WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week eliminated the requirement that a cost-recovery mechanism be in place before carriers must deploy wireless enhanced 911 services.
But the agency still will require that costs to public safety answering points be recovered before mandatory E911 service is deployed.
Previously, wireless carriers only had to implement the two phases of E911 service after a carrier received a request from the PSAP and a cost-recovery mechanism was in place. It was generally understood that states would put in place 911 cost-recovery mechanisms that split the costs between carriers and PSAPs.
However, the commission changed the rules after heavy lobbying from the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials Inc., which argued the cost-recovery requirement was significantly delaying E911 rollout.
APCO’s President Joe Hanna lauded the FCC’s decision. “This is the second-most important public-safety item the FCC has dealt with in the last 10 years,” Hanna said.
Reacting to the heavy lobbying the wireless industry had done in recent weeks in an attempt to stop the ruling, Hanna said, “We think [the FCC has] made a ruling made on facts. We have been dealing with a lot of rhetoric and emotion.”
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, which led the lobbying fight against any change in the 911 rules, refused to comment “because we have not seen the order,” said CTIA spokesman Jeffrey Nelson.
The National Emergency Number Association, which had worked with CTIA, sided with APCO in praising the FCC’s actions. Attempts to garner CTIA’s reaction to NENA’s defection were unsuccessful.
The Personal Communications Industry Association, in an attempt to put a positive spin on the FCC’s action, said it was pleased the FCC did not mandate a proposal to put in place a “bill-and-keep” mechanism, but rather said carriers could recover their costs any way they choose.
A bill-and-keep mandate could have required carriers to pay for PSAP implementation costs.
The FCC does not believe its actions will impact current cost-recovery mechanisms. “If it is working … we are not trying to suggest anyone should undo what is being done today,” said Jim Schlichting, deputy bureau chief of the government’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
While about 30 states have varying degrees of cost-recovery mechanisms in place for Phase I deployment, no states have implemented cost-recovery mechanisms for Phase II, said WTB Chief Thomas Sugrue.
To date, only 3 percent of PSAPs have implemented E911 service.
