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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 4 / Thursday, January 7, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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Internet Freedom Order promotes public safety, facilitates broadband infrastructure deployment for ISPs, and allows us to continue to provide Lifeline support for broadband internet access service. Further, we conclude that any potential negative effects that the reclassification may have on public safety, pole attachment rights for broadband-only providers, and the Lifeline program are limited and would not change our classification decision in the Restoring Internet Freedom Order even if such negative effects were substantiated. Rather, we find that that overwhelming benefits of Title I
classification and restoration of lighttouch regulation outweigh any adverse effects.
A. Public Safety 8. The Mozilla court directed us to address the effect on public safety of the changed regulatory posture in the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. The Mozilla court focused in particular on claims in the record concerning dangers that might arise from allowing broadband providers to prioritize internet traffic as they see fit, or to demand payment for top-rate speed, and how such actions could imperil the ability of first responders, providers of critical infrastructure, and members of the public to communicate during a crisis. Among other things, the D.C.
Circuit rejected our argument that the public safety issues . . . were redundant of the arguments made by edge providers, finding instead that unlike most harms to edge providers incurred because of discriminatory practices by broadband providers, the harms from blocking and throttling during a public safety emergency are irreparable.
9. We find that neither our decision to return broadband internet access service to its long-standing classification as an information service, nor our subsequent decision to eliminate the internet conduct rules, is likely to adversely impact public safety. To the contrary, our analysis reinforces our determinations made in the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, and we find that on balance, the light-touch approach we adopted and the regulatory certainty provided by the Restoring Internet Freedom Order benefit public safety and further our charge of promoting safety of life and property and the national defense though the use of wire and radio communications. We also find that even if there were some adverse impacts on public safety applications in particular caseswhich we do not anticipatethe overwhelming benefits of Title I

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classification would still outweigh any potential harms.
1. The Commissions Public Safety Responsibilities 10. Advancing public safety is one of our fundamental obligations. The Title I
approach spurs investment in a robust network and innovative services, which enhances the effectiveness of our work to promote public safety consistent with our statutory responsibilities. Indeed, this has been the case over the almost 20 years during which broadband internet access service and, as appropriate, mobile broadband internet access service was classified as a Title I service.
11. As the D.C. Circuit explained, when Congress has given an agency the responsibility to regulate a market such as the telecommunications industry that it has repeatedly deemed important to protecting public safety, then the agencys decisions must take into account its duty to protect the public. We take seriously our public safety responsibilities, as demonstrated by a number of our recent actions. In 2019, for example, pursuant to Karis Law Act of 2017 the Commission required newly manufactured, imported, sold, or leased multi-line telephone systemssuch as those used by hotels and campusesto allow users to dial 911 directly, without having to dial a prefix such as a 9 to reach an outside line. We also adopted rules pursuant to section 506 of the RAY
BAUMS ACT to ensure that dispatchable location information, such as the street address, floor level, and room number of a 911 caller, is conveyed with 911 calls so that first responders can more quickly locate the caller. More recently, we proposed taking action to modernize the Commissions rules to facilitate the priority treatment of voice, data, and video services for public safety personnel and first responders, including removing outdated requirements that may impede the use of IP-based technologies. The Commission has taken important measures to increase the effectiveness of Wireless Emergency Alerts WEAs by requiring Participating Commercial Mobile Service Providers to support longer WEA messages; support Spanishlanguage messages; create a new message category State/Local WEA
Tests; and further implement enhanced geotargeting capabilities. We have also urged wireless service providers and electric power providers to coordinate their response and restoration efforts more closely following disasters, resulting in the
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establishment of the Cross Sector Resiliency Forum in February 2020.
Further, to safeguard Americas critical communications infrastructure from potential security threats, we prohibited the use of public funds from the Commissions Universal Service Fund USF to purchase or obtain any equipment or services produced or provided by companies posing a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or the communications supply chain, and proposed to require certain USF
recipients to remove and replace such equipment and services from their networks and reimburse them for doing so. We also initially designated Huawei Technologies Company Huawei and ZTE Corporation ZTE as covered companies for purposes of this rule, and we established a process for designating additional covered companies in the future. Additionally, the Commissions Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau issued final designations of Huawei and ZTE as covered companies, thereby prohibiting the use of USF
funds on equipment or services produced or provided by these two suppliers. We also recently proposed, pursuant to the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, to 1
create a list of covered communications equipment and services that pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons; 2 ban the use of federal subsidies for any equipment or services on the list of covered communications equipment and services; 3 require that all providers of advanced communications service report whether they use any covered communications equipment and services; and 4
establish regulations to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the proposed reimbursement program to remove, replace, and dispose of insecure equipment. In furtherance of our duties to protect life, we also recently designated 988 as the 3-digit number to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and required all service providers to complete the transition by July 16, 2022.
2. Overview of Public Safety Communications Marketplace 12. Public safety communications fall into two broad categories: 1
Communications within and between public safety entities, and 2
communications between public safety entities and the public. We review each in turn.
13. Communications Among Public Safety Entities. The record reflects that
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