VoIP carriers would benefit from passage of pending telecom legislation, because even E-911 compliant companies face too many obstacles to getting linked with public safety access points (PSAPs), said Dana Lichtenberg, telecom aide to Rep. Gordon (D-Tenn.). This is in part because too many in Congress think the FCC’s VoIP E-911 order “is all that was needed,” she said. Lichtenberg -- speaking at an enterprise VoIP conference held Wed. by the Information Technology Assn. of America (ITAA) -- said Gordon wants more resources for PSAPs, since many of the failures to meet the recent deadline were theirs. She said at least some E-911 language, alongside cable franchising issues, will be in a “stripped down” version of coming House telecom legislation. She held out hope the bill would remain bipartisan.

Govt. officials and economists clashed Tues. as the NTIA opened a 2-day meeting in D.C. -- part of the build-up to an NTIA report on improving the efficiency of govt. spectrum use. NTIA is investigating whether govt. entities like DoJ should compete for spectrum, subject to budget limits on capital outlays such as buying cars that agents drive.

Telecom deregulation bills advanced in 4 states, including a major Miss. act headed to the governor.

Safety groups urged full funding for the Enhance 911 Act of 2004 in a Fri. letter to members of Congress. President Bush signed the E-911 law in Dec. 2004, but no money has been appropriated to fund the provisions, said the letter, signed by the National Emergency Number Assn. and 37,000 other public safety groups. The law aims to create a national 911 program office and make grants of up to $250 million per to enhance emergency communications. The DTV legislation provided an E-911 grant fund of $43.5 million, to be funded by a spectrum auction occurring “no later than January 28, 2008,” the letter said. Thus, while much money will be available for grants in 2008 or 2009, none is appropriated for public safety access point (PSAP) grants. “It is essential that Congress recognize the critical role that 911 plays in all emergencies and as a vital homeland security asset by providing funding for the Enhance 911 Act,” the letter said.

The U.S. needs communications systems that are “operable and interoperable” during crises, the White House said in a report issued Thurs. White House homeland security advisor Frances Townsend’s report analyzed the U.S. response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested how to improve operations.

The FCC “reasonably” rejected a request by Nuvio and other VoIP providers that they be given more time to fulfill the agency’s E-911 requirements, the agency told the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. in a brief filed Wed. The VoIP providers didn’t offer an alternative date to the FCC’s Nov. 28 deadline and instead suggested “they should be left to their own devices -- under an entirely undefined schedule that could take ‘years’ -- to implement 911 services,” the FCC told the court. The brief was filed in reply to the VoIP providers’ request that the court review the FCC’s VoIP E-911 order (05-1248). “Recognizing the critical public interests at stake, the Commission reasonably rejected this recipe for unwarranted delay,” the agency said. “The Commission’s predictive judgment, which balances the imperative public interest in reliable VoIP 911 service against the burden imposed on IVPs (interconnected VoIP providers) by refusing to delay compliance, has been borne out by events,” the agency said: “More than 200 IVPs have filed letters with the FCC describing their compliance with the order’s requirements. According to an initial assessment by Commission staff, more than half of the IVPs that submitted compliance letters reported that they are now providing compliant E911 service to 90 percent or more of their subscribers… The record in this proceeding revealed a patently unacceptable situation. Many IVPs -- including petitioners -- were systematically routing their subscribers’ 911 calls to PSAPs’ administrative telephone numbers, which are not equipped to handle requests for emergency assistance.”

The Va. Senate passed a VoIP E-911 bill (SB-395) to widen the jurisdiction of the Wireless E-911 Service Board to VoIP providers that interconnect with the public switched telephone network. The bill, approved by the Senate Commerce & Labor Committee, would change the E-911 fund distribution formula, sending 60% of funds to local 911 authorities running public safety answer points and 40% for needs-based grants to local 911 answering points and to wireless carriers. The bill would enlarge the 911 board to 15 members from 14 and empower it to distribute the grants for local PSAP and wireless E-911 projects. The bill is in a House committee.

Social obligations imposed on VoIP won’t go away but will only pile up, Microsoft Compliance Mgr. Scott Forbes said. A “perfect storm” of circumstances favors regulation, Forbes said last week at the RSA Conference in San Jose: (1) VoIP’s rising popularity. (2) A growing focus on social obligations rather than regulation for competition in telecom. (3) High visibility, notably in coverage of fatalities from failed bids to use VoIP for 911 calls. (4) Financials like Public Safety Answering Points’ money needs and incumbent providers’ scant VoIP revenue. “In 2 years, we've had more regulation on VoIP than we had in telephony in 100 years,” Forbes said. Federal policy-making aims to “create a playing field where everyone looks the same” among wireline voice service providers, he said. Rather than stick VoIP in a standard regulatory silo by Telecom Act title, the FCC is using “piecemeal, incremental regulation,” Forbes said. The FCC has focused on a subset of Internet voice it defines as “interconnected VoIP,” but DoJ’s stance on CALEA compliance and draft federal bills on customer proprietary network information seek more general regulation of VoIP, Forbes said. Today’s noisiest issues are the least important, he said, referring to data protection, disability access and competition. “The big 3” are law enforcement and emergency services access and universal service, which Forbes defines as relating mainly to “enormously expensive” network build-outs in the Midwest’s low-density “square states,” he said. “The FCC is very much engaged” in such matters, and on CALEA and other issues, DoJ and the rest of the Administration mainly get what they want from the Commission, Forbes said. The crucial definition of “call identifying information” for purposes of VoIP CALEA compliance awaits a 2nd FCC order on the topic, probably in 3-6 months, he said. That order likely will put off the compliance deadline, Forbes said. When the order is challenged in court, Congress probably will respond by rolling VoIP obligations into a broader law applying CALEA to all electronic communications, he predicted. And VoIP will be subject to universal service fund contributions, Forbes said. Beyond these matters, policy-makers have yet to settle crucial questions on VoIP, he said: Municipal Wi-Fi, ad-supported VoIP businesses, call encryption, replacing phone numbers in caller identification, trusted 3rd parties and hybrid networks that include conferencing, wired-wireless convergence and so-called leaky PBXs.

The U.S. wants bidders on a next-generation E-911 system architecture model assuming an IP-based network. That was the message Tues. from Jenny Hansen, project coordinator-Next Generation 911, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, at an E-911 Institute panel. “We want to be ready” for advanced E-911, she said. A model will help industry and policymakers see how it can work, she said. The 2-year, $11 million contract asks engineers to build something that “hasn’t been designed before,” she said, but is able to serve as a model that could be deployed across the U.S. Experts on the panel agreed the main bar to new networks is funding -- not rapidly forthcoming from the U.S. In the long run, advanced networks likely will save carriers money by eliminating maintenance of multiple transfer points and call centers for emergency calls by creating a more mobile and flexible system, the panelists said.

Local video franchising isn’t the only video service entry barrier phone companies face, NARUC panelists said Wed., the final day of the group’s winter meeting in D.C. But local franchising does need resolution before policymakers can address other video competition issues, they said.