Draft legislation authorizing the five-year farm bill would provide broadband grants for rural areas, according to draft Senate legislation to be discussed publicly Wednesday. The omnibus bill was still in the final stages of drafting Tuesday and a hearing on its provisions was postponed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Thomas Harkin, D-Iowa, because of conflicts with a separate appropriations measure. The committee released its discussion draft of the bill late Tuesday afternoon.

FCC and NTIA named a 25-member committee to assess how well emergency and public health facilities communicate. The body was mandated this year by a law implementing the 911 Commission’s recommendations. The Joint Advisory Committee will meet for the first time at 10 a.m. Oct. 29 at FCC headquarters. Members include representatives of the telecom industry, medicine and government, including Jim Bugel of AT&T; John Adams of Raytheon; Iridium’s Donna Bethea-Murphy; Mobile Satellite Ventures’ James Corry; John Nagel of the American Association of Paging Carriers; and Harris’ Jim Traficant.

Verizon Wireless clashed Wednesday with consumer advocates at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on wireless industry consumer practices. Committee members disagreed other sharply, mostly along party lines. Democratic members largely agreed on the need for legislation like that proposed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Jay Rockefeller, D- W.Va., to protect consumers.

The California consumer group TURN asked the Public Utilities Commission to reconsider a September decision allowing carriers to change tariffed rates for most retail services immediately by filing a simple advisory letter. TURN said the PUC decision “essentially detariffed all telecom services except for basic local and 911.” TURN said the PUC had divested itself of any responsibility to review tariff changes and denied the public an opportunity to challenge a change in tariffed rate, even when the change is unjust, unreasonable or discriminatory. The PUC “has walked away, assuming the marketplace will take care of consumers,” TURN (Case R-05-04-005) said. “But to make matters worse, it has stifled the voices of anyone who challenges this reliance on market processes.”

Comcast asked for FCC permission to stop selling its conventional phone service in Washington state. It wants to start phasing out the service Nov. 28. Customers could use their lines to call 911 or customer service for 30 days after that. As in other markets, Comcast is replacing its circuit- switched phone service with a VoIP offering.

Broadband mapping and E-911 bills were approved Wednesday by the House Telecom Subcommittee. The committee agreed, with few dissents to amendments, to the mapping bill and E-911 (HR-3403) measure. An amendment to the broadband mapping bill would remove a requirement that broadband service be at least 2 Mbps. It also would remove an industry obligation to report the price and actual speed of broadband. Instead, consumer surveys will be conducted. So duplicate grants won’t go to competing interests for mapmaking in the same state, authority to make statewide maps will go to one body in each state, chosen by the state government. The data will use a nine-digit ZIP code level of detail. There’s also a privacy provision to “adequately protect” personal information. The subcommittee also passed an amendment to an E-911 bill that would promote deployment of IP-enabled 911 and E-911 services. The amendment clarifies that current FCC regulations for VoIP and 911 would “remain in full force effect” and that VoIP providers can access 911 data from any entity. VoIP providers also would get the same rights to interconnection rates, terms and conditions as wireless carriers. States that impose 911 fees couldn’t take more money from VoIP providers than any other provider.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials said it started a new phase of its Responsive Effort To Address Integral Needs in Staffing project, which will examine high turnover at the nation’s 911 call centers. The group looked at question in 2004. “The results of this research determined that the national turnover rate for public safety communications personnel was 17 percent, greater than the turnover rate for teachers and nurses,” the organization said. “Today, staffing and retention continue to be issues of concern within the public safety communications industry.” The association is doing the study with George Mason University’s Center for Social Science Research.

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) wrote to House and Senate appropriators asking that they keep money in a final funding bill. This would let NTIA award grants to public safety answering points to upgrade their technology. The House version of the Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies appropriations bill provides $5 million for grants. NENA and APCO want the money to be in a final version of the spending bill when it clears a conference committee. “The ENHANCE 911 Act authorized up to $250 million per year for grants to ensure 911 centers have modern technology capable of locating wireless 911 calls,” the letter states. “Yet, to date, none of these monies have been appropriated. We believe that the House-approved $5 million, while only a start, could address the emergency communications concerns in the areas of most dire need, mostly in rural America, where the funding has not been made available at the state or local level.”

Top officials with Polaris Wireless met with key staff from the Office of Engineering and Technology and the Public Safety Bureau to answer questions about the firm’s hybrid E- 911 solution, the company said in an ex parte filing at the FCC. Polaris said it also wanted to set the record straight on arguments Motorola recently made in a presentation at the agency. “Polaris noted that its hybrid solution uses ‘pattern matching technologies,’ not the triangulation method criticized by Motorola, and that Polaris’s approach has been demonstrated to improve dense urban, urban canyon, and in- building accuracy measurements,” Polaris said.

Cabell County officials told the West Virginia Public Service Commission that using 911 funds to cover salaries of courthouse administrative personnel is allowed because general county administration is essential to maintaining the E-911 system. The county also continued to dispute the PSC’s jurisdiction over its use of the funds in the 911 account, saying the PSC has no authority to regulate county governments’ appropriations of county funds (Case 07-1329-T- PC). The county said changes in the E-911 laws over the years have expanded the purposes that 911 money can be applied to. The county was responding to a complaint from the regional 911 executive board alleging that the diversion conflicted with state law.