BALTIMORE -- FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said the 800 MHz transition may not be 100 percent complete by next June, the deadline for rebanding, but the FCC will push public safety licensees and Sprint Nextel hard to move it along as far as possible. Resolving border issues with Canada and Mexico could be the biggest challenge, Martin said at the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials meeting Tuesday.

Delaware Gov. Ruth Minner (D) signed a bill to create a “211” social services referral line, to be administered by Delaware Helpline Inc. through the state Office of Management and Budget. Helpline will have to contract with a phone provider, then register the 211 number with phone companies, the Association of Information and Referral Services, Delaware United Way and the state 911 oversight committee. Helpline already runs a referral service with the state Department of Health and Social Services and the government support services division of the Office of Management and Budget, but that service operates only five days a week. The start date for 211 service will depend on when the legislature appropriates startup funds. Once operational, the 211 referral service will be available at all times of day.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) amended its rules governing carriers that provide telephone services to inmates of state and county correctional institutions. The PUC (Case 07-204) ruled that inmate payphone providers are a type of competitive local exchange provider, whose local rates are unregulated except upon filing of a complaint, but which are exempt from 911 and Lifeline requirements. It said with respect to long distance services, inmate payphone providers are subject to the same regulations as other long distance carriers, including the requirement to file tariffs. The PUC in April opened an investigation into inmate phone services in response to a 2006 complaint from inmate relatives about companies failing to disclose rates for collect calls, requiring advance deposits for collect call services and assessing processing fees on advance deposits. Providers must bill for calls within 90 days, must include their names on bills and must inform end users of the rates and nonrecurring charges on collect calls before they accept the call, said the PUC order.

Comcast wants to stop selling interstate phone services to 3,700 Jacksonville, Fla.-area customers around Aug. 31, it said last week in an FCC filing. The cable operator Tuesday sent letters to the customers notifying them of disconnection plans. Subscribers will be able to place 911 calls until Sept. 30. Comcast doesn’t want to stop selling home-phone service elsewhere in Florida, and it told the FCC the company will “assist affected customers during their transition to new carriers.”

The House passed the 9/11 Commission report 371-40 Friday that includes provisions upgrading the nation’s 911 systems and allocating $400 million beginning in FY 2009 for interoperable emergency communications and a dedicated interoperability grant program. The grants, managed by the Department of Homeland Security, would require annual reports to Congress on state progress toward implementing interoperability plans. The Senate passed the bill late Thursday and it now goes to the President to be signed.

The House voted to make $5 million available to upgrade 911 dispatch centers to improve locating wireless callers. The measure was an amendment to the House’s FY 2008 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, which passed 281 to 142 Thursday. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., co-chair of the Congressional E-911 Caucus. Eshoo’s amendment would fund the 2004 Enhance 911 Act by creating a grant program to help upgrade dispatch centers known as public-safety answering points. About 1,200 counties’ PSAPs can’t call back or locate 911 callers using mobile phones, Eshoo said. The $5 million would endow grants to 54 small counties or as many as 17 counties with more than 100,000 people each, she said.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission set two major conditions on its approval of price-based rules for Qwest that will replace rate-of-return regulation. The plan (Case UT-06-1625), based on an eight-party agreement filed in March, will let Qwest raise monthly residential basic exchange $1 over its four-year life. The current rate is $12.50 monthly. It also requires cost justification for any changes to tariffed rates of Qwest operator services, 911 services, Lifeline and Link-Up, unlisted numbers, line hunting and public response calling services. Rates for retail service bundles and all other stand-alone retail services will be deregulated. Earnings won’t be reviewed while the plan is in effect. The plan ends free-call allowances for directory assistance but requires that the services comprising a bundle also be offered on a stand-alone basis. Before Qwest can put the plan into action, it must file an “acceptable plan” for guaranteeing wholesale service quality, including performance measurements, standards and penalties for service quality failures. Parties to the pact have 30 days to propose a plan. Qwest must commit $4 million to get broadband to unserved areas and to underserved customer classes. It will have 90 days to file a detailed deployment plan. Commission Chairman Mark Sidran called the Qwest plan “a pilot project” destined for extensive review in 2011, when it comes up for renewal. He said the plan will let the Bell “compete fairly with the unregulated companies while protecting customers in areas where Qwest still has undue market power.” Qwest said it’s still reviewing the order but “appreciates the commission’s recognition of the state’s highly competitive environment.” Washington is one of three states regulating Qwest by rate of return. The others are Arizona and Montana.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) signed two telecom bills on inmate payphone services and VoIP E-911. One permanently kills commissions to the state on inmate payphone calls from state prisons. HB-3397 codifies an April Spitzer executive order ending the 57.5% commission added to inmate payphone rates, costing the state about $20 million in annual revenue but halving inmate collect call rates. The law bars the state from ever charging commissions on inmate payphone calls and requires that any contract for the service awarded after April 2008 go to the lowest-rate bidder. The law requires prisons to offer inmates the choice of debit card or collect calling. Spitzer also signed SB-4611, requiring VoIP providers to tell customers of limitations on 911 service. The law requires 911 limitation disclosures in all TV, radio and print ads, sales materials, live customer service contacts, installation kits and service contracts. Customers must sign acknowledgments that they know of limitations on basic or enhanced 911. VoIP providers lacking 911 capability must disclose this fact in prominent ways and issue warning stickers for customer phones. The law requires VoIP providers employing foreign exchange services to take all reasonable steps to ensure 911 calls are routed to the correct public safety answering point. VoIP providers breaking the law risk fines of $1,000 per violation.

The California Public Utilities Commission fined AT&T and Cox Telecom $40,000 each for improper ex parte communications during hearings on a January consumer group complaint that the companies violated PUC rules requiring they keep 911 access alive on disconnected or unassigned access lines. The companies said their contacts were lawful because they were an effort to get the PUC to open a general docket on local carriers’ 911 “warm line” responsibilities, not to address the specific complaint. A PUC hearing officer ruled that the contacts with top PUC members’ advisors sought to influence the complaint case’s outcome. The PUC’s proposed order in early July to impose the fines included a reinterpretation of the ex parte contact restrictions that the carriers challenged as rewriting the rules on forbidden off-the-record contacts, but the PUC dismissed the objections, sticking to its reading. The complaint case itself (Case 05-11-011) was remanded to the hearing officer for further consideration of merit.

The FCC should hold a series of E-911 hearings before deciding whether to impose tougher location accuracy standards, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said at an E-911 Institute roundtable Thursday. “Our ultimate goal of advancing 911 may not be well served if the proceeding, regardless of how well intentioned, rushes to judgment by issuing a series of tentative conclusions without even beginning to conduct necessary due diligence,” he said. “The FCC needs to make a more collaborative approach… We need to listen to what those who are closer to the issue say.”