Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus co-Chairwoman Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., filed the House version of the Next Generation 9-1-1 Act Monday to bolster state and local governments’ transition to the technology. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., filed the Senate version, S-2061, in early November (see 1702280062). The legislation would add new federal funding for NG-911 transitions and technical assistance while also maintaining state and local control of 911 systems. “In life-threatening situations, seconds matter,” Eshoo said. “This legislation will help bring our 9-1-1 call centers into the 21st Century.”
A group led by the Competitive Carriers Association met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff on the wireless network resiliency cooperative framework, proposed by carriers and agreed to by the FCC last year (see 1612210008). “CCA noted its members’ continued collaboration with Public Safety Answering Points,” said a filing in docket 11-60. “CCA discussed its commitment to ‘provide relevant contact information for appropriate carrier and PSAP databases only within a reasonable period of time when an emergency situation is announced, subject to promises of confidentiality.’” CCA reminded that competitive carriers’ ability to comply with the voluntary commitments “is contingent upon their technical feasibility and prioritizing the needs of their consumers." Officials from APCO, CTIA, National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators and Verizon also attended.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appears poised to make another move on contraband cellphones in prisons. Chief of Staff Matthew Berry tweeted Monday the wireless industry isn’t doing enough (see 1711130055). Berry was retweeted by Zenji Nakazawa, Pai’s public safety adviser. The agency didn’t comment. Earlier this month, Pai wrote House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and 51 other House and Senate members, saying the FCC is “actively” communicating “with state and local law enforcement and corrections officials,” and others about “effective, efficient solutions” (see 1711070067). In March, commissioners approved an order that focused on quicker deployment of contraband interdiction systems as an alternative to jamming (see 1703230056). In September (see 1708290054), DOJ said the Communications Act “does not necessarily preclude" jamming. A former spectrum official said the FCC appears to be contemplating allowing corrections officials to jam cell signals, though industry is likely to challenge that as prohibited by the act. Since Commissioner Mike O’Rielly made clear he would oppose jamming, it’s unclear where Pai would get a third vote, even if he has the support of Commissioner Brendan Carr, the former official said. Pai "has been very vocal about wanting to address the epidemic of contraband cell phones in prisons and the crime that they facilitate,” said Jamie Barnett, former Public Safety Bureau chief, now at Venable. “Commissioner Carr also has been diligent in searching for innovative technical solutions." Berry's tweet "seems to be a signal of frustration and possibly indicates that the FCC may move forward with one or more solutions," Barnett said. "The chairman may be showing an independent streak on this issue.” The Office of Engineering and Technology recently OK'd special temporary authority for Securus to test technology aimed at curbing contraband cellphones. The STA started Tuesday and expires May 4. “Contraband cellphone use is among the highest public safety issues for the Georgia Department of Corrections (DoC) and Securus has been contracted to test and deploy Managed Access Systems (MAS),” said its application. “This STA is necessary to support expedited testing of new antennal types and locations as well as new software.” Carriers support “the goal of blocking the flow of contraband phones into prisons and denying service to those phones that do get smuggled into the hands of prisoners, while allowing 9-1-1 and legitimate calls to go through," a CTIA spokesman said. "We continue to work with all stakeholders, including government, the public safety community and technology providers, to identify and implement effective and lawful solutions."
The 911 grant program should target funds to proofs of concept in urban, suburban and rural areas, while requiring interoperability, APCO commented this week on revised implementation rules proposed by NTIA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (see 1709200043). Also in docket NTIA-2017-0002, some state and local agencies urged the agencies not to exclude certain areas from grants. The 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act made $115 million available from the Public Safety Trust Fund for the 911 grant program, which funds improvements to 911, E-911 and next-generation 911 services and applications. NTIA and NHTSA plan to award NG-911 grants in FY 2018, which started Oct. 1 (see 1701200026).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., filed their Next Generation 9-1-1 Act (S-2061) Thursday. The bill, first floated in late February (see 1702280062), aims to accelerate deployment of such systems by expanding the existing 911 grant program and the 911 Implementation Coordination Office (ICO) guidance to federal, state and local entities on deploying the new systems. The bill would make it the sense of Congress that the nation should complete the transition to NG-911 "as soon as practicable" but "not later than 10 years" after enactment. The legislation would direct ICO to issue a request for information on possible changes to federal law to encourage next-gen deployments and to recommend changes to state and local laws to encourage them. Possible changes to federal law could include requiring a “national public safety answering points certification or credentialing process” related to NG-911, the legislation said. S-2061 would create the Advisory Board for NG-911 Interoperability within ICO to review the existing definition of the services. “Upgrading the nation’s 9-1-1 system is literally a life and death matter that must become more of a national priority,” Nelson said: “In this digital world, Americans must have more than one way to access" 911.
Two NARUC draft telecom resolutions disagree on whether Lifeline should support reseller services. Tuesday, NARUC revealed three draft telecom resolutions on Lifeline and E-911 for its annual meeting Nov. 12-15 in Baltimore. One by Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades would urge the FCC to keep providing Lifeline funds to non-facilities-based carriers “because they have been crucial in ensuring that low-income households are connected to telecommunication services.” The FCC sought comment on discontinuing that support in a draft NPRM released as part of a Lifeline package that’s scheduled for vote at commissioners’ Nov. 16 meeting (see 1710270013). The Rhoades draft said such an action would “disconnect millions of low-income households.” Another draft by District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairman Betty Ann Kane takes the other side. Not requiring federal Lifeline participants to use their own facilities “removes any incentive for companies to invest in and to build voice-only or voice and broadband-capable facilities and, thereby, subverts the Act’s principle of promoting access to advanced telecommunications services as set forth in section 254(b),” it said. The Kane resolution also would support several other FCC tentative decisions from the Lifeline proposal, including to (1) eliminate the stand-alone Lifeline Broadband Provider designation, (2) reverse the agency’s pre-emption of State regulatory authority to designate eligible telecommunications carriers and (3) require that Lifeline broadband service providers must also provide voice services. A third draft resolution, by Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner Wendy Moser, would support federal and state actions to require enterprise communications systems (ECS) “manufacturers, installers, and operators to design and configure ECS to allow direct dialing of 9-1-1, route 9-1-1 calls to the proper PSAP [public service answering point] regardless of the particular location of the extension used to call 9-1-1, provide the PSAP with location information accurate enough for first responders to locate the caller, and to support on-site notification.” Federal requirements shouldn’t preclude state from adding nonconflicting requirements, the draft said.
CTIA asked the FCC to approve the National Emergency Address Database (NEAD) Privacy and Security Plan, which CTIA and FCC officials say is on circulation. Matthew Gerst, CTIA director-regulatory affairs, met last week with Louis Peraertz, aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. CTIA officials also met last week with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1710260036). “Wireless carriers’ ability to utilize the NEAD to produce dispatchable location information for wireless calls to 9-1-1 is contingent on prompt Commission approval of the Plan,” said a CTIA filing in docket 07-114.
CTIA is pressing the FCC to approve the National Emergency Address Database (NEAD) Privacy and Security Plan that CTIA and FCC officials said is on circulation. The association reported on a meeting with Travis Litman, aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “Carriers’ ability to utilize the NEAD to produce dispatchable location information for wireless calls to 9-1-1 is contingent on prompt Commission approval of the Plan,” said a filing in docket 07-114, asking: “Approve the Plan expeditiously and provide the certainty needed to help ensure that the NEAD can remain on-track to support the carriers’ ability to use the NEAD to produce dispatchable location information for wireless calls to 9-1-1.”
A Wisconsin Senate committee voted 4-1 Tuesday to pass small-cells legislation. The Elections and Utilities Committee supported the effectively identical AB-348 and SB-425 after the municipal league withdrew its opposition to the bills that would pre-empt local wireless siting authority (see 1710240053). The Assembly previously passed AB-348. Wisconsin Rep. Mike Kuglitsch (R), who authored AB-348, wants a Nov. 9 Senate vote, Kuglitsch Chief of Staff Garrett Huffman told us. If the Senate passes the bill, the Assembly would have to concur with amendments before it goes to the governor's desk, the aide said. In Illinois, lawmakers Tuesday extended the final action deadline for a similar small-cells bill (SB-1451) to Nov. 10.
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly called "unconscionable" state diversion of 911 fees. “We should call this practice what it really is: stealing,” O’Rielly said Wednesday to the New Jersey Wireless Association: “State governments are stealing their citizens’ hard-earned incomes under the premise that they’re being used for public safety officials.” O’Rielly said some downplay the practice, but it has a cost for consumers. “Even if a state is just diverting current collections because it maintains positive balances in an existing account, the diversion generally prevents new investment in costly, future networks, as states don’t want to deplete their accounts in total,” he said. “Significant investment -- not just maintenance -- is going to be necessary to develop and implement NG 9-1-1.” O’Rielly backed a unified alternative wireless emergency number for all of the U.S. People have to use #77 in Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey, *47 in North Carolina, *77 in Massachusetts and *11 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, he said. “Why do we force the American public to remember these different numbers or read a roadside sign while driving along the highway?” he asked. “Are these numbers being used effectively to shift some vital mobile emergency traffic away from the 9-1-1 calling centers?” O’Rielly is eager for the FCC to move forward to expedite the siting of small cells and other new facilities needed for 5G. “Sadly, the real loser in all of this is the consumer, who must wait longer for access to new technologies,” he said. “If this situation is not resolved quickly and satisfactorily, the Commission must be willing to use its preemption authority against those governmental entities.” The FCC posted the text of O’Rielly’s speech.