House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon and some other Communications Subcommittee Republicans appeared hesitant during a Thursday hearing to support swift advancement of the Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926) or other resiliency bills. There was more widespread support by lawmakers and witnesses for the Fee Integrity and Responsibilities and To Regain Essential Spectrum for Public-safety Operators Needed to Deploy Equipment Reliably (First Responders) Act (HR-5928) and other measures.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau set a pleading cycle on a Boulder Emergency Telephone Service Authority petition for reconsideration on wireless location accuracy rules commissioners approved in November (see 1911220034). The order requires carriers to provide height above ellipsoid (HAE) data from wireless calls to 911, within 3 meters accuracy for 80 percent of calls, starting in the largest markets in April 2021. The authority claimed in the December petition “it was arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion, for the Commission to have declined to adopt proof of performance testing at limited locations in the 50 markets in which carriers will be required to provide Z-axis location data, on the grounds that it would be impractical and burdensome.” The authority said the commission should require wireless carriers to publish procedures for first responders to conduct tests of vertical location accuracy. Oppositions are due 15 days after Federal Register publication, replies 10 days later, in docket 07-114, the bureau said Wednesday.

House Communications Subcommittee leaders are eyeing an early March markup for the Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926) and at least some of the seven other public safety communications measures it will examine Thursday (see 2002200060), industry lobbyists told us. Communications and public safety stakeholders endorsed several of the measures in written testimony. HR-5926 didn’t get universal praise. The hearing begins at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.

The National Emergency Number Association warned floor-level data could be hard to obtain, in response to a Further NPRM on advanced vertical location, mapping and 911 services. Comments were due last week and posted through Monday in docket 07-114. “Lack of accurate, reliable floor level records represents a fundamental challenge to vertical location in the public safety setting,” the group said: “NENA has spoken with numerous participants in the real estate and indoor location industry; all agree that tax assessment records -- the most common and widely used ‘first pass’ source of building floor levels -- are roughly only 50% reliable, and nearly always require validation via another surveying method. In many jurisdictions, tax assessment records require merely square footage numbers for taxation purposes, so floor level data fields are often either left blank or inaccurately populated.” Be “mindful of the unique challenges facing rural carriers in deploying these technologies,” the Competitive Carriers Association asked. Google said the FCC should change its rules to “promote rather than discourage delivery of floor data to public safety answering points, and also encourage the use of testing protocols that account for real-world operating conditions and concerns.” T-Mobile advised flexibility. “We should not repeat the mistakes of the past, as with the initial deployments of horizontal 911 location solutions that relied on technology developed and implemented specifically for 911,” the carrier said: “Those solutions became obsolete and resulted in public safety being left behind, even as location technologies developed for the commercial market continued to develop and improve.”

APCO asked the FCC to act on the public safety organization's February petition for clarification of rules requiring national wireless carriers to meet a vertical location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless E-911 calls from z-axis capable handsets (see 2002070057). Initial comments were due Friday on a Further NPRM on advanced vertical location, mapping and 911 services. “The resolution of many questions raised in APCO’s Petition will impact whether and how to improve the location accuracy requirements,” APCO said in docket 07-114, posted Friday: “The feasibility and benefits of requiring more granular z-axis information depends on how the Commission defines what it means for carriers to deploy z-axis technology consistent with the manner in which it was tested. Which phones should consumers expect to provide vertical location information with 9-1-1 calls? How do carriers ensure that they have deployed z-axis technology in a manner that will achieve the accuracy demonstrated in the test bed?” The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies said “public safety’s many challenges are best addressed through technological innovation and collaboration between industry and public safety stakeholders.” The order rejected a more stringent standard, the council said: “Nothing has changed since the Order was adopted a few months ago to alter that conclusion. The establishment of a more stringent requirement, without the benefit of technical data to support it, would be arbitrary both in terms of the level of accuracy achievable and the timeframe in which it could be achieved.” The FCC asked in the FNPRM if "initiatives are underway to develop resources for mapping building heights and floor numbers," said 911 technology company RapidDeploy: “Indeed, such initiatives are underway, both private and public, at local, regional, and statewide levels.” Public safety answering points and first responders “can be ready to consume and utilize floor level information well before the proposed 5-year timeline -- many as soon as today,” the company commented.

The FCC believes its push to expand the scope of industry’s wireless resiliency cooperative framework to include electric utilities will help better address wildfire threats, Chairman Ajit Pai wrote House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui, Rep. Anna Eshoo and two other Democrats in California’s House delegation, in letters released Friday. Matsui, Eshoo and Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson raised concerns in December that the FCC Public Safety Bureau’s review of the wireless resiliency framework “lacks targeted recommendations for wildfires.” The bureau sought additional feedback on the framework in April 2019 in light of seven hurricanes that hit the U.S. in 2017 and 2018 (see 1904010047). Eshoo, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., and others have been pressing for more attention to the telecom impact of 2019 California wildfires (see 1911010039). “Expanding the scope of the framework to include electric utilities is especially important given the role a lack of power has played in cutting off access to communications to consumers,” Pai said in letters released Friday. “I have directed agency staff to engage with all stakeholders to ensure the whole swath of those responsible for keeping the communications networks up and running are participating in an expanded framework.” Matsui and the three other California Democrats filed their Emergency Reporting Act (HR-5918) in a bid to improve network outage reporting practices. The bill would direct the FCC to issue reports and do field hearings after activating the Disaster Information Reporting System. It would also require the FCC to do a rulemaking aimed at improving wireless carriers’ alerts to public safety answering points on network outages that prevent consumers from making 911 calls or hinder phone number identification. HR-5918 is one of eight public safety communications measures House Communications will examine during a Thursday hearing (see 2002200060). In a letter also released Friday, Pai told House Commerce Committee Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., the FCC "remains committed to assisting Puerto Rico's efforts to strengthen and harden its communications networks," including through its Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks hosted a field hearing in Puerto Rico Friday about the need for network resiliency after widespread damage from hurricanes in 2017 and more recent earthquakes (see 2002200021).

The House Communications Subcommittee plans a Feb. 27 hearing on the newly filed Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure, and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926) and seven other public safety communications measures, as expected (see 2002070044). The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn, the House Commerce Committee said Thursday. HR-5926, filed by House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., would require the FCC to issue rules to “provide for coordination among providers of advanced communications service during times of emergency.” It would mandate FCC rulemakings aimed at improving coordination between providers and public safety answering points and creating a master point-of-contact directory “to provide for effective communication during times of emergency between public safety and communications entities." The measure would make the FCC do triennial reviews of whether those rulemakings “are substantially improving the resiliency of advanced communications services in times of emergency.” HR-5926 “requires the creation of stronger, enforceable protections for consumers,” Pallone and McNerney said Thursday. “This will ensure that Americans have access to vital and lifesaving communications service before, during and after major disasters. We look forward to moving this bill through the Committee process soon.” Also on the docket: the Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act (HR-451/S-2748), the Preserving Home and Office Numbers in Emergencies Act (HR-1289), the Wireless Infrastructure Resiliency during Emergencies and Disasters Act (HR-3836), the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act (HR-4194), the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act (HR-4856), a bill to direct the FCC to issue reports after activating the Disaster Information Reporting System and to make improvement to network outage reporting (HR-5918) and the Fee Integrity and Responsibilities and To Regain Essential Spectrum for Public-safety Operators Needed to Deploy Equipment Reliably (First Responder) Act (HR-5928). HR-451/S-2748 would repeal a provision of the 2012 spectrum law that mandates public safety move off the 470-512 MHz T band by 2021. HR-1289 would restrict the reassignment of phone numbers during a declared natural disaster except at a subscriber’s request. HR-2165 would bar states from engaging in 911 fee diversion and give the FCC the power to decide on “acceptable” uses for the money (see 1905140060). HR-3836 would authorize states to require wireless companies to deploy infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters. HR-4194 would designate 988 the hotline code and give the FCC a one-year deadline to finish the nationwide upgrade of the legacy switches to support it (see 1908200070). HR-4856 would eliminate the option for people to opt out of receiving certain federal alerts on cellphones and require active White House and Federal Emergency Management Agency alerts be repeated. It would update the process for creating and approving state plans and examine the feasibility of expanding EAS to also distribute warnings to online streaming services (see 1910240060). HR-5928, filed earlier this week by House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. (see 2002180065), addresses both T-band mandate repeal and 911 fee diversion.

States are responding to reports Frontier Communications might seek bankruptcy protection in the next month, said commissioners and other officials from five states in Frontier’s territory. All have ongoing or recent probes of the carrier’s service quality. Frontier has a public service “obligation to serve in their home territory, even when it’s unprofitable, even when it’s inconvenient,” said West Virginia Public Service Commission Chairman Charlotte Lane in an interview.

Frontier Communications secured the final state OK for its $1.35 billion deal to transfer northwestern states telecom assets to Northwest Fiber. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission said Wednesday that commissioners agreed to a settlement including conditions to spend $50 million to expand state broadband coverage, support the statewide transition to enhanced 911 and report on financial and service quality measures. The Washington UTC order in docket UT-190574 notes comments received on the deal “reflect dissatisfaction with the quality and availability of services from Frontier Northwest.” Northwest Fiber pledges to invest in the ILEC network to improve service, the order said. Frontier got Oregon and Montana OKs last month (see 2001280071). FCC bureaus approved the deal in December (see 1912190086). Frontier and WaveDivision Capital “are pleased to have received the final regulatory approval" and "look forward to successfully completing the transaction," a Frontier spokesperson said.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., filed his Fee Integrity and Responsibilities and To Regain Essential Spectrum for Public-safety Operators Needed to Deploy Equipment Reliably (First Responder) Act Tuesday in a bid to address 911 fee diversion and the mandate for public safety to move off the 470-512 MHz T band by 2021. The measure would repeal language in the 2012 spectrum law that mandates the T band move and would give the FCC the power to decide on “acceptable” uses for 911 fees. It requires the FCC to create an "interagency strike force to study how the Federal Government can most expeditiously end" state governments' 911 fee diversion activities. “Public safety officials have been advocating to repeal a federal mandate to auction off their T-Band spectrum,” Walden said in a news release. “Those same people should be knocking down the doors of their state governments to make sure that 9-1-1 fees are used to support their failing infrastructure.” The T-band language appears to mirror the earlier Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act (HR-451/S-2748), while some of the 911 fee diversion text mirrors the 911 Fee Integrity Act (HR-2165). The House Communications Subcommittee has been eyeing a hearing on public safety and national security communications legislation that included an examination of HR-451 and HR-2165 (see 2002070044).