Good morning and welcome to the april 2024 open meeting of the federal Communications Commission. Madam secretary, will you please introduce our judges for today . Good morning to you, and good morning, commissioners. For todays meeting, you will be presented with two items and five Enforcement Actions for your consideration. First, you will consider a second further noticed of proposal making that would propose to require the implementation of one or more geo routing solutions for wireless calls to the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, to make sure calls are routed a geographic location rather than the area code and exchange associated with a wireless phone. Second, you will consider a declaratory ruling, order, and order on reconsideration that would reestablish the commissions authority to protect consumers and safeguard the fair and open internet by classifying Broadband InternetAccess Service as a Telecommunications Service, and classifying mobile Broadband Internet access is a commercial mobile service, exercising brought and tailored forbearance, and reinstating strict forward and straightforward rules to ensure internet openness. Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, you will consider separate Enforcement Actions. This is your agenda for today. Todays first item is titled implementation of the National Suicide hotline act of 2018, and will be presented by the water Line Commission bureau. Thank you so much, madam secretary. Before we turn to the bureau for their presentation, we have a very special guest. I would like to introduce the chief executive officer of every mind. They are a Nonprofit Organization with a mission to strengthen communities and empower individuals to raise optimal mental wellness. The execute the organizations strategic plans. She ensures every mind has the infrastructure and Financial Resources to meet its ambitious goals, maintain an Extensive Network of partners and funders as she advances local and regional agendas for Mental Health advocacy. She is also a crucial steward of the culture and values. The most important thing you should know is that she is here today because she has spearheaded the expansion of Mental Health programs in Montgomery County, maryland, which is in our own backyard, and she has been providing direct Mental Health support education to over 50,000 children, youth, adults, older adults, veterans, and their families. I would like her to start off our discussion of 988 today and tell us what she knows from her role leading every mind and heard many Years Experience with Mental Health wellness and suicide prevention. So, take it away. Thank you. Good morning, madam chairwoman. Esteemed commissioners. I extend my sincere gratitude for the opportunity to address you this morning. Representing every mind, an organization deeply committed to enhancing Mental Health and wellness, i speak with conviction on the importance of implementing geo riding within the 988 infrastructure. Our work spans diverse democratic fix, focusing on underserved communities, stigma reduction, and improving access to Mental Health services. For over 50 years, our 24seven hotline has been a cornerstone of support, offering free and confidential assistance to individuals in crisis. As one of the original centers in the National Suicide prevention lifeline network, we have continuously evolved, pioneering Tech Services in maryland over a decade ago. Our dedicated team of 50 frontline crisis counselors anticipates providing supportive listening and suicide intervention on over 50,000 calls and texts this year. Despite our efforts, challenges persist, especially in routing calls and texts from transient areas such as Montgomery County and the National Capital region. Allow me to illustrate the significance of georouting with two poignant examples from our hotline. Maddie, a crisis counselor on our team, received a text through 98 from8 eli, a 16yearold, who bravely confided his mother was contemplating suicide. Eli texted 988 looking for help. While providing eli with much needed support and guidance for how to approach the situation with his mom, maddy reached out to the Montgomery CountyCrisis Center, guiding them through the situation with Vital Information to assess the need for a mobile crisis team response. Once it was realized that the situation was dire, with compassion and astute questioning, maddie was swiftly able to coordinate with the local crisis services. Maddies guidance led to the dispatch of the mobile crisis team, highlighting the profound impact of leveraging local resources in moments of crisis. Conversely, imagine receiving texts from a maryland number, but the person in need is actually across the country. Crisis counselors like ours across the nation faced immediate hurdles. They rely on the visitor to share specific location details, which can be uncomfortable. For example, one of our crisis hotline counselors, erin, answered a call from reina, a woman experience in a panic attack after a devastating Breast Cancer diagnosis. Despite the maryland area code, she is now living in utah and was calling from a parking lot, unable to afford her medical bills. Erin, unfamiliar with utah services, focused on validating reinas feelings and ensuring her safety for the rest of the afternoon. Our counselor erin knows the services to help connect people facing trauma, isolation, and a need of social and emotional support in maryland, but not in utah. Erins options to provide support to reina become more limited and more uncertain. The absence of georouting limited her ability to provide tailored support, underscoring the urgent need for a more effective system. How many people have a different area code from where they reside . I do. Nowhere is this more evident than in washington, d. C. Area, where the Pure Research center estimates that 50 of residents with a cell phone have a number from outside the district. According to the census bureau, approximately 36 million americans move residents every year, but they rarely change their cell phone number. Georouting offers a viable solution to these pressing challenges by directing calls and texts to the nearest Crisis Center while safeguarding confidentiality, georouting ensuring swift access to support in moments of crisis. Moreover, it empowers organizations to identify areas of haida mind haida mind high demand. The demand for Mental Health services has surged dramatically. An additional 30 increase in the second year. Tech support requests has risen by 500 in the same period, with a significant portion originating from young people under the age of 24, highlighting the urgent need for accessible Mental Health services. Despite this escalating demand, awareness of 988 remains low. Polling conducted last year reveals that only 13 of people are aware of 988s existence. This lack of awareness coupled with ineffective routing systems creates layers of complexity in service provision. Of one of marylands nine Crisis Call Centers to the 988 lifeline, every mind is at the forefront of providing support to those in need. Our unwavering commitment to Mental Health advocacy causes us to wholeheartedly support the implementation of georouting. I urge the commission to approve this proposal on georouting to ensure equitable access to timely, local Mental Health support and crisis services, to ensure that every color and texter can receive the same highquality, effective, and lifesaving services that eli and his mother did. Together, we can save countless lives. Thank you for your attention and dedication to this critical issue. Thank you. Thank you so much for your words today, and setting the stage, describing how important what we are about to embark on really is. We really appreciate you being here. With that, our chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau and staff, lets proceed. Good morning, madam chairwoman, and commissioners. Thanks to ms. Mazur for that inspiring message and reminding us what we are working towards. This morning, the bureau is proud to present for your consideration a second further notice of rule making that if adopted would take an important step towards improving access to lifesaving Services Provided by the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline. I would like to thank the bureau team for their hard work, as well as our colic from the Public Safety at Homeland Security bureau, the Wireless Telecommunications bureau, the office of Communications Business opportunities, the office of analytics, and at the office of general counsel for their crucial review and input. I would also like to thank our federal partners at the department of health and Human Services. Seated at the table from the bureau is the associate bureau chief from our front office, the Deputy Division chief fresh in from chicago this morning, and mary wolf. Mary will present the item. Thank you. The United States continues to face a suicide and Mental Health crisis. According to the centers for ds Disease Control and prevention, suicide was the leading cause of death in the u. S. In 2021, resulting in 38,000 deaths. The 988 crisis line provides lifesaving services for people in suicidal crisis or Emotional Distress and is a vital component of the nationwide response to this ongoing Mental Health crisis. Over the last several years, the committee has designated 988 as the three digit dialing number for callers to reach that line, and rerouting calls to the lifeline. Since the transition in july 2022, the lifeline has received and routed over 9. 6 million calls, texts, and chats. Based on the original design of the system, callers may not receive support from local Crisis Centers. Approximately 80 of the calls are made from wireless calls, and the system reroutes those to local collars based on local centers based on area code. Many callers have wireless numbers with area codes that do not match their physical location. The discrepancy is also prevalent among groups like College Students in service members. Mental health and crisis counselors have opined that connecting callers to local Crisis Centers is essential to ensuring they have access to local Public Resources and Public Safety resources. Moreover, local crisis counselors may be more knowledgeable about unique community stressors and other regional, cultural, and economic factors impacting callers in distress. This is highlighted a need to improve the routing of calls to the 988 lifeline, based on the callers location through a process known as georouting. Georouting refers to Technical Solutions for directing calls based on a geographic location for the origin of the call without transmitting information about the callers precise location. This would continue the commissions work to provide meaningful access to the 988 lifeline and build on the progress made by all stakeholders to date by proposing to adopt rules requiring wireless carriers to implement a georouting solution for calls to the 988 lifeline. Next, if adopted, the second further notice would seek comment on a variety of aspects related to implementing the georouting solution for the 988 lifeline, including Technical Specifications and limitations, required routing data and transmission methods, necessary infrastructure and changes, testing requirements, and timelines for deployment. The second further notice would seek comment on routing challenges in any potential or needed georouting solutions for nonwireless calls and texts to the 988 lifeline. Lastly, the second further notice, if adopted, would be comment on the authority to require wireless carriers to implement one or more georouting solutions to calls to the 988 lifeline. The bureau recommends adoption of the second further notice of proposed rulemaking and request editorial privileges. Thank you. We will hear comments. We will start with commissioner carr. Thanks to the bureau for your presentation on this. A year ago, when i was in sioux falls, south dakota, i had the chance to visit the helpline center, an organization that provides mental and Behavioral Health services, and it answers over 100,000 calls to 988 a year. That is when i had the chance to meet janet, one of the counselors. She is someone who makes a difference in peoples lives every single day that she goes to work. The story she told me at work, very similar to the ones we heard ann relay about the communication between maddie and eli. What she conveyed to me is that 988 is making a real difference. She knows that this easy to remember number has resulted in people reaching out for help earlier in a lifecycle of a crisis and that resulted in their counselors being able to be more effective in the help that they provide. In fact, they estimate that since 988 has been rolled out, they have seen a 200 increase in the number of calls and texts coming into the center. But they also thought there was more the sec can continue fcc can continue to do. In particular, they flags call routing with mobile phones and portability. People dont always call 988 from the same Geographic Area associated with the area code on their phone. That means somebody reaching out for help in south dakota has their call routed to a helpline located somewhere else. As we heard erin, the call between as we heard, in the call between erin and reina. There has to be a way to reroute the calls and continue to protect the privacy of colors and make sure they are not discouraged from calling out for help. That is exactly the idea the chair has put forward today. I want to thank the chairwoman for her leadership and work on this issue, for saying how we can further improve the system. I want to recognize the centers for their leadership in efforts to advance the bipartisan 988 lifeline location improvement act. This is legislation that would ensure we have a strong footing necessary to make sure this vital resource continues to be accessible. Finally, i want to thank the staff of the wire land bureau. The item has my support. Thank you for that. Commissioner stark. Thank you, madam chairwoman. First, i would like to think ms. Thank ms. Mazur for your advocacy, what youre doing for people who have Mental Health issues. That was a startling statistic you said. Chat and text Service Needs up by over 500 . That is something that is that we should all take note of. More than anything, i am proud that we have been able to move so quickly here to deliver critical results for the American People. All the pieces, in many ways, have lined up. Since the nationwide transition in july 2022, the lifeline has received and routed 9. 6 million calls, texts, and chats. I would call that success, but as we have heard quite clearly, there is more room for us to do better, to continue to grow. Our primary responsibility is to ensure that meaningful access to the lifeline, and we have done this by setting reliability, outage requirements, and we continue on that great theme following the council of Mental Health advocates proposing to require georouting solutions for 988. Currently, when a caller calls 988, they are routed to a Crisis Center. But where the majority of calls are made from a wireless phone, we have the opportunity to make it even closer, even better, so that it performs. Experts have virtually unanimously advised that connecting callers in crisis to local Crisis Centers is vitally important. The Substance Abuse admin to administration, the lifeline administrator, industry partners, we have all completed that successful proof of concept trial. Of the solution we are talking about for georouting, and this will continue to require cooperation between those carriers originating the call, the lifeline administrator that controls. Obviously, there is more need for us to get our word out for folks experiencing this very critical issue. Thank you to the chairwoman for her leadership. Thank you to the hard work of the team here. It really deserves our full support. When i am reflecting on area codes in my own family, there is a 305, 302, 267, and 505. In my under my own roof. And the 306 for my family back home. But if you are defining the quadrilateral that draws, the corners would be northern virginia, rochester, new y