President Joe Biden signed Monday the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the White House said. The compromise S-1605, which Congress passed earlier this month (see 2112170029), gives DOD authority to seek compensation from Ligado for any damage to the department's GPS systems caused by the company's planned L-band operations. The measure jettisoned several tech and telecom provisions included in other NDAA versions earlier in the year, including language from the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-2351).
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by Jan. 6, replies 10 days later, in docket 20-291 on Colorado’s Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority and City of Aurora 911 Authority’s petitions for reconsideration of parts of the FCC 911 fee diversion order, says Wednesday’s Federal Register (see 2109170055).
CTIA asked a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel to reconsider a Kentucky 911 case. Earlier this month, the 6th Circuit said the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky erred in concluding that a Kentucky 911 law conflicts with and is preempted by the 2018 federal Wireless Telecom Tax and Fee Collection Fairness Act (see 2112030060). The wireless association asked the original 6th Circuit panel Friday to rehear or, “at minimum,” vacate the district court opinion, “decline to definitively address these questions of law, and permit the district court on remand to address these issues in the first instance.” The appeals judges “took too narrow a view of the federal interests that would be obstructed should Kentucky be permitted to impose these special burdens on Lifeline participation,” CTIA wrote. “The panel left unaddressed a few key arguments CTIA made that illuminate the ‘full purposes’ of Congress under the Communications Act” and the wireless tax fairness law “to safeguard federal universal service funds,” it said.
Shulman Rogers' Alan Tilles says he's leaving the law firm at year-end and beginning a solo law practice "in the telecom and entertainment law areas" ... Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) nominates Patrick Cicero to be the state’s consumer advocate at the Office of Consumer Advocate, where he starts in an acting capacity pending Senate confirmation; Cicero was executive director, Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network ... National Emergency Number Association adds Colorado 911 expert Vicki Pickett as NENA’s education & training director.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., acknowledged Friday that the Senate won’t be able to act on the House-passed Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package (HR-5376) this year while talks with centrist Democrats remain at an impasse. The measure includes $500 million for NTIA connected device vouchers, $490 million for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and $300 million for the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund (see 2111190042). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and some 85 other groups are urging the Senate to remove the FTC privacy bureau funding (see 2112160038), and the National Emergency Number Association wants the chamber to restore the full $10 billion for NG-911 lawmakers originally proposed. Schumer acknowledged the delay after President Joe Biden said Thursday his talks with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, will “continue next week.”
Four companies will pay $6.3 million in penalties for 911 outages last year, the FCC announced Friday. Some said they had made procedural changes to avoid a repeat. Lumen will pay $3.8 million, Intrado $1.75 million, AT&T $460,000 and Verizon $274,000. Both Lumen and AT&T said their blackouts involved work by vendor Intrado. See our news bulletin here.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) blames Lumen for technological failures that caused a 911 outage in December 2018, the AG's office said Thursday in testimony filed with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission in docket UT-181051. Lumen also failed to notify call centers, the testimony said. The company should pay the maximum $7.2 million penalty proposed last year by the UTC (see 2012230021), said Ferguson: “Thousands of Washingtonians called 911 only to be met with a busy signal.” Lumen failures caused another 911 outage in 2014, the AG's office noted. "The December 2018 event was caused by an unexpected issue with a vendor’s network equipment and impacted some calls that another Washington state 911 provider was responsible to complete," a Lumen spokesperson emailed: The carrier is sure the UTC "will reject the allegations in the complaint and in the attorney general’s testimony when the commission is presented with all the relevant information."
The FCC Enforcement Bureau settled investigations into AT&T, Lumen, Intrado and Verizon 911 outages that happened last year, the agency announced Friday. The companies will pay a combined $6 million-plus in settlement payments. They will also start compliance plans, as part of the consent decrees.
The six Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council working groups are getting started, and they updated the larger group Wednesday during a quarterly virtual meeting. Most reported they're organizing, with work to start in early 2022. The meeting was the second by the FCC group, reshaped by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2104150056) with an emphasis on 5G security.
Washington state agencies are reviewing a Seattle-area 911 outage lasting more than an hour Thursday, officials told us Friday. “A detailed root cause analysis has already been initiated by” ESInet provider Comtech “and we will be provided updates during the process," emailed Washington State Enhanced 911 Coordinator Adam Wasserman. Washington Utilities and Transportation staff will open an investigation, a spokesperson said. The 911 call delivery issue affected the western part of the state for about 90 minutes Thursday, said 911 Program Manager Ben Breier in King County, which includes Seattle. Seattle police Thursday tweeted at 3:35 p.m. PST that 911 was down; at 5:31 p.m., it said service was restored. King County had “intermittent outages for mobile and landline users,” though text-to-911 service wasn’t affected, the county tweeted at 4:11 p.m. local time. The county said at 4:54 that 911 was “being restored” and “returning to normal.” Seattle sent a wireless alert. Comtech didn’t comment Friday.