HOUSTON -- A major question the FCC must work through with the advice of the public safety community is how people will be able to send text messages seeking help to 911 call centers nationwide, said Jeff Cohen, senior legal counsel to the FCC Public Safety Bureau. “Certainly one important thing I hear about … is the inability to send texts to 911,” he said at a town hall meeting at APCO on the regulatory framework for a next-generation 911 service. “We need to figure out what’s the best way to support real-time texting, and it’s especially important for the safety community."
HOUSTON -- Congress would have to broker any deal on the 700 MHz D-block and the future of public safety communications and not the FCC, Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett told reporters late Monday at the APCO annual conference. The D-block is the only area of real controversy between the FCC and public safety, he said. Others at APCO questioned how much good such discussions would do. Ex-Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Ed Thomas suggested last month that the FCC should lock all parties in a room, “slide pizza under the door” and not let anyone out until an agreement has been reached. The FCC largely brokered an agreement on 800 MHz rebanding six years ago and in recent weeks has sought an agreement on broadband reclassification. Thomas suggested a similar push on a public safety broadband network.
HOUSTON -- APCO played a major role in restoring emergency communications in Haiti following January’s massive earthquake, President Richard Mirgon said Tuesday at the group’s annual conference. A major side effect of the earthquake was the destruction of Haiti’s land mobile radio system, with its transmitter in the presidential palace. An estimated 10,000 emergency calls were made and not answered after disaster struck, Mirgon said.
FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett opened remarks to the APCO conference Monday by recognizing a simple fact about the 700 MHz D-block. “We have a disagreement,” he said. “We are committed to a public debate, public dialogue on the network."
Motorola, TIA, CTIA and other industry players asked the FCC to maintain the de minimis rule in some form for larger manufacturers when it revises its hearing aid compatibility rules (HAC), in a vote scheduled for Thursday’s commission meeting. One of the results of the order is that Apple’s popular iPhone could become hearing aid-compatible.
Negotiations for a possible compromise on broadband reclassification and net neutrality, hosted by FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus, intensified this week, with industry officials at the commission for two additional days of discussions and a call scheduled for late Thursday. What is being described as a “marathon” Saturday meeting is also on tap, set to start at 8 a.m. that day. Hill pressure on the commission to reach a compromise is also growing, with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., telling FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski he’s not pleased with responses to his May 27 letter posing questions about the agency’s work on broadband reclassification.
The FCC is ready to handle payphone-compensation problems as needed, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett told a commission symposium looking at ways to streamline and improve the dial-around compensation process for payphone calls. A dial-around call is made using an access code or toll-free number instead of coins. “Payphones are very important today, as ever, particularly in times of emergency or for consumers who don’t have access to any other form of wireline or wireless telephone service,” Gillett said. Section 276 of the Communications Act requires payphone service providers (PSPs) be compensated fairly for calls, she noted: “Our challenge today is to ensure that PSPs are compensated for all completed calls, including dial-around calls.”
Almost all commenters predicted that CenturyTel’s proposed acquisition of Qwest would hurt broader wireline competition, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates said in reply comments on an FCC public notice about the merger. But the association said it has little hope from the commission’s track record that the deal will be rejected. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance urged approval. The $10.6 billion deal was announced in April.
NTIA initially identified four bands for possible fast-track clearance in response in part to recommendations in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia told the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Tuesday. Two of the bands, including 1755-1780 MHz, have already been taken off the list since no decision could be made by an Oct. 1 deadline. The 1675-1710 MHz band, which provides weather satellite downlinks, and the 3500-3650 MHz band remain on the agency’s list for possible quick clearance. Another chunk of spectrum, the 4200-4220 and 4380-4400 MHz band, was on the list but has also been removed because of potential complications.
The FCC still does not adequately understand and has not addressed concerns about the agency’s proposal for a national public safety wireless broadband network and the need the public safety community has for control of the 700 MHz D-block, public safety officials said Tuesday during a hearing by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Communications. But Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, defended the agency in his testimony before the panel. Subcommittee Chairwoman Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said she was troubled by the concerns expressed by the public safety officials and would ask the FCC to respond directly.