FCC Approves Text-to-911 Order that Had Been Set for Vote at Monthly Meeting
An FCC order requiring all carriers and providers of interconnected text message services to provide subscribers with automatic 911 bounceback messages by Sept. 30 was pulled late Wednesday from Thursday’s commission agenda. The order had been circulated prior to its being put on the agenda last week for the meeting and the commissioners wrapped up electronic voting Wednesday, FCC officials said.
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The meeting is widely expected to be Julius Genachowski’s last as chairman, though he hasn’t said exactly when he will leave. Many FCC and industry sources expect the departure to come by the end of next week.
The order already had three votes, with Genachowski and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel voting to approve it, FCC officials said. Commissioner Ajit Pai had been the holdout. Pai’s office had raised some concerns about the legal arguments in the order on why the FCC has authority to impose a bounceback requirement on over-the-top messaging apps like WhatsApp, FaceBook messaging and Apple’s iMessage, agency officials said.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile agreed last year to upgrade their networks so they can transmit the bounceback messages by June 30 (CD Dec 10 p1). The FCC last year sought comment on when and how it should extend this requirement.
AT&T representatives recently met with FCC staff to raise a number of issues, including whether the order would require updating handsets incapable of supporting three-digit short codes, said an ex parte filing. “We expressed AT&T’s concerns that the Commission may be missing an opportunity to define the basic characteristics of the next-generation communication services (i.e. those that are replacements for POTS) to which limited, necessary regulations (such as those being contemplated in this proceeding) should apply,” the company said (http://bit.ly/10j35YH). “Consumers and services are transitioning towards IP-based communications on a daily basis, and the Commission must not miss these opportunities to work towards a framework for IP transition of the public switched telephone network, lest it continue to lag behind the natural evolution of the marketplace for these services.”