Nebraska Public Service Commission staff recommend changes to state USF reverse auctions to “better incentive participation,” said Telecom Director Cullen Robbins at a partially virtual PSC hearing Wednesday (docket NUSF-131). The commission had a sound framework for conducting the first reverse auction in August 2022, said Robbins. But it makes sense to raise starting reserve prices next time, he said. “Afterall, it is a reverse auction [and] the main goal of the reserve price is to incentivize bidding -- ideally, by multiple parties -- so that the price can be lowered in successive rounds.” Staff recommends setting the reserve price two to three times higher than the model price, Robbins said. Also, the commission should reconfigure the units up for bid, said Robbins. “Since the bidding units in the last auction were census block groups, sometimes the blocks that made up the group were scattered and not contiguous,” which may have ballooned possible project costs, he said. Staff recommends allowing participation by the originally assigned price-cap carriers that returned USF funding or were withheld support, said Robbins: They might want to bid since they could get more money than they would have under the previous USF distribution mechanism, especially with the proposed higher reserve prices and smaller bidding units. Such companies are also likely to have the closest facilities and may be able to provide service for the least cost, he said. Also, staff recommends all participants have eligible telecom carrier designations to participate, which would allow carrier of last resort obligations and ongoing support to be transferred to the winning bidders, said Robbins: Bidders should commit to taking those obligations. Commissioner Tim Schram (R) suggested the Nebraska PSC at least ask applicants to say whether they will connect all the way to a customer’s location, such as in a situation where the customer has a half-mile-long driveway. Also, Schram wants to make sure winning bidders will connect customers to the state’s nearly complete next-generation 911 network. “We've spent millions ... to modernize that network and I just want to make sure that consumers have the ability to connect to it." Fixed wireless can participate if they can meet the program’s requirements for 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband, Robbins answered Commissioner Kevin Stocker (R). “I believe they can meet the speed requirements according to what I’ve seen them claim in the past.”

The FCC's outage reporting order approved 4-0 at its July open meeting (see 2307200041) expands on why the agency isn't requiring originating services providers to notify covered 988 service providers about outages, saying doing so wouldn't help improve the 988 Lifeline's reliability, according to our side-by-side comparison with the draft order. The finalized rule was released Friday. If an outage is in an originating service provider's network, it's unclear what the value is of covered 988 service providers starting to troubleshoot their own networks, the FCC said in the order. The finalized order also adds a paragraph expanding on its legal authority. And it adopts USTelecom-suggested language to harmonize the compliance timeline for the 988 outage reporting rules with the compliance timeline for 911 outage reporting rules adopted last year (see 2307140017).

The House plans to vote as soon as Tuesday under suspension of the rules on the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act (HR-1338) and three other Commerce Committee-approved communications policy bills, said the office of Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Notably absent from the agenda is the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565), which some lawmakers were pushing House leaders to bring up for a floor vote before Congress leaves on the month-plus August recess (see 2307200071). The House Rules Committee, meanwhile, will consider Wednesday whether to allow votes on three broadband-focused amendments to the FY 2024 Agriculture Department appropriations bill (HR-4368).

The FCC and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are partnering on a trial of georouting calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the commission said Thursday as commissioners approved 988 outage reporting requirements 4-0, as expected (see 2307130010). Commissioners also unanimously approved an order allowing 14 FM6 stations to broadcast analog signals as an ancillary service and an order giving tribal libraries and other E-rate participants greater access to funding.

Alaska’s GCI became the latest carrier to raise timing concerns on an FCC proposal that carriers more precisely route wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing (LBR) (see 2212210047). “A longer timeline than proposed in the NPRM would likely be required for non-nationwide and regional carriers such as GCI to both deploy and use LBR in their networks,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-64. GCI also said implementing LBR for SMS- and MMS-based texts-to-911 “would be much more difficult than for IP-originated wireless calls, and that significant additional standards development and industry agreement should occur prior to any FCC requirement.” GCI representatives met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff.

The FCC should harmonize its 911 outage reporting compliance timeline with its proposed 988 outage reporting timeline to ensure the 988 rules on the agency's July agenda don't take effect before the 911 rules do, USTelecom representatives told aides to the four commissioners, per a docket 23-5 filing posted Friday.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission approved rules Wednesday to implement a 2020 law updating state emergency wireless telephone rules. The law required commercial mobile radio service providers to collect separate monthly fees from in-state two-way service subscribers for wireless enhanced 911, public safety and wireless towers. The PSC received no comments on proposed rule changes distributed in April, said the final order in docket GO 187.62.

Implementing proposed 988 outage reporting requirements shouldn't be very onerous, Jonathan Gilad, National Emergency Number Association government affairs director, told us, predicting 4-0 approval of the draft order on the FCC's agenda (see 2306290056). CTIA didn't comment, and there hasn't been lobbying on the docket 23-5 draft order. It will take years of 988 promotion and use before the Lifeline has the kind of recognition and automatic use that 911 does, speakers said Thursday at an event sponsored in Washington by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) marking a year since 988's official rollout. "‘911 didn't start off with instant success either; it takes a while," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. HHS said Thursday it's adding Spanish-language text and chat services to Lifeline.

The House Rules Committee will decide Tuesday whether to allow floor votes on a slate of tech and telecom amendments to the chamber’s version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-2670), including several requiring the State Department to do more to address the security of international telecom infrastructure and internet freedom. House Rules’ meeting on HR-2670 amendments will begin at noon in H-313 in the Capitol. The House is expected to vote on the measure later this week.

Comments are due Aug. 9, replies Sept. 8, on an NPRM on expediting the transition to next-generation 911, said a notice for Monday’s Federal Register. The FCC approved the NPRM 4-0 in June (see 2306080043).