The Senate plans a Tuesday vote on invoking cloture on the compromise conference version of the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (S-1605). The conference NDAA, which the House passed Tuesday, jettisoned some previously included telecom language but retains text directing DOD to brief the National Security Council on “potential harmful interference” to GPS posed by Ligado’s planned L-band operations (see 2112080070). The measure also expands on language from the FY 2021 NDAA that required DOD to estimate the cost of damage to department systems from Ligado's L-band use (see 2012040043), to now give the Pentagon explicit authority to seek recompense from the company. The National Emergency Number Association is "disappointed" lawmakers dropped language in the revised NDAA from the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-2351) since the proposal to change 911 dispatchers' "federal classification from 'office support' to 'protective service' would cost nothing, but it would more accurately reflect their specialized training and skills, as well as their crucial role in public safety."

Public safety agencies are likely to have much broader use of smart algorithms and other evolving technologies, many relying on 5G and better networks, said Mehmet Ulema, business professor at Manhattan College. “The current use … is just the tip of the iceberg,” the academic told an IEEE webinar Wednesday. Telecom systems are “massive,” with multiple vendors involved in building networks, said Susan Ronning, principal at Adcomm Engineering: “It’s not just a radio system. It’s not just a network.” Communication inside 911 call centers is “difficult,” with dispatchers talking to callers and first responders while also talking to each other, she said. New technologies are “great,” but operators have complicated jobs and new systems must be maintained, she said. “It’s not necessarily simple when you get too many technologies involved,” she said. “It’s great to have all these technologies, but there has to be a support team” and “it’s very difficult to find people to do this kind of work,” Ronning said. Growing complexity of emergencies in urban settings will require more use of technologies that let first responders collaborate, said Dean Skidmore, IoT+LTE Consulting Group principal consultant. Land-mobile radio, 5G and push-to-talk technologies are deployed and have to work together, he said. Sharing sensitive data across jurisdictions and agencies is difficult in urban areas, he said. Size, weight, ruggedness and battery life are important factors for devices used by first responders, said Narendra Mangra, consultant at GlobeNet. Devices have to be easy to use “to be able to get information very quickly,” he said. Coverage, capacity and service performance of networks are important to public safety, as is interoperability, he said.

The House voted 363-70 Tuesday to pass a compromise conference version of the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act using S-1605 as a legislative vehicle. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., raised concerns before the vote about Capitol Hill leaders’ decision to jettison cyber incident response language from the conference NDAA (see 2112070067). The compromise measure jettisons some telecom language (see 2109240067) from the earlier House-passed NDAA (HR-4350), including the text of the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-2351) and Promoting U.S. Wireless Leadership Act (HR-3003). It retains House-passed language directing DOD to brief the National Security Council on “potential harmful interference” to GPS posed by Ligado’s planned L-band operations and an authorization for each secretary of a military department to establish a pilot program to evaluate the feasibility of deploying telecom infrastructure to expedite 5G on military installations (see 2109020074). The revised NDAA now heads to the Senate, which earlier grappled with how to reach a deal on its own list of telecom and tech amendments.

A district court 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, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (in Pacer) Friday. The appeals court vacated U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky’s judgment, permanent injunction and attorney fees award in favor of CTIA. It affirmed the lower court’s partial dismissal of CTIA’s complaint. CTIA claimed the state law conflicted with the federal law by requiring Lifeline providers to remit 911 service charges for end users despite absence of a financial transaction, but the 6th Circuit said the law doesn’t “require Lifeline providers ‘to collect from, or remit on behalf of,’ a charge ‘imposed on’ an end user.” The court disagreed with appellant Kentucky 911 Services Board that CTIA lacked standing (see 2108190049). The case’s judges were Eugene Siler, Eric Clay and David McKeague. The 6th Circuit opinion wasn't recommended for publication. CTIA didn’t comment by our deadline.

Oklahoma’s transition to a connections-based state USF contribution mechanism is “so far, so good,” said Brandy Wreath, the Oklahoma USF (OUSF) administrator, in an interview. Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) members ordered the interim change in August to try to stabilize the OUSF while parties work on writing recommendations for the legislature (see 2108050049). In Tuesday comments at the California Public Utilities Commission, wireless companies and consumer groups panned a staff recommendation to shift to a flat, per-line surcharge.

Global revenue from SMS firewalls is projected to reach $4.1 billion in 2026, rising from $911 million in 2021 and representing “absolute growth” of roughly 350%, reported Juniper Research. It defines this as third-party solutions that reside within wireless networks, enabling real-time monitoring of network traffic to enhance capabilities of blocking fraud. Failure to adopt SMS firewalls can leave service operators vulnerable to diminished revenue from business messaging, “as fraudsters mask business messaging traffic to avoid termination fees,” it said Tuesday. Juniper projects that the volume of business messaging traffic monitored by SMS firewalls will increase from 3.1 trillion transactions in 2021 to 4.4 trillion in 2026.

T-Mobile will pay $19.5 million to settle an FCC investigation into the carrier’s June 2020 emergency 911 outage (see 2006180047), said an Enforcement Bureau order Tuesday. The consent decree requires T-Mobile to implement a compliance plan including enhanced 911 outage notices to public safety answering points that will include more information, with follow-up notices required within two hours of initial notification. The disruption, caused at first by failure of a leased fiber transport link, lasted more than 12 hours and caused complete failure of more than 23,000 911 calls, plus about 23,000 calls without location information and about 20,000 calls to PSAPs without callback information, said the bureau. “The outage revealed, and was compounded by, a temporary routing flaw in a single location and two previously undetected flaws in third-party software. Restoration was also impacted by a temporary failure of remote access to the affected transport link.” T-Mobile gets “how critical reliable connectivity is to ensure public safety and we take that responsibility very seriously," a spokesperson emailed. "Following this outage, we immediately took additional steps to further enhance our network to prevent this type of event from happening in the future. Now, with this consent decree, we are moving on from the FCC’s investigation and continuing our focus on our ongoing network build.”

National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes urged the Senate Monday to restore “full funding” for next-generation 911 tech upgrades when it takes up the House-passed Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package. The HR-5376 version passed last week (see 2111190042) includes $490 million for NG-911. That’s less than 5% of the $10 billion the House Commerce Committee proposed in September (see 2109140063); $470 million would go to tech upgrades and $20 million for NTIA to administer the program. The measure also allocates $1 million for NTIA to set up a Public Safety NG-911 Advisory Board. That money would represent “the largest federal investment in 9-1-1 in history” and “we appreciate that,” Fontes said in a statement. “However, it is less than” what House Commerce sought and “less than 4% of the $12 billion” NTIA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommended in 2018.

The House passed the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package Friday 220-213, almost entirely along party lines. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat who voted with Republicans against HR-5376, which includes $500 million for a new FTC data privacy and security bureau, $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 2111180073). House passage followed an eight-hour-plus speech from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in opposition to the measure that at one point referenced Tesla CEO Elon Musk. HR-5376 now heads to the Senate, where its prospects remain unclear as leaders seek support from all 50 Democrats. “As soon as the necessary technical and procedural work with the Senate Parliamentarian has been completed, the Senate will take up this legislation,” said Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Now only a few Senate Democrats can protect American families from these radical and painful policies,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “It is up to them to kill this bill.” NAB CEO Gordon Smith praised lawmakers for including language from the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. HR-3940/S-2434’s proposed $5,000 in tax credits for local businesses that buy radio, TV and newspaper advertisements and up to $25,000 for local news organizations to hire journalists, “will provide meaningful incentives for local broadcast stations to hire and retain the newsgatherers who keep our communities informed, connected and engaged,” Smith said. The Wireless Infrastructure Association hailed lawmakers for including $4.6 billion for sector-based workforce training programs. Connect Americans Now Executive Director Richard Cullen urged senators to “maintain their commitment to greater digital equity and focus on additional solutions to permanently ensure every American can access affordable and reliable broadband and the devices and skills needed.”

House Democratic leaders were optimistic Thursday they were on the cusp of holding a final vote that night or Friday on the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package (HR-5376) amid expectations that the Congressional Budget Office would publish a final cost estimate that afternoon. The CBO released its estimate earlier in the day for the House Commerce Committee’s portion of HR-5376, which includes $500 million for a new FTC data privacy and security bureau, $500 million for NTIA connected device vouchers, $490 million for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and $300 million for the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund.