CTIA told the FCC Wireless Bureau late last week that July 3 guidance from Bureau Chief John Muleta didn’t go far enough to address industry questions on wireless local number portability (LNP). The association earlier had asked the bureau to clarify several issues on wireless LNP implementation, seeking answers by Labor Day to allow time in advance of a Nov. 24 deadline on wireless LNP. The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., last month turned down a wireless industry challenge to the FCC’s decision to retain the LNP requirement on wireless providers, keeping the Nov. 24 deadline intact (CD June 9 p1). Responding to requests for guidance, Muleta said this month that carriers wouldn’t be held liable for 911 callbacks that got lost during the porting period, citing the “mixed service” period during which a customer porting a number between wireless and wireline service might not have the correct callback number listed for a 911 operator. Muleta urged carriers to inform subscribers about the potential problem. CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler wrote to Muleta Fri. that “threshold implementation issues remain unaddressed.” On 911, he wrote: “Consumers with every right to expect full 911 capability will discover they fall into a ‘no man’s land’ while they await their number to be ported -- a situation that can last for several days.” In other areas, Muleta had said he agreed with Verizon Wireless that there must not be a porting delay beyond customer validation requirements, meaning issues such as outstanding balances on a subscriber’s bill shouldn’t hold up the transfer of a phone number. Muleta had said other issues on which the industry sought implementation guidance were limited in scope and would be resolved before the Nov. 24 deadline. Among the issues that remain to be addressed are how to handle a wireline customer who ports to a wireless carrier without a rate center presence in the customer’s wireline rate center. Wheeler cited that as an example of an issue that required a faster FCC answer. “An issue that will prevent upwards of 90% of wired customers from taking advantage of competitive wireless services is not a matter of ‘limited scope,'” Wheeler said. He said that without FCC action, “the random uncertainties” involved in the rate center issue would leave consumers in the dark whether a particular port request would be honored by their original carrier because such rate center information wasn’t “readily available.” Wheeler reminded Muleta that Labor Day was only 51 days away, underscoring the importance of FCC answers on other issues in advance of that date. “If the Commission delays, carriers and their customers will be misled, frustrated, angered and abused by the Commission’s failure to resolve critical LNP implementation issues the Commission has left unanswered for the past 6 years,” Wheeler said.

The FCC at its agenda meeting Thurs. announced the creation of an Office of Homeland Security within its Enforcement Bureau, aimed at consolidating issues that relate to homeland security and emergency preparedness into a “more efficient and effective organizational structure.” James Dailey, deputy chief of the Enforcement Bureau and a 31-year FCC veteran, was named dir. of the new office. The office also will have responsibility for proceedings relating to the Emergency Alert System as well as the Commission’s Communications & Crisis Management Center and its Emergency Operations Center. FCC Comr. Copps said he hoped the action would give homeland security “the high priority it deserves at the Commission.” He said “I frankly worry that, as we as a nation move further away from 9/11, we have a tendency to let our guard down, to go back to business as usual.” He said organizational changes such as this one “can help in this effort -- or they can hurt.” It can help if “the priority remains heightened and the leadership is aggressive,” he said. It can hurt if the office “becomes just one more division among several in one bureau, or if the effort becomes one office’s job rather than every office’s job.” FCC Chief of Staff Marsha MacBride outlined the agency’s “action plan” for homeland security, including such things as: (1) Work with the Dept. of Homeland Security to promote the use of best practices developed by the Network Reliability & Interconnection Council and the Media Security & Reliability Council. (2) Develop a service restoration memo of understanding with N.Y.C. and promote it to other metropolitan areas. (3) Double participation by state and local 911 centers in the Telecom Service Priority program. (4) Help tribal groups develop critical communications infrastructure protection plan. (5) Convene a “stakeholders summit to address communications issues that confront individuals with disabilities during national emergencies.” (6) Work with the FBI to review CALEA compliance by telecom carriers. MacBride emphasized that the FCC was “just one component of a complex network of public and private partnerships” working to improve security and reliability of telecom infrastructure.

E911 legislation (S-1250) could be marked up as early as July 17, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R- Mont.) told reporters after addressing the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) meeting Wed. The bill, co- sponsored by Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.), would require location technology for cellphone calls and would prevent states from taking money from E-911 funds for other purposes. Burns and Clinton are co-chmn. of the Congressional E-911 Caucus. At the WCA, Burns said the original 911 legislation, and the current E911 bill, “will have as much impact on public safety as any legislation ever passed.” He emphasized that govt. should “set policy, not the standards.” Burns also said all public safety communications equipment should be interoperable. It’s important, he said, to fund R&D in educational institutions, especially smaller colleges, since great ideas often don’t come from prestigious tech schools, but “out of the garage.”

The FCC has clarified several local number portability (LNP) questions the wireless industry said had to be resolved before the Nov. 24 deadline for LNP compliance. Wireless carriers may not impose barriers to porting, such as for delinquent payments, and customers should be able to port their numbers immediately, Wireless Bureaus Chief John Muleta told CTIA and Verizon Wireless in a July 3 letter. CTIA said the FCC’s action was “very constructive” and Verizon Wireless characterized it as a “grand slam for wireless customers.”

Public safety groups said a recent U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling on wireless local number portability (LNP) bolstered their arguments for why the FCC shouldn’t grant forbearance to Tier 3 carriers on certain E911 mandates. (Tier 3 carriers are defined as nonnationwide and having fewer than 500,000 subscribers at the end of 2001.) In Nov., the Tier 3 Coalition petitioned the FCC to forbear from enforcing E911 Phase 2 location accuracy requirement until after Dec. 31, 2005. In an FCC filing Fri., the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials, National Assn. of State 911 Administrators and National Emergency Number Assn. cited the D.C. Circuit’s interpretation of “necessary” as it applied to the FCC’s statutory forbearance authority. The court rejected CTIA and Verizon Wireless challenges to the Commission’s decision to not grant forbearance on wireless LNP requirements. The public safety groups said the court hadn’t interpreted “necessary” as meaning a rule could be retained only if its enforcement was absolutely required to protect consumers. “Instead, it said that Congress’ intent in using the term in Section 160 was ‘not plain’ on the face of the statute, but must be evaluated in context,” they said. When it comes to forbearance, the court said it is reasonable to read “necessary” as involving a strong link between what the agency has done by way of regulation and what it permissibly sought to achieve with a regulation. “The connection between the permissible goals of saving lives and property through location of emergency callers and the accuracy standards that are means to these ends has only strengthened in the 7 years since the Phase 2 rules were adopted -- as those standards have proven achievable with current technology in many rural areas, by many smaller carriers,” the public safety groups said. They reiterated their argument that individual waivers were preferable to granting a blanket forbearance request to the smallest carriers.

The Council on Foreign Relations said in a report that $10.4 billion was needed for 911 service and funding of federal, state and local emergency responders should be tripled over the next 5 years. The report said the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) described 911 system as beset with longstanding policy, technical and operational problems. State and local budget problems are contributing to 911 problems, NENA said, as many states and localities are siphoning away funds to pay for other govt. programs. “Improving 911 will require more than just money,” NENA Pres. Richard Taylor said. “Establishing a secure, reliable and adequate funding mechanism for 911 and other emergency responders is an essential step for protecting our families, communities and homeland security.”

Dist. of Columbia PSC dismissed a Consumer Union Board (CUB) complaint seeking to halt the city’s E911 assessment. The PSC (Case 1005-T-144) said it didn’t have jurisdiction to void ordinances passed by the D.C. City Council. The CUB had sought an end to the E911 surcharge on grounds that the fund had more than enough money to meet E911 needs and that it had been running a surplus that the city had been diverting for other purposes. The CUB said the fund had no accountability system to ensure its money was being used only for 911 purposes. But the PUC said the fund and its fee were established by an act of the City Council and the PSC had no legal authority to disregard or amend an act adopted by that legislative body.

Verizon Wireless doesn’t plan to impose surcharges to recover the costs of wireless local number portability (LNP) before the service rolls out, CEO Denny Strigl said Tues. The largest U.S. mobile operator also won’t block the transfer of a customer’s number to a new carrier if there’s an unpaid balance and won’t charge special fees for subscribers who carry their number with them when switching service, he said. Verizon’s call for the industry to make LNP “easy” for customers came amid Capitol Hill efforts by carriers to delay a Nov. 24 implementation date and a request by CTIA for the Commission to provide guidance on implementation.

As consumer protection in the telecom industry “a lot of times gets a short shrift,” it’s important for the FCC to recognize that “while serving in a regulatory role, everything we do is about consumers,” FCC Comr. Abernathy said at a seminar sponsored by CompTel and Davis Wright Tremaine Tues. in Washington. She said to serve the public interest, the Commission should focus on 3 key areas: (1) It should “trust the market crafting its regulations and allow competition to thrive.” (2) Both the agency and industry should educate consumers to allow them to “reap the benefits of increased competition.” (3) The Commission, when the market fails, “must be willing to step in and enforce our rules promptly.” Abernathy said the Commission, to better serve the public, “must strictly observe its enforcement obligations and not hesitate to act when rules are violated.” She said stringent enforcement was “crucial when we rely on market forces rather than prescriptive regulations. It is only when our rules have force that companies will think twice before violating them.” For example, Abernathy said, Enhanced 911 (E911) regulations for wireless carriers was one of the areas in which the FCC acted quickly in enforcing its rules: “We have monitored and will continue to monitor each carrier’s progress in initiating each phase of the implementation process and assess penalties for failure to comply with deployment benchmarks.” Abernathy said consumer education was “essential to our ability to regulate in the public interest.” For example, she said, fewer than half of the parents who had a TV equipped with a V-chip were aware of that, and of those who were, only 1/3 had tried to use it. Consumer education is a “significant goal” in E911 deployment effort, she said.

The Me. legislature passed a bill (HB-1088) to give the state PUC more power to punish violators of its rules and regulations. Under the bill sent to Gov. John Baldacci (D), the PUC would have authority to: (1) Fine violators up to $25,000 per day per offense or up to $500,000 maximum daily for a group of related offenses. (2) Fine regulated utilities up to $500,000 for failure to obey a PUC rule or order. (3) Suspend or revoke a utility’s state certificate if it found the offender had failed to provide proper service at just and reasonable rates. (4) Order immediate cessation of service if an offender had failed to obtain state operating authority. The legislature sent Baldacci another telecom bill (HB-1056) that would require that owners of PBXs and other private multiline telephone systems provide E911 call centers with whatever data were required to pinpoint the location of an extension telephone that called 911.