A Thanksgiving eve burglary in a Verizon central office in White Plains, N.Y., knocked out landline 911 service and competitive carrier services in 10 northern Westchester County communities for over 7 hours. According to White Plains police, 2 men broke into the Verizon office in late evening of Nov. 24 and pulled more than 100 circuit boards out of the equipment there. The pulled boards disrupted 911 and the services of several competitive telecom providers who were colocated in the central office. Verizon’s phone services still worked although 911 access was lost. Wireless 911 access wasn’t affected. Authorities in the affected towns activated backup systems when 911 went out. The thieves were caught before they could get away with their loot. White Plains police arrested Larry Davis, 43, of Brooklyn and Gailican Phillips, 34, of Manhattan, and charged them with 6 felonies and 1 misdemeanor. Technicians reinstalled the boards and service was back to normal by 8 a.m. Thanksgiving morning.
State regulators don’t see a VoIP-like FCC preemption of broadband over power lines (BPL), said Mich. PSC Comr. Laura Chappelle, who heads the NARUC BPL task force. “I don’t see the FCC or FERC [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] as overly anxious to jump and try to preempt BPL,” she told us. The task force is in the final stages of its BPL inquiry and expects to present a white paper to NARUC by Feb., she added.
The FCC will review SBC’s new interstate connectivity service known as True IP to PSTN (TIPToP) as part of “a standard process for a tariff to go through,” a spokesman said Fri. SBC filed a one-day notice with the FCC late Wed., saying it would offer a new VoIP access tariff, giving VoIP providers a voluntary access method priced between traditional access charges and lower-cost reciprocal compensation. The FCC spokesman said the tariff took effect the day after it was filed “to the extent that somebody subscribes to it.” He said there was no deadline for the Commission to complete its review: “We can’t say how long it will take to decide whether we'll investigate the [tariff] or not.”
As House and Senate staff closed offices for Thanksgiving, the prospects of several telecom bills seemed extremely bleak due to struggles over Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain’s (R-Ariz.) boxing bill. House, Senate and industry sources indicate there don’t appear to be negotiations on the issue. House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) objects to moving the boxing legislation, and sources said McCain will let nothing else pass unless the boxing bill is passed.
The Pa. PUC suspended implementation of telecom market exit rules approved in Sept. because of carrier assertions that may conflict with terms of existing PUC- approved interconnection agreements and unreasonably impair carriers’ right of exit. The PUC said it would reopen the rulemaking (Case L-00030165) to consider whether the rules would adversely affect Pa. consumers and competition and how these might be changed. The PUC urged parties to keep in mind the “broader spirit” of the regulations -- ensuring an orderly migration of customers from the departing carrier to other carriers. The rules required an abandoning carrier to file a detailed exit petition and customer transition plan at least 90 days prior to exit and give customers at least 30 days notice of need to select a new carrier. It also would have to give 30 days notice to 911 authorities and unlock their 911 databases, plus release assigned numbers to other carriers and surrender their unused numbers.
In a move strongly supported by FCC Chmn. Powell, the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) kicked off its Next Generation (NG) E911 Program on Wed. It urged industry leaders to work with federal, state and local officials and NENA members to update and improve the technical, operational and policy foundations of the nation’s 911 system. NENA officials said they had approached a number of groups and organizations and now were urging them to join forces. The early program partners include SBC, TruePosition, Vonage, TeleCommunications Systems, TelControl and HBF Group.
Several important communications-related items could pass Congress this week as it returns for a brief lame- duck session, industry and congressional sources said. The loudest buzz is on the universal service fund (USF) and the controversy over the FCC’s change in accounting mechanisms that could slow some E-rate payments and possibly lead to a rise in contributions, and several sources expected some efforts to push a legislative solution.
A contractor installing highway traffic surveillance cameras along a freeway just outside of Clinton, Conn., severed 3 SBC copper cables, knocking out phone service to about 2,000 customers. The Thurs. mishap also severed a cable in the city’s public safety trunked radio system, forcing emergency services to activate backup systems and bring in a temporary mobile radio tower. Local officials advised affected persons to use cellphones, payphones or find a neighbor with a working phone to call 911 in the event of an emergency. Most service was restored by Fri. afternoon, but full restoration was expected to take until Sat. It’s not known whether the contractor used the one- call facility locator service before breaking ground.
The National Emergency Number Assn. is hosting a “public dialogue” on Enhanced 911 (E-911) on Wed., 12:15 p.m at the National Press Club Lisagor Room. Scheduled participants include: Bill McMurray, Marin (Cal.) County Sheriff’s Office; Billy Ragsdale, InterAct Public Safety Systems vp-operations; Norman Forshee, St. Clair Co. (Ill.) 911 coordinator; Anthony Haynes, Tenn. Emergency Communications Board exec. dir.
The Me. PUC amended its market exit rules for telecom carriers. Under the new rules, carriers that voluntarily exit a market must continue providing 911 service 21 days after the disconnect date for customers who haven’t moved to another carrier. The PUC said it was unreasonable to stick the incumbent with the task of maintaining 911 capability; the obligation belongs with the abandoning CLEC. For CLECs facing disconnection by an incumbent for nonpayment of wholesale charges, the new rules require that the CLEC be given 28 days to notify its customers to seek another carrier. The PUC said 4 weeks is the minimum time needed for sending customer notices and allowing them a reasonable time to select another carrier. The PUC said its new rule nullifies any interconnection agreement provision allowing shorter cutoff notice periods.