A Thursday Senate Commerce Committee hearing is likely to highlight stark differences between panel leaders’ competing proposals for a spectrum legislative package, including whether it should mandate sales of specific bands before NTIA completes studies of those frequencies in keeping with the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). Lawmakers’ apparent failure to reach a deal allocating additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403190062) as part of a FY 2024 still-unreleased “minibus” spending package also ratchets up the pressure for a spectrum bill to use future auction revenue to pay for multiple telecom priorities, officials and lobbyists told us.

A May 13 effectiveness date for the January FCC order requiring that carriers implement location-based routing for calls and real-time texts to 911 (see 2403130028) means the implementation deadline for nationwide carriers is Nov. 13, the Public Safety Bureau clarified Thursday. The deadline for non-nationwide carriers is May 13, 2026. By that second date, all providers must deploy a technology that supports location-based routing for real-time text to 911 originating on their IP-based networks, the bureau said.

A January FCC order requiring that carriers implement location-based routing (LBR) for calls and real-time texts to 911 is effective May 13, a notice in Wednesday’s Federal Register said. Under the January order, compliance is required within six months of when the rules become effective for nationwide providers and 24 months for small providers. A follow-up notice will announce compliance dates. The order was approved 5-0 (see 2401250044). “Wireless 911 calls have historically been routed to [public safety answering points] based on the location of the cell tower that handles the call,” the notice said: “Sometimes, however, the 911 call is routed to the wrong PSAP because the cell tower is not in the same jurisdiction as the 911 caller.”

The supplemental coverage from space (SCS) licensing framework on the FCC’s Thursday open meeting agenda should receive unanimous approval, space industry experts tell us. There was heavy lobbying last week on the draft order, with suggestions for edits and tweaks.

It’s time for Kansas to crystallize 911 as a “state function” by establishing a fee-based agency, Kansas 911 Coordinating Council Chairman Troy Briggs said Wednesday. The Haskell County sheriff supported HB-2690 at a livestreamed Senate Utilities Committee hearing. The proposed state 911 administration shakeup would replace the council with a state 911 board, allow counties to contract with each other to consolidate public safety answering points and require transfer of 911 fees collected from monthly phone bills and prepaid wireless sales to various state 911 funds at the state treasury. The Kansas House last month voted 117-3 for the 911 bill (see 2402230016).

Multiple bills on 911 and 988 received greenlights from lawmakers on Tuesday. South Dakota legislators adopted a conference committee report on a 911 bill (HB-1092). The House voted 50-10 and the Senate 29-4 for the final bill, which would increase South Dakota’s 911 fee on monthly phone bills to $2, from $1.25 (see 2402290070. The conference committee version requires public safety answering points to file an annual report. The bill next needs a signature from Gov. Kristi Noem (R). Elsewhere, the Kentucky House voted 94-0 to pass HB-528 on how 911 revenue should be spent through July 1, 2025. It will go to the Senate. Also, the Hawaii House unanimously passed HB-2339 to remove the term “enhanced” from state 911 law so that Hawaii can fund future 911 technologies. The similar SB-3028 awaits a Senate vote. In Washington, state lawmakers approved measures related to the 988 mental health hotline. The Senate voted 49-0 to concur with House amendments to SB-6308 to extend implementation timelines, including giving the state health department until Jan. 1, 2026, to develop the 988 technology platform currently due July 1 this year. Senators also voted unanimously to concur with the House on SB-6251, which includes a provision allowing behavioral health administrative service organizations to recommend 988 contact hub contractors within each regional service area. The bills will go next to Gov. Jay Inslee (D).

The Indiana Senate unanimously supported a bill that would require the state broadband office to be inclusive when awarding grants under NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment program. Senators voted 47-0 Thursday for HB-1277 to create an Indiana Code chapter governing BEAD administration. The office may not exclude cooperatives, nonprofits, public-private partnerships, private companies, public or private utilities, public utility districts or local governments, the bill said. The House on Jan. 23 voted 94-0 to pass the bill but now must concur with Senate tweaks. Meanwhile, the Indiana House on Thursday voted 92-0 for a state 911 bill (SB-232) and returned it to the Senate with amendments on Friday. The Senate previously voted 49-0 on Jan. 29 for the bill (see 2401310070, which would require originating service providers to connect to state 911 using an industry standard or functional equivalent, update certain 911 terminology, increase penalties for giving false information, and exempt information about 911 system security from public disclosure.

The South Dakota Senate voted 30-4 Wednesday in favor of an amended 911 bill that increases South Dakota’s emergency service fee on monthly phone bills to $2, from $1.25. HB-1092 failed to pass in an earlier Senate vote (see 2402150042). The House previously passed the bill but must vote again to agree with Senate changes related to 911 oversight.

Supplemental coverage from space applications should show how those deployments would support 911 call and text routing to the geographically appropriate public safety answering point with sufficient location information, Intrado said. In a meeting with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington's office recapped in a docket 22-271 filing Monday, company officials said some SCS 911 calls and texts will need to be routed to a nationwide 911 relay call center that can retrieve the location from the handset or ask the user verbally for the location and the nature of the emergency, they said.

George Kelemen, Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies executive director, advised National Emergency Number Association members Monday to distinguish between the general push for Congress to appropriate $15 billion for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and existing legislative vehicles for allocating that funding when they meet this week with Capitol Hill offices. Backers of the House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565), which would use some future auction proceeds to pay up to $14.8 billion for NG-911, haven't advanced the measure amid stalled negotiations on a broader spectrum legislative package (see 2312280044). Some offices, particularly Senate Republicans, are likely to say HR-3565 “‘is dead,’ and as a legislative vehicle it may very well be dead,” Kelemen said during NENA’s conference in Pentagon City, Virginia. “It’s still technically … a live bill,” and the hope is that lawmakers will “take all of the important parts of” the bill dealing with NG-911 and put them in "a different vehicle sometime this year and let’s hope they get it all done.” The NG-911 language in HR-3565, which mirrors an aborted spectrum legislative deal leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees agreed to in December 2022 (see 2212190069), is “what we’re looking for and that’s what we’d like to see in whatever vehicle eventually moves,” Kelemen said. NENA members will also lobby lawmakers’ offices on the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-6319) and similar Enhancing First Response Act (S-3556), both of which would reclassify public safety call-takers and dispatchers as a protective service.