APCO Notebook...
FCC Chief of Staff Bryan Tramont said the FCC may issue an order on E911 and VoIP before it addresses other VoIP issues. That order could come in advance of a final rule on how CALEA will apply to VoIP and other IP-enabled services, the subject of a rulemaking the FCC approved at its Aug. meeting. Tramont said there’s general agreement that VoIP must accommodate E911, provide access to people with disabilities, and include CALEA and the access charge regime. “We're still working through what the right solution is,” he said. “I don’t have any sense that the carriers themselves are even fighting the E911 obligation.” Tramont said as soon as the FCC works out the best solution it may take on E911 separate from the other issues. “It is quite possible that you may see the 911 issue resolved independent of the rest of the [VoIP] order,” he said. Tramont predicted that the access charge issues will be the most difficult to address.
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Greg Rohde, exec. dir. of the E911 Institute and former NTIA dir., said Congress may have to pass legislation to guarantee that the digital TV transition will occur on a timely basis. Rohde said, given the size of the stakes for broadcasters and public safety, FCC action may not be enough. “I suspect that it will require legislation to make sure it does happen, it will that kind of strength, if you will, in order to have a clearing of the band,” Rohde told us: “Legally it doesn’t require legislation, but practically I think it will.” Rohde said the legislation is likely to be taken up in the 109th Congress along with other telecom reforms. “There’s a lot of attention going to be paid to telecommunications issues next year, there are a lot of issues that are screaming to be addressed,” he said. “I think clearing 700 MHz is one of those issues. Public safety need to have access to that spectrum.” He noted that even after the spectrum is cleared it will take several years to build out: “This is something that has a long lead time so delays can be really costly at this stage.” Rohde, a keynoter at the APCO conference, also said he remains optimistic that Congress will pass E911 legislation in 2004 -- legislation that to this point has stalled in the Senate. “There’s not a lot that’s going to happen outside of the appropriations process, he said. “One area where it looks like there is going to be some activity is on the 9/11 Commission report. There is going to be an element of that that looks at communications. I think it makes sense to talk about 911.”
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FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta conceded that the FCC’s July 8 order on the 800 MHz rebanding contained one promise the Commission didn’t really plan to make -- specifically that it would provide “10 channels for public safety/critical infrastructure interoperability.” Those channels don’t appear in the actual order released last week. Muleta said the press release was “inartfully worded.” He added that the FCC’s goal is that additional channels created through the rebanding “could be used for increasing interoperability” but that no specific channels have been created for that purpose.