FCC Open Meeting: The IP Transition and Text-to-911

January 2014 — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held an open meeting regarding the considerations for a Report and Order and Notices of Proposed Rulemaking to address both technology transition experiments and policy goals regarding widespread implementation of public safety measures.  Following the meeting the FCC announced the launch of voluntary experiments regarding the technology transitions in communications networks. The experiments will focus on ways to ensure that regardless of technology, public safety communications networks remain functional and that “all Americans have access to affordable communications services” without sacrificing consumer protection.  Information from the experiments will be used by the FCC to guide future legal and policy choices.  Also resulting from the meeting, the FCC encouraged all text providers to deploy text-to-911.  The Commission notes that while the nation’s four largest wireless providers have committed to make text-to-911 available for their customers, the effort to ensure all text providers enable this service is imperative due to “Americans’ increasing reliance on text messaging.”  The archived webcast of the meeting and supporting documentation can be accessed at:  http://www.fcc.gov/events/open-commission-meeting-january-2014.