Vonage now can provide 911 service to 95% of its 2.1 million subscriber lines, it reported Fri. to the FCC. The company added a category to its reports to the FCC on 911 deployment: Customers who can’t get 911 service “because the relevant PSAP refuses to accept VoIP calls.” That happens to 0.2% of customers, Vonage said. The report said 94.3% of Vonage customers have full E-911 service and most of the rest have a less complete version of 911 or E-911 service for various reasons.

CLECs told the Minn. PUC its methods for reviewing their mergers and acquisitions need streamlining, and they backed a Feb. petition by Level 3 Communications for expedited optional review eliminating of current system’s steps. Level 3 (Case P999/CI-07-192) proposed a 20-day timetable for CLEC transfers of control, for companies willing to describe fully their transactions under oath in their application forms, detailing matters such as 911 provisioning and customer transfer plans. Verizon’s Minn. CLEC unit criticized the state Commerce Dept. for trying to keep a cumbersome review process that lost utility as telecom markets have grown more competitive, and the company urged the PUC to adopt Level 3’s proposal.

The future of 911 services and VoIP will be the focus of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing April 10.

For the 2nd time in 2 weeks, hundreds of Verizon W.Va. customers in the Whitesville/Marsh Fork area lost phone service because thieves stole Verizon’s copper phone cable. About 400 customers had lost service in a March 10 theft, and more than 100 lost service again on Wed. In both instances, phone service to Marsh Fork Elementary School was cut off. The area also suffered a cable theft in Dec. that left hundreds of customers and the Marsh Fork school without service. School district officials in Jan. installed a 2-way radio system at the school, allowing the school to radio for 911 emergency assistance to the school district’s transportation office, which probably would be able to place the 911 call because it’s served by a different Verizon phone circuit. Near-record prices for scrap copper have caused an upsurge in cable thefts against Verizon and other phone companies.

A federal appeals court Wed. upheld an FCC decision to preempt state regulation of VoIP services. The 8th U.S. Appeals Court, St. Louis, said the FCC acted appropriately in ruling “it would be impractical, if not impossible, to separate the intrastate portions of VoIP service from the interstate portions” to have separate state and federal regulation. Stifel Nicolaus analysts called the ruling a “clear victory for Vonage and similar providers of nomadic VoIP services.”

Top officials with the National Emergency Number Assn. met separately last week with all 5 FCC commissioners, the group said in a filing with the Commission. Topics included the pace of E-911 rollout, difficulties resolving disputes in the states over surcharging of prepaid wireless service, and “what NENA believes to be the slow pace of the states in legislating requirements for locating 911 callers whose communications are processed through PBXs and other multi- line telephone systems,” NENA said.

A Fla. House committee advanced a bill to set a statewide E-911 fee and create a state agency to collect and disburse it. HB-919, advanced by the House Utilities & Communications Committee, would expand the state wireless E- 911 board into a state E-911 board that would establish a state fee applied to all local service providers, landline, wireless and IP-based. Prepaid wireless would be exempt. The fee would be capped at 50 monthly a line or number. After Sept. 2008, the fee would replace all local E-911 charges.

For nearly 5 hours Tues., House lawmakers pointedly questioned Chmn. Martin and the other 4 commissioners on a broad range of regulatory matters that many complained are taking too long to complete. Martin repeatedly was asked to do more to speed broadband deployment and increase localism in broadcasting. He also was sternly questioned by Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) about the Commission’s refusal to investigate phone companies’ role in the President’s warrantless wiretapping program.

The Dept. of Transportation hopes this year to run initial field tests of its Next Generation 911 project but needs a location, Laurie Flaherty, a leader of the program for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said Tues. Key decisions on the program will be made the next few months, Flaherty told the National Emergency Number Assn.’s annual D.C. meeting.

The Departments. of Defense and Energy are nearly ready to test airborne communications systems designed to stand in for land-based systems in a major emergency. The communications craft, part of the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), would be sent aloft on short notice by the President.