The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related 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 Briefing.
CRTC Supports Text with 9-1-1 Awareness Day
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission will participate in the Text with 9-1-1 Awareness Day. Text with 9-1-1 is now available throughout most of Canada to Canadians who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired (DHHSI). During an emergency, 9-1-1 call centers now have the ability to communicate via text messages with Canadians from the DHHSI community who have registered with their wireless service provider to access the service. For more information and for links to register for the Text with 9-1-1 service with their wireless service provider, Canadians are encouraged to visit www.textwith911.ca. The CRTC is currently conducting a proceeding to examine next-generation 9-1-1 services, which could provide all Canadians with the ability to send text messages, photos, and videos to 9-1-1 operators.
California Prepaid Mobile Telephone Services
The California PUC and Board of Equalization (BOE) have each announced their portions of the 2017 prepaid Mobile Telephony Services (MTS) surcharge rates. The new rates will become effective January 1, 2017, and will be assessed on the total sales price of prepaid wireless telephone service and collected from end-users in California. TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 12/1/16.
