protective' occupations: lifeguards, fish and game wardens, parking enforcement workers, firefighters, and even playground monitors,” the lawmakers said. “As former a 9-1-1 Dispatcher and FBI agent, we can tell you that the nature of their work is absolutely protective."
APCO encouraged the FCC to ask questions about whether to require carriers be able to report floor levels of emergency calls to 911, in a draft Further NPRM set for a commissioner vote March 15 (see 1902220062). The draft proposes carriers be required to identify a vertical location accuracy metric, also known as the z-axis, of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless calls to 911. “Identifying the floor level is qualitatively different from achieving floor level accuracy, and would better ensure that z-axis information is actionable,” the group said. Actionable means 911 call takers can quickly use the information “to assist the caller and direct responders to the scene,” APCO said in docket 07-114. Also Tuesday, CTIA said the wireless industry’s location technologies test bed is inviting technology vendors to participate in vertical positioning accuracy testing. CTIA is looking at existing and emerging technologies, said Test Bed Vice President Tom Sawanobori. The next stage “will help us evaluate new technologies that could be critical to helping 9-1-1 professionals and first responders save lives,” he said.
Chairman Ajit Pai cited FCC action timelines and other efforts to improve 911 calling and responses as part of an "all-of-the-above" approach to public-safety communications. He expects to adopt rules later this year on Kari's Law provisions to require building and campus multiline telephone systems to let users dial 911 directly, he said in remarks at a National Emergency Number Association event Friday. The FCC is working to meet a September deadline for implementing a Ray Baum's Act mandate to ensure "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with 911 calls, regardless of technology. He expects to move later this year on a "Z-axis accuracy" standard in a proceeding aimed at pinpointing wireless 911 callers' vertical location in multistory buildings. He said the FCC is reviewing how best to improve wireless 911 call routing -- plagued by "upwards of tens of thousands" misrouted calls -- to ensure it's based on the location of callers and not cell towers. Pai said wireless providers are "making meaningful progress" toward meeting "stringent" location accuracy standards on 70 percent of calls in 2020 and 80 percent in 2021 to help responders find the callers. Since some states continue to divert 911 fee funds to other purposes, he's ready to work with Congress and stakeholders to ensure all such fees strengthen public safety communications. Pai's "continued engagement will keep pressure on those states stealing critical 9-1-1 fees to change their awful ways & prevent new states/territories from joining," tweeted Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "New Congressional action would be welcome for habitual states that divert (NY, NJ & RI)."
The FCC asked a court to postpone Feb. 1 oral argument on the agency's net neutrality reversal, citing the partial government shutdown and the need of its attorneys to prepare. The commission said petitioners challenging the order oppose its Tuesday motion, its industry supporting intervenors don't oppose it, and others took no position (see 1901150057).
The FCC will investigate the nationwide CenturyLink outage that disrupted 911 service for many Americans, Chairman Ajit Pai said Friday. At our deadline, the carrier was still working to resolve the multistate outage that began Thursday (see 1812270050). The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) said the outage shows urgent need to fully deploy next-generation 911. NARUC and state consumer advocates applauded FCC action.
Text-to-911 adoption is growing, but more work lies ahead, with many state-and-territory deployments not stretching across the entire jurisdiction, emergency number officials told us last week. “We’re absolutely headed in the right direction,” but funding is necessary as well as "many, many 911 centers" and "we need to try to accelerate that,” said NG-911 Institute Executive Director Patrick Halley in an interview. Ahead of most, Maine and Massachusetts completed statewide text-to-911 rollouts this month.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) appoints to 9-1-1 Services Board new members Mary Blowe, Winchester; Scott Garber, Staunton Fire & Rescue Department; Seth Weise, Sprint; and Kelvin Wright, Chesapeake Police Department ... Seagate names Gianluca Romano, ex-Micron, executive vice president-chief financial officer.
Parties backed an FCC effort to improve 911 calling and location accuracy, noting technical challenges. There was broad support for proposals to implement Kari's Law requirements requiring 911 direct dialing from multiline telephone systems (MLTS) in larger enterprises. Industry resisted some potential regulations, particularly on a Ray Baum's Act (see 1812110052) mandate to consider requiring "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with calls to responders. Telecom and VoIP providers, equipment makers, public safety entities, enterprise groups and others filed over 30 comments in docket 18-261 through Tuesday on an NPRM (see 1809260047).
Much attention during Tuesday's House Communications Subcommittee hearing on implementation of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum statute focused on language to aid the broadcast incentive auction repacking process, as expected (see 1812070040). Industry witnesses praised the act and highlighted areas where additional Capitol Hill action may be needed to improve implementation, also as expected (see 1812100049). The FCC also got implementation comments (see 1812110025).