Mich. Attorney Gen. Mike Cox warned consumers 911 service isn’t guaranteed through VoIP technology. “If the advertising, brochure, or other marketing materials are silent on this issue, it is likely that 911 is not being provided,” Cox said. He said VoIP firms that have basic 911 service might lack other features, including: (1) Automatic caller location identification. (2) Routing through emergency lines. (3) Automatic activation of 911 service, rather than manual setup. Cox encouraged VoIP users to check providers’ websites for 911 details and to buy backup power supplies to retain VoIP service in blackouts.

After months of study, a Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) subcommittee said it had consensus on enhanced 911 (E911) wireless location accuracy requirements. With the Assn. for Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International dissenting, the 49-member group urged that accuracy testing be conducted on a statewide basis. The group presented its ideas to NRIC at its meeting in Washington Tues.

The FCC should begin a “comprehensive, open and public” rulemaking on media ownership, complete intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform by year’s end, and improve homeland security initiatives under FCC purview, Comr. Copps told an FCBA luncheon Mon. He outlined those ambitions in an upbeat speech peppered with jokes and tributes to FCC Chmn. Martin, who attended the luncheon but declined to comment.

Today’s surcharge model for funding 911 won’t support extension to emerging technologies, APCO said in a position paper released Fri. Under the existing model based on surcharges on wireline and wireless subscribers’ bills, travelers, remote VoIP service providers and others outside a service area don’t pay for 911 services, APCO said. “While the surcharge model had a measure of appropriateness in years past, the expansion of access to 911 services at the public safety answering point (PSAP) from other devices and technology has created a pattern of diminishing revenue amidst increased expectation of service,” it said. APCO said all technology and service providers should participate in appropriate 911 funding models. This “may require that states should not be preempted from regulatory authority over emerging communications technologies that enable consumers to access 911,” said APCO, noting that proposals to let industry solve E-911 problems itself, on its own timetable, hadn’t produced “acceptable” results. Providers must ensure that “every ‘call’ to 911 is effectively routed, arrives with appropriate location data and call back number,” and must be “required to ensure that the service has contributed to the 911 operational costs associated with the class of service,” APCO said.

The FCC granted most Tier III wireless carrier petitions to waive its Phase II E911 rules, according to a Commission report to Congress released Fri. The agency granted 33 of 40 waiver requests at least partly, denied 3 and dismissed 4. “In making determinations to grant or deny relief, the Commission has balanced its policy objective of ensuring that E-911 Phase II service is deployed as quickly as possible with the financial and technical challenges faced by certain carriers,” the FCC said. The Tier III Order on the petitions was adopted by the Commission March 22 (CD March 24 p7); release is expected this week.

Debates arranged by state regulators to seek areas of accord on telecom regulatory changes among industry groups and consumer activists saw only minor success Wed. For example, some industry and consumer representatives seemed to agree on moving toward a shared federal-state responsibility -- the FCC setting rules, states administering them. Several participants said regulators should stop focusing on possible problems and use regulation only if problems actually exist.

Tex. Attorney Gen. Greg Abbott (R) filed a landmark lawsuit against Vonage for failing to make clear to customers that the firm’s service doesn’t provide access to traditional emergency 911 service. The suit, filed under the Tex. Deceptive Trade Practices Act, charges Vonage with “misrepresenting the type of emergency telephone service it offers, and the fact that the ‘911 dialing’ feature is not automatically included when a customer signs up for telephone service.” Abbott seeks $20,000 per violation.

The Cal. PUC should “make the obligation for 911 universal service a precondition to accessing phone numbers through the North American Numbering Plan,” PUC member Susan Kennedy told the VON Conference in San Jose Wed. evening. “That is the only solution that is technologically neutral, limited to services that functionally replace traditional telephone services, at least for the foreseeable future, and is easily enforceable.” This policy would “go one step further” than “the VON Coalition’s agreement with the National Emergency Number Assn. on providing 911 services for VoIP users, and the Coalition’s express endorsement of moving to a numbers or connections based contribution mechanism for universal service,” Kennedy said. The VoIP sector needs to generate more public policy proposals and agreements with broadband providers. That would protect “Internet freedom,” as embraced by FCC Chmn. Powell and the High-Tech Broadband Coalition, and ensure the technology realizes its promise of preventing oligopoly and rendering most telecom regulation superfluous, Kennedy said.

FCC action on several pending Tier III petitions for waiver of E-911 compliance deadlines may come as soon as this week, sources said. The timing is driven by the approaching statutory deadline of March 23 for the FCC to submit its report to Congress on Tier II and Tier III E- 911 compliance issues. The Commission has received several dozen waiver petitions from small and rural wireless carriers, but many of them have been acted on. “There is a lot of pressure to address those petitions [left] before the report” deadline, an FCC source said. Another FCC source said the Tier III order was a “priority” for the Commission: “I think it will move very fast.” The 2nd source said the order deals with about 40 waiver petitions. “I would expect each waiver to be individually addressed even if they are addressed by categories,” the source said.

Vonage and SBC are sparring over SBC’s refusal to join with Vonage to test a VoIP-based 911 system. Vonage asked the Bell companies to help test its 911 solution (CD Feb 28 p10). But SBC said in a March 25 letter it couldn’t participate in a “separate, proprietary trial” because Vonage was only one of several firms offering or planing to offer VoIP service.