Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on December 12, 2012 at 3:02 pm
Please attribute the following to Bob Quinn, AT&T Senior Vice President of Federal Regulatory and Chief Privacy Officer:
“The FCC’s action today to take further comment on text-to-911 is an important first step towards addressing how public safety obligations will be melded into new and emerging communications technologies. These new services are replacing the POTS services consumers have used for the last century. As this transition continues, the Commission must establish a framework that ensures that consumers can continue to reach emergency services when necessary. Suggestions that the FCC can achieve that goal by imposing public safety obligations only on legacy network technologies or services ignore the reality of the breadth by which consumers are adopting these new technologies.
“Simplicity and common sense should be the guiding lights of this framework. When a child uses a messaging icon on their smartphone in an emergency, parents want that child to reach 911 no matter what service or technology is associated with that icon. Too much is at stake. Any public safety solution that does not encompass all texting services will result in potentially deadly customer confusion.
“We appreciate the Commission’s willingness to attack this challenge in a comprehensive manner. We look forward to continuing to work with the Commission, the public safety community and the disability community, to ensure that, as we transition to the next generation of communications, the ability to reach public safety will remain at the forefront of our policies.”
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on December 10, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Attribute the following to Bob Quinn, AT&T Senior Vice President of Federal Regulatory and Chief Privacy Officer:
“Today’s announcement by the FCC to appoint a Technology Task Force to modernize its rules for the transition of traditionally regulated services to applications that ride on an IP broadband infrastructure is welcome news. As AT&T pointed out in our recent filing, that transition is well underway with more than 70% of consumers having already migrated away from POTS service. Addressing these issues in a comprehensive process that crosses the smoke-stacked bureau structure that is a remnant of an almost eight decades old telecom law is critically important. The Task Force created today by the Commission seems like a logical step towards that comprehensive process. We look forward to working with the FCC and others to ensure we have the right policies in place to promote investment in 21st century communications infrastructure.”
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on December 7, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Attribute the following to Bob Quinn, AT&T Senior Vice President of Federal Regulatory and Chief Privacy Officer:
“At AT&T, the safety of our customers is a top priority. We are in the process of launching a standards-based trial service for text-to-911 in the state of Tennessee and expect industry standards to be finalized in early 2013. The voluntary framework that was proposed yesterday builds on industry work already underway towards achieving a comprehensive framework for our customers to be able to use text messaging services to communicate with 911 emergency responders. But this capability needs to be in place for all text messaging services. The last thing you want in an emergency situation is for the consumer to have to figure out which of the various text messaging services on your Smartphone are capable of actually transmitting a 911 communication. Any solution that is not comprehensive will result in potentially harmful customer confusion. The carrier community, through this agreement with public safety, has taken a step forward here, but more work remains. We appreciate the Commission’s willingness to attack this challenge in a comprehensive manner and look forward to continuing to work with the Commission, as well as our partners in the public safety community and the disability community, to complete this necessary journey.”
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