The FCC Enforcement Bureau delayed imposition of a rule requiring VoIP providers to disconnect subscribers who haven’t responded to alerts about 911 service limitations. The bureau said Fri. it would extend the Aug. 30 cutoff date 30 days, until Sept. 28. But VoIP providers must file 2 more reports on their progress educating customers and gaining their acknowledgments. Reports filed in early Aug. indicated some providers have replies from 90% or more of customers. Vonage claimed a 96% response rate. But tens of thousands of phones still could have been cut off next week without the extension.

An FCC mandate that VoIP providers disconnect customers who don’t acknowledge notices warning them of E- 911 limitations has ignited concern among providers and Congress. The VON Coalition in a letter Thurs. urged the FCC to reconsider the plan or at least extend the disconnection deadline. At the same time, key members of Congress plan to send a letter to the FCC today (Fri.) making a similar request. “This is the first time to our knowledge that the FCC has ordered basic service disconnected,” said an aide to Rep. Gordon (D-Tenn.). Gordon and Sen. Nelson (D-Fla.), who have sponsored bills on E-911 access by VoIP services, are the main proponents of the letter to the FCC, which other lawmakers probably will sign as well.

A contractor installing signs at a Jackson, Mich., high school severed an SBC fiber cable, knocking out phone service to thousands of customers in Jackson, Albion, Hillsdale and Jonesville from noon to 8:30 p.m. Tues. The outage killed phone service throughout downtown Albion, including the 911 dispatch center and police dept. The town activated emergency communications backups that rerouted authorities’ calls to Battle Creek and Sheridan Twp. public safety agencies until service resumed. SBC said the contractor didn’t ask utilities to mark the work site before breaking ground. That failure, SBC indicated, could expose the contractor to legal action.

The Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) released the Project RETAINS (Responsive Efforts to Address Integral Needs in Staffing) study on communications center staffing. The tool kit examines recruitment, training and retention of personnel in 911 public safety communications centers -- www.apcointl.org.

Regulators are reviewing satellites’ relation to the Emergency Alert System and E-911 requirements. At the FCC, the International Bureau Satellite Division and the Enforcement Bureau Office of Homeland Security recently met with DBS and satellite radio firms to discuss the feasibility of satellite participating in the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Separately, the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) is reviewing long term issues for E-911 services, including whether E-911 requirements can be extended to satellite telephony. Both reviews are addressing satellite system design’s uniqueness relative to the terrestrial infrastructure, and difficulties involved in extending emergency requirements to the skies.

The FCC’s request for comments on whether to expand its new E-911 rules for VoIP providers generated little enthusiasm from telecom or Internet providers in filings late Mon. Businesses from SBC to Skype to Motorola told the FCC expansion could add consumer confusion, particularly if regulations were too specific for an ever- changing technology. The FCC had issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) as part of its E-911 VoIP order that asked about a variety of expansions, such as applying the rules to more types of VoIP services or adding more requirements such as performance reporting or deadlines for applying location technology.

Nuvio asked the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to expedite an appeal Nuvio filed against an FCC order that VoIP providers offer full E-911 service by Nov. 28. Nuvio CEO Jason Talley said the company told the court a decision by Nov. 7 is “imperative” and without one “we will have no choice but to start suspending some users.” Talley said “we share the Commission’s passion about deploying 911 service” but the FCC’s 120-day deadline is unsupported by facts: “Wireless companies have been given decades to implement this type of 911 service and are still far from completion.” Nuvio filed Aug. 4 for expedited treatment and followed up Aug. 12 with a reply to an FCC filing saying the Commission doesn’t oppose expedited consideration as long it gets 30 days to file a brief. “If the court can accommodate the Commission’s request without unduly delaying the resolution of the case, Nuvio would have no objection,” the firm said in the Aug. 12 reply. Nuvio told the court it could file a brief by Sept. 6, suggesting the FCC then could file by Sept. 27. Meanwhile, the FCC said it received 3 petitions for reconsideration of the VoIP order -- from CompTel, T- Mobile and a joint filing by the National Emergency Number Assn. and the VON Coalition. The FCC said oppositions to the recon petitions must be filed within 15 days of the date the petitions get printed in the Federal Register. The 3 reconsideration petitions were filed July 29.

APCO will do independent testing of wireless location data delivered to PSAPs and report the results to the FCC, the wireless industry and the PSAP community. The announcement came last week, after the group’s Project LOCATE (Locate Our Citizens in Times of Emergency) received a $750,000 Public Safety Foundation of America grant. Project LOCATE will guide and support PSAPs deploying or considering deploying Phase II E-911 service, APCO said. It will define test areas across the U.S. based on “unique combinations of real world variables,” using independent firms to perform accuracy testing using OET-71 criteria, the group said. Project LOCATE also will engage designated PSAPs to participate in testing, review test results and help resolve issues between PSAPs and wireless service providers, APCO said. APCO has been a strong advocate of applying wireless 911 accuracy requirements at a local community level, not at a state level as the wireless industry urges. It dissented in March, when the 49-member Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) urged statewide accuracy testing. Last year, APCO filed a petition, later backed by other public safety groups, seeking an FCC ruling to require the specified level of accuracy for locating wireless 911 calls at a local level, rather than averaged over an entire state. At the time, FCC Chmn. Martin’s aide, Sam Feder, said Martin had “some sympathy for APCO’s view that you need to look at this on a more granular basis.” Feder urged wireless carriers to work with APCO on “a solution about how that can be done.”

T-Mobile asked for clarification of certain operational aspects of the FCC’s VoIP E911 order setting a Nov. 28 deadline for VoIP providers to offer reliable E911 service. It asked the agency to clarify that: (1) The requirement to collect and pass to the PSAP the customer’s registered location includes information that the interconnected VoIP provider derives automatically from its provision of service or operation of the network, and the “provider may select and transmit the registered location that it deems most likely to accurately reflect the customer’s location at the time the customer places the 911 call.” (2) The requirement to obtain a customer- provided registered location can be satisfied without end user participation if the provider can derive the location automatically. “This will be particularly important for mobile VoIP offerings, for which an end user provided registered location may not be the appropriate location for emergency response,” T-Mobile said. (3) The provider may obtain customer-provided registered location information after the service is initiated in case it’s “not practicable” to obtain such information in advance. (4) For mobile and nomadic VoIP applications, the PSAP won’t be considered capable of “receiving and utilizing” E911 data until it can use “non-call associated signaling” and retrieve location from real-time databases. The FCC has set a timetable for CMRS carriers and PSAPs to implement necessary upgrades, and T-Mobile said “the Commission should rely on that process here.” (5) Mobile and nomadic VoIP providers, particularly CMRS carriers, that offer interconnected VoIP services may deliver location information to the PSAP for interconnected VoIP services using latitude and longitude coordinates, as is being done for CMRS E911 calls. “These clarifications are necessary to ensure that CMRS providers can provide the best possible emergency location information if providing interconnected VoIP services, and to allow CMRS providers to leverage their existing E911 infrastructure to provide such emergency services,” T-Mobile said.

At least some major wireless carriers deploying handset-based Phase II E-911 systems won’t meet the FCC’s deadline for 95% of their embedded handsets to be GPS- enabled by Dec. 31, according to carriers’ quarterly reports filed Mon. Rural Cellular Assn. and CTIA have petitioned the Commission for waiver of that deadline but no decision has been made.