The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
FCC
The FCC announced the dates for filing comments and reply comments in its proceeding considering changes to the 911 call-forwarding requirements for non-service-initialized phones. Comments are due June 5, 2015; reply comments are due July 6, 2015. Currently, the FCC’s rules require that CMRS providers subject to the 911 rules transmit all wireless 911 calls without respect to their call validation process. Thus, the rule requires providers to transmit both 911 calls originating from customers that have contracts with CMRS providers and calls originating from ‘‘non-service-initialized’’ (NSI) devices to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). A NSI device is a mobile device for which there is no valid service contract with any CMRS provider. NSI devices have no associated subscriber name and address and do not provide Automatic Number Identification (ANI) or call-back features. As a result, when a caller uses a NSI device to call 911, the PSAP typically cannot identify the caller. The FCC is proposing to sunset the NSI component of the rule after a six-month transition period that will allow for public outreach and education. It also asks for comment on various alternative approaches to addressing the issue of fraudulent calls from NSI devices.
Maine
Governor Paul R. LePage announced that Dr. Bruce Williamson, an economist at the University of Tennessee’s Howard Baker Center for Public Policy, has been nominated as Commissioner of the Maine Public Utilities Commission. If approved by the Legislature, Williamson would join engineer and Commission Chair Mark Vannoy, and attorney Carlisle McClean, at the Commission. Williamson would replace outgoing Commissioner David Littell.
Pennsylvania
The PUC announced that Commissioner Gladys M. Brown of Dauphin County will be the PUC’s new Chairman, effective today. She replaces Robert F. Powelson of Chester County, who will remain as Commissioner. John F. Coleman Jr. of Centre County will remain as Vice Chairman.
