The FCC is seeking comment on its Seventh Annual Report to Congress on State Collection and Distribution of 911 and Enhanced 911 Fees and Charges (“Report”), which covers the 2014 calendar year. The Report also contains more detailed state-by-state information than prior annual reports on the number and type of 911 calls, the number of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), expenditure of funds for Next Generation 911 (NG911) services, deployment of Emergency Services IP Networks (ESInets) and text-to-911 service, establishment of programs to support PSAP cybersecurity, and the extent of state-level oversight and auditing of collection and use of 911 fees.
Diversion of 911 Fees: Eight states reported diverting a portion of collected 911 fees to non-911 related purposes, the FCC seeks comment on the impact of such diversion as well as the sufficiency and accuracy of this reporting.
NG911 Services: The FCC asks whether NG911 services and infrastructure are receiving adequate 911 fees. The FCC also asks whether 911 fees are being effectively used by state, local and tribal jurisdictions to implement cyber security best practices within PSAPs as well as adherence to national standards.
Oversight and Auditing: The FCC seeks comment on the role of oversight and auditing. The FCC recognizes that most states lack authority to audit service providers to verify that the collected fees accurately reflect the number of in-state subscribers served by the provider and seeks comment on whether additional efforts are needed to ensure that state and local entities have the authority to monitor/audit 911 fee collectors.
Comments are due February 8, 2016 and Reply Comments are due March 9, 2016.
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