Dobson agreed to pay $700,000 to the U.S. Treasury and keep making administrative and management oversight changes ending an FCC investigation against the carrier for failing to follow E-911 rules in Mich. and other states. The FCC said in 2005 the Enforcement Bureau fielded an informal complaint from the 911 State Administrator, Mich. State Police, on behalf of 14 Michigan PSAPs regarding Dobson’s lack of compliance with E-911 rules. “Dobson has implemented certain administrative and management oversight changes (including creation and use of a computer database for tracking E-911 Phase I and II implementations),” the Commission said: “Dobson will continue to track E-911 implementations to facilitate timely E-911 deployments.”

Location-based services (LBSs) on cellphones and other handheld devices showing where users are present many privacy and security issues online social networking sites do -- and they're as unregulated, the Congressional Internet Caucus heard Wed. in Washington. Loopt, Skyhook, OnStar, Helio and others are just the start of a “social mapping” revolution, ConnectSafely.com Co-Dir. Larry Magid said: Conservative figures peg the N. American LBS market at about $750 million.

House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) is waging an effective oversight campaign over the FCC, NTIA and DTV transition issues, according to interviews with industry sources and analysts. Markey presides today (Tues.) over a 4th hearing on broadband, examining how the U.S. policy compares with those of other countries. Controversy is likely given new rankings that show that the U.S. slipping even further behind in broadband deployment.

GENEVA -- ITU gave a preliminary nod to the OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and developed a module for systems to aid transmission over cramped networks, an official here said. OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) will consider the move before ITU forwards the decisions to administrations for final approval, an official said.

A new bill in the N.Y. Assembly would require banks to equip their ATM machines with emergency 911 access buttons to call for help. HB-7423, assigned to the Banking Committee, would require that the button activate a dedicated voice line that connects immediately to the local 911 dispatching center.

Hire telecom consultant Dale Hatfield to complete his E- 911 study, Sen. Nelson (D-Fla.) told FCC Chmn. Martin in a Fri. letter. “I am disturbed that Mr. Hatfield’s efforts were cut short,” said Nelson, citing a project the former chief of the agency Office of Engineering & Technology began in 2002. Hatfield testified about the study Tues. before the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on E-911 services. He told senators there are “substantial problems with the method used to measure the location accuracy of wireless E-911 calls,” perhaps meaning “millions of e-911 calls dialed inside buildings would not be automatically provided to emergency personnel.” Nelson said the FCC should provide Hatfield with the “resources” to complete his study, which Hatfield had worked on for 6 months. Rep. Doyle (D-Pa.) also questioned Martin about the Hatfield study during a House Commerce Telecom Subcommittee hearing last month and asked for a follow-up report. Doyle’s staff said Fri. that it expects a response from Martin soon.

Verizon promised York County, Pa., officials a full report by May 10 on why the county’s E-911 service failed the evening of April 9, causing loss of an unknown number of 911 calls. County E-911 managers said they found no problems with their own systems, blaming Verizon. During the problem’s roughly 2-hour span, callers to 911 got a busy signal or rang with no answer. When the problem became apparent at around 7 p.m., as 911 calls slowed to a trickle, county dispatchers said, they called Verizon, asking it to disable gear that automatically switches 911 calls to a backup alternate routing. But county officials said Verizon couldn’t that remotely and had to send technicians to activate the backup routing. By 9 p.m. 911 service was normal. County officials said a similar failure occurred Feb. 21 but they thought Verizon had corrected the cause.

Public safety groups said a VoIP E-911 bill (S-428) would help ensure full E-911 services for VoIP subscribers, according to testimony Tues. before the Senate Commerce Committee. S-428, introduced by Sens. Nelson (D-Fla.), Snowe (R-Me.) and Clinton (D-N.Y.) would require every VoIP provider to give customers the E-911 services mandated in FCC regulations. The service would have to be comparable to the 911 requirements of wireless providers. The Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) hasn’t taken a formal position on the bill, but it “strongly” supports the bill’s goal, said Pres. Wanda McCarley in her prepared testimony. APCO supports the provision extending liability protection for public safety answering points (PSAPs) for VoIP 911 calls and a provision that allows state and local govts. to collect 911 fees from VoIP service providers, McCarley said: “We believe that VoIP providers should not be able to offer new services to new customers in geographic areas where the provider is not able to comply with the FCC’s 911 and E-911 requirements contained in the FCC’s Order in WC Docket No. 04-36 and 05-196.” The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) also supports the bill, Pres. Jason Barbour told the committee. Barbour asked Congress to appropriate funds for 911 grants that were created under a 2004 law and urged expansion of the program to include IP-based solutions. Barbour said progress has been made in deploying E-911 service for landline and wireless service with 97% of U.S. counties having access to wireline E-911 service. Nearly 85% of the PSAPs can receive both call back and location information from cell phones, he said. However, there are still many areas that lack E-911 service for landline, wireless or VoIP, Barbour said.

ATIS published pseudo-Automatic Number Identification (p-ANI) standards, meeting a March FCC deadline, it said Fri. P-ANIs see use to route E-911 calls from VoIP and other mobile or nomadic services with area codes foreign to the selective routing system, ATIS said. “The guidelines were developed in response to situations in which users with certain types of numbers could not be located by the facilities equipped and staffed to receive 911 calls,” ATIS said. The standards won’t take effect until the FCC gives more direction, it said.

Mo. Gov. Matt Blunt (R) asked state legislative leaders to form a joint committee to review Mo. 911 systems. Blunt moved after a federal homeland security report indicated Mo. 911 systems use old technology incapable of interoperability or implementation of wireless E-911. The report said 77% of Mo. 911 centers have antiquated systems not readily upgraded to today’s 911 demands. The joint body would hold hearings around the state on 911 capabilities and coverage, resources needed to upgrade or replace equipment, consolidation and regionalization, and extending E-911 to areas lacking it.