Oral argument is scheduled for Feb. 9 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (in Pacer) on what constitutes interconnected VoIP and whether the FCC can block state, local and tribal governments in Alabama from charging higher 911 calling fees for VoIP than traditional telecom services (see 1910250063).

The FCC voted 5-0 Thursday, as expected (see 2012080070), to put in place a system to replace insecure equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in U.S. networks. Commissioners agreed the FCC still has work to do. Congress hasn't funded a program to pay for the equipment removed. The Rural Wireless Association noted that the order doesn’t require carriers to replace equipment until replacement is funded.

The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council approved a report Wednesday with recommendations on optional security features that could make 5G non-stand-alone networks more secure. The report, by the Managing Security Risk in the Transition to 5G Working Group, was the only one approved during the virtual meeting. March is the final meeting for this iteration of CSRIC.

Five states diverted more than $200 million of 911 fee revenue -- about 6.6% of all such money -- for unrelated purposes in 2019, the FCC reported Tuesday. That’s about $2 million more than the same states were reported to divert in 2018 (see 1912190077). Outgoing Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he did what he could.

Colorado and Pennsylvania agencies urged caution as the FCC weighs how to deter states from diverting 911 fees on consumer bills for unrelated purposes. In reply comments due Wednesday in docket 20-291, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission warned some possible solutions in the FCC’s notice of inquiry “are inappropriate in response to the issue and may cause significant harm to the cause of improving public safety communications systems for use by the public.” The FCC shouldn’t adopt too narrow a definition for diversion that might conflict with 911 surcharge laws, the PUC said. Avoid imposing penalties that further harm local 911 systems, impede upgrades or severely hurt local governments, it said. Give states flagged as diverters an appeals process and a chance to correct behavior, it said. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency doesn’t support "a nationwide fixed ‘list’ of allowable 911 expenses at the federal level nor do we support a liberal application of 911 fees to all public safety functions," PEMA replied. “An approach to a national list of allowable expenditures that is more restrictive or contradicts state statutes or eligibility rules would penalize Pennsylvania 911 systems and has the potential to significantly impact 911 service.” Conditioning federal grants on no diversion is more effective when more money is at stake, PEMA said. "A large-scale federal funding program for 911, in a similar fashion to FirstNet, would serve as a strong deterrent to 911 fee diversion." The FCC hasn’t flagged Colorado or Pennsylvania as diverters. USTelecom and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) discouraged requiring providers to disclose on bills that a customer’s state is a diverter. ATIS said its Network Reliability Steering Committee “strongly opposes this approach because it would put the service providers in the middle of an issue that does not directly involve them and over which they have no authority to resolve.” Local and public safety groups warned in comments last month that some ways of punishing diversion could harm 911 (see 2011030029).

Alcazar Networks agreed to settle with the FTC Thursday on charges the VoIP service provider "provided a gateway for tens of millions of illegal calls." Investigators said Alcazar knowingly allowed customers to use its services to call numbers on the FTC's Do Not Call registry by displaying spoofed numbers, including 911. Alcazar agreed to pay a $105,562 civil fine and will be required to implement automated procedures to block spoofed calls, follow secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) requirements for all calls after June 30, and screen customers before providing them with VoIP services. This is the FTC’s second case against a VoIP service provider.

The FCC reminded telecom providers to “follow industry best practices to ensure network reliability, consistent with” Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council recommendations. The Public Safety Bureau said Wednesday this is meant to underscore “lessons learned” from T-Mobile’s June 15 outage (see 2010220030). Providers and public safety entities “should periodically audit the physical, logical, and provider diversity in their networks segment(s) to ensure that a single outage will not simultaneously affect different circuits or equivalent data paths,” the bureau said. It said 911 service and originating service providers need to ensure alternative routing of emergency calls if primary and secondary routing is unavailable. “Consider validating upgrades, new procedures, and commands” affecting networks “in a lab or other test environment that simulates the target network and load prior to the actual application in the field,” the bureau said. Service providers “should use virtual interfaces for routing protocols and network management to maintain connectivity to network elements in the event of an outage due to the failure of a physical interface.” Entities should “actively monitor and manage 911 network components using network management controls, where available, to quickly restore 911 service and provide priority repair,” the bureau said. “Ensure that spare equipment for critical network systems is readily available.”

Consumer complaints about Frontier Communications' service quality have risen, according to state commission data obtained by Communications Daily. Regulators in 16 states provided data about 2015-19 complaints voluntarily or through Freedom of Information Act requests. Officials in some states with increasing complaints weren't surprised to see similar problems elsewhere. The telco said it works with state commissions to meet service quality metrics.

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) responded briefly to 911 errors at the District of Columbia Office of Unified Communications. “Certainly it’s not OK if any of our systems failed,” she told reporters. “We always thoroughly investigate any problem and make every effort to fix it and to fix it immediately.” Bowser told a reporter she would get back to him on whether the city would investigate a June 5 incident where a 911 operator apparently entered the wrong address for a 59-year-old woman in cardiac arrest, delaying arrival of emergency responders. The woman later died. We reported last week on that and other 911 calls with dispatcher errors that we received information on under a D.C. Freedom of Information Act request, and we have additional requests pending. “I don’t have anything else to say about it right now. I will, but I’m not prepared to talk about it right now,” Bowser said Monday. The mayor’s office didn’t comment further Tuesday. Later that day, Office of Unified Communications Director Karima Holmes offered her "most sincere apology to the family for our call-taker error." The family's "experience with our 911 system at the point of their most urgent need was not in keeping with our commitment to callers and District residents," Holmes said in an emailed statement. "Last summer after this incident, we conducted a full investigation of this case and the handling of this call did not meet our performance standard. Broader efforts are now underway to address call-taker errors including a committed partnership with DC Fire and EMS in which we are collectively working to ensure that every 911 caller receives the help they need in the most efficient and timely manner possible."

Washington's 911 center made a “horrible and tragic error” in a June 5 incident when a 911 operator apparently entered the wrong address for a 59-year-old woman in cardiac arrest, delaying arrival of emergency responders, said D.C. Council Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chair Charles Allen (D) in a Sunday statement. Allen responded following our article last week on that and other 911 calls. “It happened earlier this year in June, and at the time, I conducted oversight into the incident,” Allen said. The Office of Unified Communications “disciplined the call taker and retrained the entire team,” he said. The event will be part of D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson’s broader review of the agency, Allen said. “The Auditor’s role is to advise the Council by reviewing both specific and systemic issues and providing recommendations for improvement.”