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Recent 911 network change raises questions about telephone company bills

Iowa 911 call centers have been utilizing landline technology to operate for many years, but recently there has been a push in the legislation to modernize and transition to a wireless network.

According to the 2021 Wireline 911 Cost Recovery Report, the primary goal of the transition from the legacy landline 911 network to the wireless Next Generation 911 network was to eliminate dated technology and to alleviate costs at a local level.

To accommodate the change, the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEMD) were going to absorb wireline costs historically paid for by call centers, or public safety answering points (PSAPs), and they started working with the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) on the project.

“Since the wireline migration, HSEMD has taken over the call flow process by funding transporting the call from the entry point of the 911 system to the PSAP, as well as the costs of hosting and managing the online Automatic Location Information (ALI) Database which is used by telephone companies and PSAPs to ensure location information is delivered with the 911 call,” HSEMD 911 program manager and legislative liaison Blake DeRouchey explained.

The HSEMD asked that the ICN provide “all-inclusive pricing” for the project, but as they worked on it, they determined that the pricing provided by ICN only covered the transport infrastructure and not various other costs that certain telephone providers generally charged PSAPs.

The actual monetary value of these various extra expenses varied drastically from company to company, as did the actual services they were charging for. So while the project eliminated the costs of the legacy transport network, formerly provided by Lumen (previously known as CenturyLink), it did not account for the other costs.

“HSEMD determined that there was no set standard cost being paid to the telephone companies by the PSAPs. Some telephone companies charged flat fees. Others cited National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) Introduction Tariffs. Some charge for mileage. Others charged for Automatic Location Information (ALI) database changes,” the cost recovery report reads.

These bills are still being charged to various PSAPs throughout Iowa, and currently, there is some debate within the Marshall County Communications Commission (MCCC), which is working with Lumen, whether or not that should be allowed. Last year, Lumen closed out all accounts after the wireline migration, and in the spring, they reopened accounts and resumed billing for certain items such as ALI Database changes. There was no communication beforehand, however.

“Our understanding in working with Lumen is that when they disconnected services and closed accounts for the portion that HSEMD was taking over, they mistakenly turned off billing for everything related to 911 for the PSAP and closed entire accounts. After a period of time, around a year, they discovered that it was a mistake, created new accounts, and reimplemented billing for some services,” DeRouchey said. “The billing that they have re-implemented is in line with types of charges that other telephone companies are still charging, although rates greatly vary.”

The wildly differing costs charged by telephone companies throughout the state are detailed in the report, and the lack of consistency makes it difficult to determine the best course of action when dealing with those costs. According to the cost recovery report, costs for ALI Database maintenance ranged from no costs to $1,113.60 a month.

“During (the wireline migration) process, one wireline telephone company raised its tariff by 350%, raising some bills from $290 to over $1,300. The same telephone company began outreach to sell a two-year price lock to PSAPs, and then threatened price increases if the contract was not agreed to,” The report reads. “This further demonstrates there is no standardization of costs, and telephone companies can hold PSAPs hostage with their pricing under the current arrangement.”

While the lack of standardization or regulation allows telephone companies to charge PSAPs any amount they deem fit, telephone companies can’t actually stop providing services if a PSAP refuses to pay. The report stated that in several cases, the telephone company stopped billing altogether after a PSAP refused to pay for a certain amount of time.

The HSEMD is still determining the best way to handle the situation and are weighing different options to address the additional costs, including several different possible legislation changes such as a possible change that would prohibit telephone companies from charging for certain expenses, among others.

On the other hand, certain PSAPs are also approaching the situation in different ways. The Marshall County Communications Commission, for example, approved a cease-and-desist letter for billing to be sent to Lumen at their most recent board meeting last week.

The situation is ever evolving, and DeRouchey said that when the Federal Communications Commission rules on the open docket, it will provide more clarity.

To read the 2021 Wireline 911 Cost Recovery Report, visit https://homelandsecurity.iowa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/APPROVED_Final-Wireline-Cost-Recovery-Report-082521.pdf.

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Contact Susanna Meyer at 641-753-6611 or

smeyer@timesrepublican.com

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