A Wednesday House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the FCC's fiscal year 2020 budget request is likely to provide a first glimpse at whether House Democrats live up to expectations they'll do more critical oversight hearings on the agency under their regained majority of the chamber (see 1811140055), lobbyists told us. The Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee paid only limited attention to NTIA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Patent and Trademark Office during Tuesday's hearing on the Commerce Department's FY 2020 budget request.

Industry lined up behind AT&T's BellSouth in a dispute with four Alabama 911 districts over what constitutes interconnected VoIP and whether the FCC should prohibit state and local governments from requiring interconnected VoIP customers pay more in total 911 fees than comparable non-VoIP customers. Madison County, Alabama, warned that requested relief would bring "chaos" to already short 911 funding, in comments posted Friday in docket 19-44. The Wireline Bureau sought comment, citing U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama’s primary jurisdiction referral on a dispute between BellSouth and the Alabama districts (see 1902260072).

Arkansas House members sent a next-generation 911 bill to the governor Thursday after concurring with Senate amendments Wednesday. Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) is expected to sign HB-1564, which would yield $16 million for upgrading 911 systems and $8 million for public safety communications (see 1903190035). Also Thursday, Maryland senators voted 42-5 for HB-397, which aims to upgrade the state to NG-911 by increasing the current $1 fee on each phone bill to $1.25 monthly per phone line. It goes next to the governor. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) "will carefully review this bill when it reaches his desk," a spokesperson said.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) have seen rapidly growing volumes of calls and any move to a three-digit national suicide prevention hotline will likely mean those growth rates accelerate, meaning such a hotline needs to be paired with increased capacity to deal with the calls. That's according to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Department of Veterans Affairs officials at Thursday's North American Numbering Council (NANC) meeting.

The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing recognized Communications Daily and Adam Bender for his coverage of states using 911 fees for other purposes. These stories won in the small-size newsletter category, SABEW announced Tuesday. See 1802230012, 1803200052 and 1812210046. "Top honors go to coverage that exposed that in 2016, six states diverted 911 call fees to fund budget items unrelated to public safety," awards judges wrote. "The reporting had great impact, leading state legislators and regulators to convene hearings to address the problem."

CenturyLink has a role in 911 delivery issues even when the problem isn’t in the carrier’s dedicated network provided by West Safety Services, said the Minnesota Commerce and Public Safety departments. The agencies disagreed Wednesday with CenturyLink's saying in docket 18-542 that a Public Utilities Commission probe into an Aug. 1 outage should focus on 911 and not address separate network issues separate. CenturyLink agreed to be 911 system coordinator in Minnesota, the departments said. “The Agencies are not suggesting that CenturyLink’s task is to ensure that problems never occur, only that CenturyLink agree to assist the public safety agencies in working toward the goal of eliminating failed 9-1-1 calls, no matter the cause.” The investigation’s purpose is to ensure a responsive 911 system, they said. “If a call does not reach the [public safety answering point] or cannot deliver necessary information, then that uncompleted call constitutes a public safety failure, and every effort must be made by the providers of the network and providers of the public safety services to ensure that calls never fail for any reason.” When 911 fails, communication to all parties involved in emergency call delivery and to the public “must be prompt, regular, and as complete as possible,” they said.

Telecommunications Industry Association representatives encouraged the FCC to require compliance with provisions in Kari’s Law, meeting Public Safety Bureau staff. Commissioners approved 4-0 an NPRM on those issues with 911 calls from multiline telephone systems (MLTS) at their September meeting (see 1809260047). “Industry needs to know as soon as possible what the requirements will be in order to meet” a Feb. 16, 2020, deadline, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-261. “We raised potential issues with requiring MLTS solutions to dial directly to 911 ‘out of the box,’ particularly for MLTS where there is no physical equipment to purchase and configure.” Staff from Cisco, Panasonic and the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications Forum also attended.

State bills to speed up next-generation 911 rollout are gaining steam in Arkansas and Maryland. Widely supported bills heard Tuesday would increase 911 user fees to fund system upgrades.

The FCC added language on privacy and the effect on consumers in the Lifeline program, based on side-by-side comparison of the draft Further NPRM and FNPRM on 911 vertical location accuracy, as released Monday. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissented Friday, while Commissioner Geoffrey Starks secured changes (see 1903150067). “We seek comment on the appropriate data privacy and security framework for z-axis data,” the FNPRM said. “We seek comment on whether use of z-axis data should be limited to 911 calls except as otherwise required by law.” Neither question was in the draft. The rulemaking asks whether a proposed 3-meter z-axis metric “will provide adequate vertical location accuracy protection for consumers who participate in the Commission’s Lifeline program.” It seeks comment “on the extent to which mobile phones provided to consumers as part of the Lifeline program have the capability, through barometric pressure sensors or other means, to be located within a 3-meter z-axis metric” and “how to ensure that vertical location protections extend to and include users of the Lifeline program.” The FNPRM asks more generally about potential turnover rates for wireless handsets and “features of devices likely to be available and in use by the compliance dates established in our rules.”

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissented on a Further NPRM proposing vertical accuracy standards for wireless calls indoors to 911. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks voted yes in part and concurred in part. The questions were expected (see 1903140043). The FNPRM proposes a vertical location accuracy metric, or z-axis, of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless calls to 911.