The Wis. PSC scheduled an April 27 hearing on a proposal that would establish a state wireless E-911 fund supported by phone bill surcharges. The PSC said such a fund will be needed to support prompt deployment statewide of automatic location identification capabilities for wireless service. In much of the state, the PSC said, existing access to 911 from wireless phones provides only the features of a basic 911 system, which lacks automatic locating capabilities. Written comments in Case 1-AC-213 are due May 18.

Verizon told N.Y.C. officials that an error by a Verizon network technician caused loss of 911 service for 2 hours over a significant portion of the city March 26. The 911 service for much of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island went down at about 7:30 p.m. on the 26th and service was restored to normal by 9:30 p.m. City emergency officials noticed a significant and sudden dropoff of 911 call volume for the affected boroughs. Verizon said that during routine changes in network call routings, a technician made a bad data entry that caused 911 calls to be diverted from answering centers serving the affected area. Verizon said it was still investigating the circumstances but promised the city it would take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. The affected centers normally handle about 1,900 calls per hour. There were no reports of deaths or injuries attributable to the 911 system failure, city officials said.

The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) asked FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta for a rule interpretation that would let wireless carriers undertake certain “congestion control” measures. NENA noted that incidents such as power outages trigger “spikes” in calls to 911 networks from both wireline and wireless phones. Wireless networks are particularly subject to this congestion because of the number of eyewitnesses who report critical incidents from a roadside location or other “mobile” spot. “For many years, wire telephone providers and public safety answering points (PSAPs) have engaged in ’sizing’ their respective network segments so as to minimize or contain the effects of ‘mass calling,'” NENA said. “For a number of reasons, this form of ‘congestion control’ has not been adopted in many wireless networks.” NENA asked the FCC for an interpretation of its rules on when a wireless carrier must transmit all wireless 911 calls. NENA asked the FCC to rule that a mobile operator discharges this obligation when passing emergency calls into the trunks that connect a mobile switching center (MSC) to a selective router (SR). To this end, NENA submitted a report from its technical issues director Roger Hixson. The FCC rules at issue, Sec. 20.18(b), require covered operators to transmit all wireless 911 calls without respect to their call validation process to a PSAP or statewide default answering point. Citing Hixson’s report, NENA said call containment through trunk sizing or other methods is closely related to “grade of service” measurements similar to what wireline networks use. The application of a non-discriminatory means of “sizing” calls from customers and non-subscribers wasn’t part of the policy calculus that led to the wording of this section “and therefore not meant to be proscribed by the new rule,” it said. The FCC determined all 911 calls should be passed through regardless of call validation process, NENA said. This was based on a belief that procedures seeking to “verify subscriber status were impeding the delivery of vital communications,” NENA said. It said: “The history of the wireless E911 rules, coupled with the present reality that mass calling about localized emergencies can affect public safety communications across much wider areas, suggests the prudence of the interpretation we request here.” NENA asked the FCC to “reassure wireless carriers” that this language doesn’t rule out reasonable decisions about sizing wireless MSC-to-SR trunks and other kinds of call containment in their networks. NENA said historically, all sources of calls have received equal treatment from origination to completion to give equal probabilities of 911 call delivery. This has been done through so-called P.01 sizing, which means the trunk group sizing is based on that quantity that will let 99 of every 100 calls be completed in the busiest hour over a period of monthly measurement. Hixson’s report said wireline carriers and many wireless carriers do congestion management through MSC-SR trunk group sizing. “Typically, carriers or their agents analyze call volumes over time, and use the engineering process to size, or adjust the size of, the originating trunk group to P.01 service levels,” NENA said. This provides equal access levels across all types of carriers and end offices. NENA said “typical wireless carrier arguments against this technique” have included the extent to which wireline P.01 sizing doesn’t apply to wireless. Mobile operators also have argued they don’t know how many calls are involved so they can’t size trunk groups to P.01 standards, NENA said. NENA said CLECs have addressed the same problem. “The need is to accomplish P.01 by active monitoring of call volumes over time. Make an educated judgment, then adjust,” NENA said.

Va. Gov. Mark Warner (D) signed a regulatory parity bill that requires state regulators to implement rules and decisions in a manner that treats all local exchange providers equally. The new law (HB-938) directs the Va. Corporation Commission to eliminate any requirements to price wholesale or retail services below cost. The main effect of the new law is that it could allow Verizon to seek the same regulation applied to CLECs or wireless carriers. The final law was shorn of original language that would have allowed rate increases of up to 10% per year without regulatory review. Another new Va. law (SB-171) authorized the state E- 911 oversight board to change the schedule for when it disburses funds. Up to now, the board had to distribute funding quarterly. Now, the board can change payments to any other date.

Nortel Networks said Tues. it had submitted a proposal to the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) for an architectural framework to enable Enhanced 911 (E911) access on VoIP networks. Nortel Senior Consulting Engineer Mark Lewis told us the proposal, submitted last week, addressed “key technology challenges,” including: (1) Routing a 911 call to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP). (2) Transmitting caller’s correct location information. He said Nortel’s “technical, open-standards proposal” demonstrated “how leveraging existing wireless infrastructure can be used” to address E911 issues in relation to VoIP and “how industry can adopt it.”

ATLANTA -- Top FCC officials at the CTIA Wireless 2004 show here Mon. held up the agency’s relatively hands-off wireless regulatory regime as an example that could be followed in the VoIP arena. Citing the benefits of a “light regulatory touch” on VoIP, Chmn. Powell also told a standing- room-only opening session: “This industry has to wake up to the fact that it [VoIP] can be an incredible innovation to the wireless side.” He noted that by some estimates there’s more VoIP running over wireless networks than on wireline.

“Voluntary standards may work more efficiently” in addressing challenges of expanding 911 and E911 access to VoIP users, FCC Chmn. Powell told the FCC’s Internet-Based Communications Solutions Summit Thurs. in Washington. “It may be that a mandated solution is the wrong choice, when voluntary standards may work more efficiently,” he said: “It may also be that regulatory action is necessary to help actors in the marketplace reach the right resolution. We don’t know answers to these questions yet.”

The Mich. PSC called for comments by April 2 on the regulatory and technical issues surrounding VoIP service. The PSC in its new VoIP docket asked whether there should be different regulatory treatment for VoIP services that interconnect with the public switched network and for those that don’t. It also sought comment on the current status of VoIP service in Mich., application of access charges to VoIP service, ensuring VoIP service quality, and effects of VoIP on public policy matters such as 911 and universal service. The PSC (Case U-14073) noted that the FCC has a case to determine the federal regulatory framework for VoIP services, but said the PSC will need a factual record for developing a state-specific VoIP policy or implementing whatever national policy the FCC establishes.

OnStar petitioned the FCC for reconsideration of rule changes that will require non-licensee resellers of mobile wireless service to transmit 911 calls through text telephone devices (TTYs) as of April 12. OnStar said that as an adjunct to its call center-based telematics services, it offers Personal Calling, a prepaid interconnected service that lets users make and receive hands-free mobile calls on the public switched telephone network. OnStar told the FCC that Personal Calling uses the same embedded telematics unit as is used to deliver its core telematics services. Personal Calling allows hands-free dialing through voice recognition software and doesn’t include a keypad for manual dialing. OnStar said it meets the definition of a reseller because it buys wholesale airtime capacity from wireless carriers and makes it available to end users at retail rates. As a wireless reseller, OnStar said it would be required to make its Personal Calling service accessible to TTY users to dial 911. OnStar said the rule changes were “procedurally flawed because the adopting order did not provide any rationale for applying the TTY requirement to resellers, and does not reflect sound public policy as it relates to providers of vehicle-based calling services.” OnStar said it raises driver distraction issues to require the conversion of a hands-free service for in-vehicle calling into a hands-on one using TTY technology. “Given the complexity of the safety and technical feasibility issues involved, the Commission should exempt CMRS resellers of vehicle-based calling services from the TTY compatibility obligation, or at a minimum, provide for a reasonable transition period before compliance is required,” OnStar said. If the FCC were to conclude a vehicle-based TTY compatibility requirement is needed, OnStar said it should focus on careful implementation. It said the requirement “should be designed in a way that minimizes, to the greatest extent possible, the likelihood that the driver will use the device while the vehicle is in motion.” OnStar stressed such a requirement should be examined in light of state laws that attempt to curb distracted driving, including those regulating the use of screen-based devices in cars. “At the federal level, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration may have an interest in the issue, given that agency’s emphasis on reducing driver distractions,” OnStar said. In part, the company also argued its system facilitates calls by hard of hearing users.

The Computing Technology Industry Assn. (CompTIA) urged the Bush Administration to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a recent appeals court decision that vacated much of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO). In a March 12 letter to the White House, CompTIA said if the decision by the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., isn’t overturned “the health of the competitive telecommunications industry will be severely damaged, cascading… onto the IT industry, one of the key sectors responsible for softening the post 911 recession.”