Washington, D.C.’s, 911 center did little in response to recommendations in an October audit that found the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) failed in many months to meet national standards for getting timely help to callers, said a follow-up report Friday. Of 31 recommendations, OUC completed one, made “minimal progress” on 24, and “no observed progress” on two, said the Office of D.C. Auditor (ODCA): OUC still faces issues identified in the original audit, “including call-taking confusion, glitches in dispatch operations, and insufficient management follow-up on after-action reviews.”

Colorado 911 stakeholders finished revising draft rule changes on emergency service network reliability, State 911 Program Manager Daryl Branson reported Tuesday to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. “The workshop participants were able to resolve all issues of major disagreement.” They made significant changes “to nearly every section of the proposed rules, although most of the basic concepts were retained, including” creating a rule that basic emergency service providers file a BES network reliability improvement plan with the PUC and that the commission set a tariff amount to fund the plan, said Branson: Changes included the addition of a BES outage investigation process. Colorado PUC Administrative Law Judge Conor Farley said last month comments on the revised draft rules will be due Sept. 19, with replies due Sept. 30 and an Oct. 13 public comment hearing to follow (see 2208050048).

The National Association of State 911 Administrators “has strong and urgent concerns” about language in the House-passed Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624) and “potential amendments” to the unaltered Senate companion S-4117 that “will unnecessarily detract from and delay” next-generation 911 tech upgrades, the group said in an open letter to senators posted Tuesday. The House passed HR-7624 in July with language allocating up to $10 billion in proceeds from a proposed auction of spectrum on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for NG-911 implementation (see 2207280052). NASNA “supported” initial language funding NG-911 via HR-7624 that the House Communications Subcommittee advanced in June (see 2206140077) “and we still support the premise of federal assistance” for NG-911, said Executive Director Harriet Rennie-Brown in the letter. “However, we believe now is the time to voice our strong and urgent concern about” other NG-911 language in the measure that mirrors the group’s past qualms with language in the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s America Act (HR-1848), including interoperability requirements and language on “commonly accepted standards” (see 2104080003). NASNA is “fully aware that there have been matters raised by other public safety groups and we are concerned that these other interests will unnecessarily detract from and delay NG911 implementation,” Rennie-Brown said: The existing proposed language supports the National Emergency Number Association’s i3 standard “that is already in use and is saving lives today. While we support innovation and competition, we do not support any amended language that would give preference to an alternative standard. Every state, regional, and local agency that is implementing NG911 is based on the NENA i3 standard.” The group opposes a proposed Nationwide Next Generation 911 Cybersecurity Center as “redundant and unnecessary” and is concerned by HR-7624’s language to end the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s involvement in NG-911 implementation, she said. “Leaving the joint implementation and coordination office between NHTSA and NTIA in place for the present time is not only feasible, but HR 7624 language should allow for an objective evaluation of the proper federal ‘home’ for the resources to assist the states with 911 and coordinate federal 911 activities.” NASNA believes “the overly prescriptive conditions written into” HR-7624 “for the states’ NG911 plan are redundant, unnecessary, and create burdensome requirements for the states' 911 systems,” Rennie-Brown said: “The NG911 plan requirements are best suited to the grant rulemaking process, not congressional mandates.”

California bills to require wireless eligibility for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grants and to fund the 988 mental health line passed the legislature Thursday and will go to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for signature. As California legislators head into their final week, several communications bills on broadband, social media and free inmate calls await floor votes (see 2208120039).

The FCC published wireless carrier responses to July letters asking about their data retention and data privacy policies. Privacy advocates said this week they hope the letters lead to a renewed focus by the FCC on data privacy issues (see 2208220054).

Pennsylvania and California commissioners pondered VoIP jurisdictional issues at livestreamed meetings Thursday. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille dissented as members voted 2-1 for a petition by T-Mobile’s Sprint to discontinue CLEC and interexchange services while continuing VoIP service in the state (docket A-2021-3028993). The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved a rulemaking to consider changes to VoIP licensing requirements and other obligations (see 2208190030).

Next-generation 911 went live in some Illinois counties, the Illinois State Police said Tuesday: Northeastern Lake County Consolidated and Peoria, Macon and Clinton counties are first in the state to get NG-911, and 60 systems are expected to upgrade by year-end, state police said. NG-911 “will ensure that first responders like paramedics, firefighters and police officers have the information they need to respond quickly and efficiently,” said Gov. JB Pritzker (D).

Backers of a bid to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe appropriations legislation, including a likely continuing resolution to extend federal payments past Sept. 30, is the most viable vehicle for formally allocating the additional money, due to concerns about delayed action on the House-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Senate Commerce Committee leaders are grappling during the August recess with how to respond to HR-7624, which would allocate some proceeds from a proposed auction of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for rip and replace reimbursements, given disagreements on spectrum policy priorities (see 2208090001).

The Alarm Industry Communications Committee told the FCC it supports a National Association of State 911 Administrators' (NASNA) petition for a rulemaking or notice of inquiry to fully implement next-generation 911 (see 2110190066). “AICC joins NASNA in urging the Commission to initiate a rulemaking to establish its regulatory authority over the delivery of NG911 services” through emergency services IP networks, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-479: “FCC regulation is necessary to protect the integrity of those services and the ability of [public safety answering points] to do their jobs, as well as to ensure that service providers have adequate and reasonably priced access to network facilities.”

The ATIS Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) asked the FCC to modify its network outage reporting system rules to encourage public safety answering points and 911 authorities to give covered 911 providers data on population counts served by the call centers. The committee also asked the FCC to require covered 911 service providers “to use census or population data derived from other sources instead of telephone number counts to determine ‘user minutes’ threshold criteria.” The petition, posted Friday, asks the FCC to prevent over-reporting of outages by setting a de minimis exception for outages “that affect four (4) or fewer macro cell sites located in Rural Service Areas or 14 or fewer macro cell sites located in Metropolitan Service Areas,” among other proposed changes. “ATIS NRSC recommends changes to Sections 4.7 and 4.9 of the Commission’s rules to facilitate the transition from legacy to [next-generation] 911 systems and to support continued, timely notification of outages in NORS as well as to PSAPs by NG911 systems,” the filing said.