It’s questionable whether a consumer could sue over unlawful surveillance if the federal government is always able to claim classified information protections, said 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Margaret McKeown Monday during oral argument in Jewel v. NSA (see 2004170052).

The FCC should end more than a decade of indecision about giving states access to the network outage reporting system (NORS), said current and former state commissioners in interviews last week. NARUC will vote at its annual meeting Thursday-Friday and Nov. 9-11 on proposed resolutions asking the FCC to grant a 2009 California Public Utilities Commission petition to share NORS information and urging state legislatures to authorize commissions to reduce intrastate inmate calling service (ICS) rates to cost-based prices. NARUC will consider the resolutions just days after a presidential election that might change control of the FCC in 2021.

Firefighters and paramedics continue to be sent to incorrect addresses in potentially life-and-death emergencies in the nation's capital city, even with increased scrutiny on 911 errors there. Our review of recent radio communications and interviews this week with stakeholders found continuing problems. Some also spoke of increased difficulties in recent days amid a potential technology upgrade at the 911 center. The city's auditor plans an audit, and House Commerce Committee members express concern.

The FCC could “withhold frequency licenses and renewals” to stop 911 fee diversion in New York, the state’s 911 Coordinators Association suggested Friday in response to a commission notice of inquiry. “States need frequencies and bandwidth to operate their communications systems and this is a tool the FCC can effectively use to pressure states.” Other related federal grants “may be another lever,” but the government “may face legal challenges regarding the nexus to 911 fee diversion,” it said. In New York, which collected $200 million from 911 fees in 2019, “the paucity of federal grant funds compared to the state’s surcharge revenues make enforcement highly unlikely.” New York protested the FCC blocking it and other 911 diverters from 4.9 GHz spectrum (see 2010060057). Comments on 911 fee diversion are due Monday (see 2010050038).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai condemned T-Mobile’s June 15 outage as a “failure,” with the carrier not following “several established network reliability best practices that could have either prevented the outage or at least mitigated its impact.” The outage, caused by equipment failure and made worse by misconfigured network routing, lasted more than 12 hours, disrupting calling and texting, including to 911, and data in some areas, the FCC said Thursday, releasing a staff report. The Public Safety Bureau estimated at least 41% of calls failed during the outage, including 23,621 to 911. The bureau plans to release a public notice to remind companies of best practices, and will contact major transport providers to discuss network practices and help smaller providers, the agency said. T-Mobile apologized after the outage (see 2006180064). "Immediately following this incident back in June we took the necessary steps to address the issues that created the service interruption and remain committed to continual improvement," the carrier's spokesperson said Thursday.

The C-band auction and compensating satellite operators for leaving the spectrum are things the FCC could come to regret as a negative template for future spectrum auctions, said Philip Murphy, legislative director to House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. The auction starts Dec. 8.

Much of a California service quality report on AT&T and Frontier Communications should be made public, the Public Utilities Commission proposed Monday. Commissioners may vote at their Nov. 19 meeting on the plan to release the 2019 study. The CPUC would redact certain information from the 584-page report that “could pose a security risk,” it said. Frontier expects to file comments about its "concerns regarding proprietary and sensitive information," a spokesperson emailed Tuesday. "It is imperative that sensitive competitive and security-related information about our network, which is used to provide 911 and other critical services, not be publicly disclosed." While AT&T appreciates "the CPUC’s desire to be transparent, we are concerned the commission will disclose proprietary information and issue a flawed report that ignores the real-world challenges of running of a telecommunications network," emailed a spokesperson, noting the carrier has exceeded the state's network reliability standard since 1990.

Industry and the National Emergency Number Association agreed the FCC needs to do more work before reporting to Congress on feasibility and cost of making Wi-Fi access points and other communications technologies available for access to 911 during times of emergency. Replies on a Public Safety Bureau notice were due Friday in docket 20-285. The FCC must file a report as a requirement of Ray Baum’s Act. “In light of the significant technical and security issues raised in this proceeding about relying on Wi-Fi access points as a backup for wireless 9-1-1, the FCC should seek the guidance of relevant technical expert bodies on these issues prior to submitting its study to Congress,” CTIA said. Access points supported by fixed wireline are “just as challenged as mobile wireless services to remain operational during severe emergencies,” it said: “Other Commission proceedings demonstrate the increasing resilience of mobile wireless networks even where fixed wireline backhaul and commercial power is unavailable for extended periods of time.” Connecting through access points “appears to be technically feasible, but work must be done to ensure quality assurance to 9-1-1 and to its callers,” NENA commented. Such connections “must meet, at the very least, the public’s expectations for reliability and service; meeting these expectations may be challenging absent regulatory authority,” the group said. ACA Connects said it’s not “technically feasible” today to use Wi-Fi “to provide a backup path to 911 when mobile networks are down.”

Oppositions to petitions for reconsideration by CTIA and APCO on FCC wireless 911 location accuracy rules are due Nov. 3 in docket 07-114, replies Nov. 13, says Monday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved updated rules for finding the vertical location of wireless callers to 911 in July over a partial dissent by Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2007160055).

Auditing Washington, D.C.’s 911 center will uncover any systemic dispatching issues, and more regular reviews could go a long way toward preventing future problems, said experts in interviews. While it's concerning to read reports of the D.C. Office of Unified Communications sending responders to wrong addresses, closer review is needed, and some possible causes, including training and retention, are national problems, they said.