Mass. regulators urged the legislature to apply E-911 phone surch...
Mass. regulators urged the legislature to apply E-911 phone surcharges to all telecom technologies including VoIP. The Dept. of Telecom & Energy (DTE), in a 40-page report to lawmakers in response to a 2006 demand for suggested changes to…
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E-911 laws, said the E-911 surcharge should apply to all “connection points” that allow E-911 access, whether wireline, wireless, VoIP or other technology. The DTE urged lawmakers to consider regionalizing E-911 by consolidating local public safety answering points. Disability access program funding should be split from E-911 funding, it said, urging a separate disability access surcharge and transfer of disability access program administration from Verizon to the Mass. Commission for the Deaf or another agency. Today’s 99 monthly surcharge on landline and wireless service funds E- 911 and disability access. Separating disability funding from E-911 funding would relieve the state Emergency Telecom Board of having to collect funds for the disability access program, which is unrelated to the core E-911 mission, it said.