CTIA and the national wireless carriers sounded a note of caution on the timetable proposed in a draft FCC order requiring that carriers be able to identify within 3 meters the vertical location, or z-axis, of wireless calls to 911. Commissioners are to vote Nov. 22 (see 1910290054). “Further testing is currently underway and planned during 2020 to better determine the extent to which ± 3 meters for 80 percent of wireless calls as measured in the 9-1-1 Location Accuracy Test Bed is achievable by April 2021,” CTIA said in docket 07-114, posted Wednesday. The draft “presumes that technologies studied in the earlier test campaigns … are technically feasible and commercially available to meet the Commission’s April 2021 benchmark because firmware or software upgrades could load these technologies onto existing wireless handsets.” It likely “overstates the extent to which these solutions are scalable and deployable by April 2021,” CTIA said. The group and members proposed technical changes to the rules. Instead of referring to an “z-axis capable device,” the FCC could cite “any device capable of measuring and reporting vertical location with a wireless 9-1-1 call without a hardware upgrade.” The association said the text should more accurately reflect “the cautionary views” of industry and public safety groups. CTIA and representatives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon met with Public Safety Bureau staff. The International Association of Fire Chiefs, International Association of Fire Fighters, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Sheriffs' Association and National Association of State EMS Officials supported the FCC proposal Wednesday. Three meters "not only provides emergency responders with actionable location information, but it also gives the public greater assurance that when they dial 9-1-1 from their cell phones, emergency responders can find them more quickly," IAFC said.

The FCC is again under pressure to mandate backup power for cellsites, after widespread outages during California wildfires. The issue isn’t new, and questions are growing. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told us now is time to act.

NARUC plans to weigh proposed resolutions urging FCC caution on the 6 GHz band and IP-captioned telephone service (IP CTS), at its annual meeting Nov. 17-20 in San Antonio. A resolution before the Telecom, Water and Critical Infrastructure committees asks the FCC to “modify its proposal to not allow unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band unless and until such time that it has tested and proven that its [automated frequency coordination (AFC)] system works as intended to protect utility and other [critical infrastructure industry] systems, and that the FCC require AFC for all unlicensed operations.” It would be “premature if not irresponsible” for the FCC not to rigorously test for possible interference, it said. “The 6 GHz band satisfies the unique needs of utilities due to its ability to transmit data quickly over long distances,” the notes the draft. “If forced out of the band, utilities and other CII licensees have few, if any, reasonable alternatives. Meanwhile, there are other spectrum bands that are currently available or that could be made available that would more efficiently serve the needs for unlicensed operations and more efficiently than the 6 GHz.” Commissioners Robert Pickett of Alaska, Sarah Freeman of Indiana and Mary-Anna Holden of New Jersey jointly sponsored the resolution. The IP-CTS draft resolution by Nebraska Commissioner Tim Schram asks the FCC to adopt service quality standards for all IP-CTS providers before migrating to exclusively automated speech recognition (ASR) services. ASR-only IP CTS providers should "be required to demonstrate that their services can perform in 911 and other emergency and public safety scenarios by, for example, ensuring that a [communications assistant] can help with the call until ASR-only services have a proven track record to handle emergency, life-threatening situations,” it says. And to be functionally equivalent with CA-based IP CTS, "a user’s privacy and confidentiality should be protected by an ASR-only IP CTS provider as well as its third-party ASR partners or underlying providers.”

APCO said that without "significant changes," it can't support the FCC's push for final rules requiring that carriers be able to identify within 3 meters the vertical location, or z-axis, of calls to 911. APCO had earlier voiced concerns, though the draft order asserts the group is now onboard. “APCO’s revised position aligns with the views of all other public safety commenters that adopting a z-axis metric remains an essential measure to ensure that first responders receive important location information when providing dispatchable location is not feasible,” the draft said (see 1910290054). But "the proposal does not ensure that first responders will know a 9-1-1 caller’s vertical position within 3 meters for 80 percent of calls, as the metric seemingly requires,” APCO said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 07-114: “Worse, absent a more comprehensive approach to the z-axis metric and the location accuracy rules, carriers could comply with the rules without ensuring that public safety professionals receive actionable information.” APCO shared its concerns with staff for Chairman Ajit Pai, and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau settled with CenturyLink and West Safety Communications to end a probe into a multistate 911 outage on Aug. 1, 2018. Under consent decrees, CenturyLink agreed to pay $400,000 and West $175,000, and pledged to implement a compliance plan, the FCC said Monday. The 65-minute outage occurred when a West Safety Services technician mistakenly made a configuration change to the 911 routing network, resulting in many calls failing to route properly to 911 centers, the FCC said. In June, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to require more 911 reporting by CenturyLink after a state probe into the 911 outage (see 1906130053). “The August 2018 event was caused by a third-party vendor’s employee error,” a CenturyLink spokesperson emailed. “We quickly notified public safety officials in impacted areas,” then “focused our efforts on future reliability by working closely with our vendor to ensure improved processes were implemented to prevent this type of error from recurring.” FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the FCC should have hit CenturyLink harder, especially as a repeat offender (see 1504060050). The settlement “does not address the repeat nature of the outages, and in fact the consent decree fails to even mention the 2015 action,” he said: “Today’s consent decree re-adopts measures previously instituted, including designating a compliance officer and developing and implementing a compliance plan reflecting industry best practices. Notably, even though the consent decree assigns fault for the outage at issue here to a subcontractor, the compliance plan contains nothing about better coordination and supervision of such parties.”

Apple representatives met with FCC staff, at their request, on a proposed requirement carriers identify the vertical axis of wireless 911 calls. An order is set for a vote at the Nov. 19 commissioners’ meeting (see 1910290054). Apple “has and will continue to invest and innovate in technologies and approaches that provide our customers with devices that offer reliable and granular location accuracy, and reliable battery performance in the emergency situations,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. Emergency calling location capabilities “originated with permanently fixed landline telephones whose locations could be accurately conveyed” but wireless calls are “inherently probabilistic and can accurately be represented only with clear and non-zero uncertainties,” Apple said: Requirements “must reflect this fundamental distinction.” Apple said “vertical location capabilities must be implemented at large scale and under real-world operational constraints without negatively impacting the user.” Apple lawyers met FCC Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger and Public Safety Bureau staff.

The FCC declaratory ruling on regulatory 911 fee parity between traditional voice and VoIP services, posted Wednesday on docket 19-44 after a unanimous commissioners' vote Friday (see 1910250063), showed no changes from the draft, according to our side-by-side comparison.

More radio stations reported outages as telecom problems decreased amid California public safety power shutoffs, the FCC Public Safety Bureau reported Tuesday. Twenty-one FMs reported being off air, up from four Monday. Two other FMs were out but sending programming to another station, same as Monday (see 1910280050). Three AMs said they were out of service, up from two Monday. Cellsites out of service due to public safety power shutoffs decreased to 1.8 percent Tuesday from 3.3 percent a day earlier. Outages decreased in Marin County to 35.5 percent from 57.1 percent. Cable and wireline companies reported about 224,000 subscribers out of service due to power shutoffs, down from nearly 455,000. And 911 calls to Fairfax Police Department are rerouting to another public safety answering point with location information.

The FCC released a draft proposal Tuesday to ban equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE from networks funded by the USF. Industry officials largely welcomed the order. Huawei signaled it will fight. Commissioners are scheduled to vote Nov. 19, after Chairman Ajit Pai circulated the item Monday (see 1910280054). The FCC also posted proposed new 911 location accuracy rules.

Out-of-service California cellsites increased to 3.3 percent Monday, from 2.4 percent Sunday, amid public safety power shutoffs, the FCC Public Safety Bureau reported. Marin County was the worst, with 57.1 percent out of service, with 134 of 160 of the outages due to lack of power, said the disaster information reporting system communications status report. Sunday's report showed Marin County with just under 50 percent out. Cable and wireline companies reported nearly 455,000 subscribers out of service, up about 61,000 from Sunday and about 443,500 from Friday (see 1910250061). Six FM and two AM radio stations were off-air Monday, with two of the FM stations sending programming to others. No 911 outages were reported. The bureau expanded DIRS information collection to 32 counties Saturday from 14 in the original notice (see 1910240075).