The FCC's outage reporting order approved 4-0 at its July open meeting (see 2307200041) expands on why the agency isn't requiring originating services providers to notify covered 988 service providers about outages, saying doing so wouldn't help improve the 988 Lifeline's reliability, according to our side-by-side comparison with the draft order. The finalized rule was released Friday. If an outage is in an originating service provider's network, it's unclear what the value is of covered 988 service providers starting to troubleshoot their own networks, the FCC said in the order. The finalized order also adds a paragraph expanding on its legal authority. And it adopts USTelecom-suggested language to harmonize the compliance timeline for the 988 outage reporting rules with the compliance timeline for 911 outage reporting rules adopted last year (see 2307140017).
Country of origin cases
Wireless carriers disagree with public safety over some FCC proposals for revised requirements for wireless emergency alerts, based on comments to the FCC. The Further NPRM, approved 4-0 in April, proposes to require participating providers to ensure mobile devices can translate alerts into the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S. aside from English, to send thumbnail-sized images in WEA messages, and other changes (see 2304200040). Comments were due Friday in docket 15-94.
The FCC and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are partnering on a trial of georouting calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the commission said Thursday as commissioners approved 988 outage reporting requirements 4-0, as expected (see 2307130010). Commissioners also unanimously approved an order allowing 14 FM6 stations to broadcast analog signals as an ancillary service and an order giving tribal libraries and other E-rate participants greater access to funding.
Congress should pass federal right-to-repair legislation to supersede ill-equipped state laws that will soon become obsolete, advocates told House Judiciary Committee members Tuesday.
Senate leaders are facing continued pressure to use floor time to confirm a trio of FCC nominees, or at least new Democratic pick Anna Gomez, before Congress leaves on the month-plus August recess at the end of July amid apparent Republican holds that would prevent approving her via unanimous consent. A GOP-led proposal to hold back either Gomez or incumbent Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks for pairing with two Republican FTC picks, meanwhile, continues to draw at best a tepid reception from supporters of ending the FCC’s two-year 2-2 partisan tie. The Commerce Committee advanced Gomez, Starks and Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr last week on voice votes tinged with partisan opposition (see 2307120073).
Alaska’s GCI became the latest carrier to raise timing concerns on an FCC proposal that carriers more precisely route wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing (LBR) (see 2212210047). “A longer timeline than proposed in the NPRM would likely be required for non-nationwide and regional carriers such as GCI to both deploy and use LBR in their networks,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-64. GCI also said implementing LBR for SMS- and MMS-based texts-to-911 “would be much more difficult than for IP-originated wireless calls, and that significant additional standards development and industry agreement should occur prior to any FCC requirement.” GCI representatives met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff.
An FCC draft order on FM6 low-power TV stations is expected to change little from the draft version and to be unanimously approved Thursday, FCC and industry officials said. The stations -- sometimes called “Franken FMs”-- broadcast primarily audio content that can be picked up with FM radio receivers and “will get to stay on the air and continue serving the public,” said Wiley broadcast attorney Ari Melzer, who represents several FM6 broadcasters.
Library groups and E-rate participants welcomed a draft FCC order and Further NPRM that would modify program rules for tribal colleges and university libraries and seek additional updates for all participants. Commissioners will consider the item during their open meeting Thursday (see 2306290056). Some sought clarifying language in the draft FNPRM.
The FCC should make originating service providers notify covered 988 service providers (CSP) of a 988 Lifeline outage, CX360 representatives told aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, per docket 23-5 filings Monday. The voice and SMS-based information services firm also urged that CSPs should have to notify one another of an outage. CX360 said that with that information, it could understand better what's happening upstream and troubleshoot issues without having to contact a provider earlier in the call path. The company also argued against requiring all CSPs report outages affecting 988 to the FCC's network outage reporting system, as having entities not currently subject to NORS reporting obligations now have to do so "is both burdensome and inefficient." CX360 instead urged use of email and phone calls for CSPs to communicate 988 outages.
Broadcasters say they need to use encryption and digital rights management (DRM) on their ATSC 3.0 streams to make the service a safe place for content, but early adopters, consumers and public interest groups say doing so cuts off the only existing low-cost ways to receive ATSC 3.0 transmissions. Broadcast consortium Pearl TV told us new, working external tuners will be available in weeks, but until they hit the market, the only option is “a $600 television set,” said Tyler Kleinle, who discusses broadcast tech on YouTube as The Antenna Man. “I do not like the fact all these broadcasters are putting DRM up before there are any solutions to this issue,” said Jason Shallcross in one of hundreds of similar comments that appear to be posted by individual consumers in the past week in docket 16-142: “Its like they are trying to implement it as fast as they can before anyone can comment on it.”