Federal Railroad Administration’s emergency notification system (ENS) is the key to getting information to the railroads in any emergency, FRA officials said Tuesday during a webinar by 911.gov. Blue ENS signs, with calling information and an 800-number to call, are located at every railway crossing in the U.S. with a unique number assigned to identify the crossing, explained Michail Grizkewitsch, FRA transportation specialist. “Everybody thinks they have to call 911,” Grizkewitsch said. “In reality, when we deal with railroads their dispatch centers can be 10 states away,” he said. CSX operates in 26 states, with a single dispatch center in Jacksonville, Florida, he noted. Grizkewitsch said when the ENS center is called, operators there can do everything necessary to stop trains from running to avoid an accident, stalled vehicle, or other emergency. ENS “is your quickest way to get to the railroad,” he said. FRA advises members of the public, in some cases, to call the ENS number before they dial 911, he said: “The reason being, calling this 1-800 number will get that train stopped in a matter of seconds. … It takes a mile or more to stop a train so our biggest and No. 1 priority is getting that train stopped.” Railroad emergencies are frequent, Grizkewitsch said. In the U.S., a vehicle is struck by a train every three hours and each year there are more than 3,000 railway crossing accidents and about 1,000 people attempt suicide by jumping in front of a train, he said.

Lumen’s CenturyLink won't avoid public hearings in a Minnesota service quality probe. At a partially virtual meeting Thursday, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to refer the matter to an administrative law judge for a contested case proceeding on whether the telco is meeting requirements of Minnesota Statutes Chapter 237 and Minnesota Rules Chapter 7810. Lumen Assistant General Counsel Jason Topp said he didn’t think hearings were needed in the more than 2-year-old proceeding. “It's time to bring this to a head, move forward and develop a record.”

988 outages could be subject to reporting requirements similar to those for 911 outages, under a draft proposal to be voted on at the Jan. 26 FCC commissioners' meeting, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel blogged Wednesday. Also on the agenda will be a set of proposals for the agency's rural healthcare program, an Enforcement Bureau action and Media Bureau adjudicatory matter, she said. Those 911 outage reporting rules helped the commission identify system vulnerabilities and improve its reliability, Rosenworcel said. "We want to be able to do the same" with the suicide and mental health crisis hotline, she said. The draft telehealth item would "make it easier for health care providers to receive support, reduce delays in funding commitments, and improve the program’s overall efficiency," she said.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., promotes Jennifer Epperson to Communications Subcommittee’s chief Democratic counsel and hires Lisa Hone, ex-White House National Economic Council senior broadband and technology policy adviser, to be Democrats’ chief counsel on the Consumer Protection Subcommittee (see 2301030064) ... John Lin, ex-Senate Commerce senior counsel, says he's now House Commerce senior counsel.

The revised March 9 expiration date for the FCC’s auction authority included in the FY 2023 appropriations omnibus package (HR-2617) is spurring House Communications Subcommittee leaders’ interest in quickly reaching a new deal on a spectrum legislative package when talks reconvene at the start of the 118th Congress. Capitol Hill passed the short-term reauthorization after the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees weren’t able to attach the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (see 2212190069), a package of modified language from the upper chamber's version of the Spectrum Innovation Act (S-4117) and other related measures, to the omnibus. Senate Commerce leaders are divided on whether they will be able to advance the legislative package largely in its current form in the next Congress (see 2212270029).

A recommendation to update emergency service network reliability rules may become a Colorado Public Utilities Commission final decision mid-January if no exceptions are filed and the commission doesn’t stay it, Administrative Law Judge Conor Farley said last week. The ALJ released the recommended decision Thursday. Colorado 911 stakeholders agreed to draft rules in September (see 2209200027 and 2209070041).

The FCC’s NPRM on more precisely routing wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing (LBR), approved 4-0 Wednesday (see 2212210047), was largely the same as the draft. The NPRM was posted Thursday. One change of note is that several questions were tweaked to seek information on covered text providers, in addition to commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) providers. “Should we require CMRS and covered text providers to report information on misrouted 911 calls and texts?” the NPRM asks: “We also seek information on planned or expended costs by CMRS providers and covered text providers that have voluntarily implemented or plan to implement location-based routing to any extent on their networks.” Among other tweaks, the NPRM now notes that conclusions on cost estimates, based on data from T-Mobile, are only tentative. “T-Mobile states that it deployed location-based routing to some PSAPs and not others, so we rely on this statement in tentatively concluding that CMRS providers implement location-based routing at the PSAP level and CMRS providers incur material costs on a per-PSAP basis,” the NPRM says. “We seek comment on this tentative conclusion.” Only Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks had written statements. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 30 days after that.

All four FCC commissioners expressed support Wednesday for proposed rules to more precisely route wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing (LBR). The NPRM wasn’t controversial while before commissioners, though industry is expected to weigh in during the comment period (see 2212200064).

The Senate appeared poised to pass as soon as Wednesday an FY 2023 appropriations omnibus package that includes another short-term extension of the FCC’s spectrum auction authority, though the situation remained fluid late that afternoon amid continued wrangling over potential votes on amendments to the measure. Lawmakers agreed to attach a renewal the FCC’s remit through March 9, after an objection from Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., derailed a negotiated deal to include a modified version of the chamber's version of the Spectrum Innovation Act (S-4117) and other related measures (see 2212200077).

All has been quiet on the FCC’s proposed NPRM on location based routing (LBR) to public safety points, set for a vote Wednesday (see 2211300072). Industry officials said they expect the FCC to approve the NPRM largely as circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, especially since there has been no lobbying.