Tenn. emergency communications officials are expressing concern that enhanced 911 (E911) legislation being considered in Congress could punish the state for E911 efforts. They said all but 8 of 95 Tenn. counties could receive E911 Phase 2 data, which give dispatchers information on a wireless 911 caller’s location. In Nov., the House passed HR-2898, which would create $100 million in federal grants each year for 5 years for state E911 deployment (CD Nov 5 p1). However, there are wide gaps between the House bill, by Rep. Shimkus (R-Ill.), and the Senate measure (S-1250), by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.). Most notably, the Senate proposal would provide $500 million in grants. But Tenn. officials told us they worried they could be victims of their own success. Anthony Haynes, Tenn. Emergency Communications Board exec. dir., told us there was concern states that had aggressively deployed E911 would get little or none of the federal funding. He said a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report showed Tenn. was one of 6 states that had aggressively deployed E911 technology. Haynes said E911 deployment would cost the state $60 million and maintenance of the system would be $15-$20 million yearly. He said it cost Tenn. $150 million a year to keep 911 working throughout the state. “Some PSAPs [public service answering points] have trouble just keeping the lights on,” Haynes said. Buddy Shaffer, Tenn. Emergency Number Assn., said: “In Tennessee, we did the right thing. We put the technology to work and created a funding mechanism to support it. Other states did nothing, or spent their 911 money on things other than 911.”

The Colo. PUC closed a docket examining regulation of VoIP service and said it wouldn’t address that issue again until the FCC had ruled on how much authority the states might have over VoIP services and providers. “Because of the legal uncertainty of whether a state may regulate VoIP services, as well as the host of policy issues involved with VoIP, we believe the most prudent course is to take no action with respect to VoIP pending FCC action,” the PUC said, but it said it would monitor the FCC’s proceedings. PUC Chmn. Gregory Sopkin in a concurring statement said VoIP had “dramatic implications” for telecom regulation, but said the nascent industry shouldn’t be strangled by 51 utility commissions “imposing idiosyncratic, inconsistent and costly obligations.” He said VoIP wasn’t like traditional phone service and shouldn’t be regulated the same way. Sopkin said VoIP was an opportunity to make fundamental changes in how one carrier’s use of another’s infrastructure was compensated for both access and 911 purposes.

BellSouth capital spending is expected to be 13-15% of revenue in 2004, which is “comparable” to 2003, BellSouth CEO Duane Ackerman said Tues. at a Smith Barney conference in Phoenix. He said the company’s Communications Group “made good progress in 2003… Every market segment in its wireline business finished 2003 stronger when compared to 2002.”

The Cal. Commission on Tax Policy in the New Economy decided not to act on several telecom, TV and DBS tax issues, in a recently issued report. The report did recommend unspecified tougher measures to enforce collection of existing taxes on Internet purchases.

A sampling of prefiled and draft telecom bills for the 2004 state legislatures shows that deregulation, online porn, consumer protection, telemarketing, 911 and universal service issues will face lawmakers when they return to their capitols next month.

AT&T Wireless told the FCC that as of Nov. 30, it had either deployed Enhanced 911 Phase 2 service to public safety answering points (PSAPs) that had requested it as of Sept. 30, 2002, or it had reached an agreement with the PSAP for a different deadline. Under an E911 consent decree covering its E911 systems, the carrier had to provide its Phase 2 solution to all of a PSAP’s coverage area for any valid requests received by Sept. 30, 2002, and to half the coverage area for any valid requests after that date but before April 30, 2003. AT&T Wireless told the FCC this week it also had met the 2nd deadline, as well.

The Ohio PUC authorized a Time Warner Cable business unit as a local exchange and long distance provider employing voice-over-IP technology. The application said TWC Information Services would be providing voice in a bundle with the high-speed Internet access and video services of its cable affiliate. The bundle also would include operator access, directory services, 911, and white pages directory listings, along with local number portability and telephone relay access. The PUC decision dealt only with the carrier’s fitness to hold a state certificate, not with any VoIP issues. The PUC said the certification docket (Case 03-2229- TP-ACE) would remain open while the agency investigated the jurisdictional and regulatory status of VoIP technology in Case 03-950-TP-COI.

A group of companies, including Sprint and General Motors, urged the FCC to turn down a petition for reconsideration of its decision to provide for a 5-year sunset period of its analog cellular requirement. AT&T Wireless petitioned the FCC in Jan. for reconsideration of part of an order that allowed a phase-out of its cellular analog requirement within 5 years. The company sought a shorter period of not longer than 30 months. The FCC had updated several areas of cellular wireless regulation that dated to the duopoly era of cellphone service. The companies that urged the Commission in a filing last week to turn down efforts to shorten that period included American Honda Motor, Mercedes-Benz, OnStar, Rural Cellular Assn., Toyota Motor N. America and Volkswagen. Calling themselves the Digital Transition Coalition (DTC), the companies use analog systems -- or Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) -- to provide services, including telematics systems in cars. “DTC members agree that any transition period of less than 5 years would create significant problems by disrupting the nationwide ubiquitous network, which would jeopardize reliable wireless service to the general public in rural areas and elsewhere, and in particular would jeopardize public safety on the nation’s roadways,” the filing said. The group urged the FCC to reaffirm the 5-year phase-out period for the AMPS rule. It also argued that on reconsideration, the Commission should “augment” the basis for its decision, “making it clear that the transition period is required not just to protect the interests of hard-of-hearing and 911-only users, but also to protect the interests of telematics subscribers, roamers and other cellular subscribers still dependent on analog service.” The companies said 17 million wireless subscribers continued to use only AMPS service, which remains the main interface for roaming and telematics because of its ubiquitous coverage.

Cox, which for 6 years has advocated the benefits of circuit-switched telephony, introduced voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) in the Roanoke, Va., area, where it will go head-to-head with Verizon. But unlike many cable players that in recent days have announced VoIP as their first voice offerings, Cox sees its long-term strategy as more of a hybrid, with the circuit switches serving as a backbone for a national architecture and VoIP deployment in smaller markets where its relatively low startup costs make it the more attractive option.

With scientific data inadequate to support federal Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) voluntary guidelines on communications tower siting, PCIA said, some states already were using them “as a precedent.” A PCIA spokesman said that while the guidelines were “not official… some states have taken them as being a gospel, and we don’t like that.”