Giving a front row seat to democracy. Next federal Communications Commission jose discussion on Net NeutralityEnforcement Actions get several pirate Radio Stations ngo routing and Location Based Services for the National Suicide prevention hotline. This is just under two hours. Good morning and welcome to theth april, 2824 open meeting f the federal Communications Commission. Madam secretary will you please introduce our agenda for today . Thank you madame chairwoman. Good morning to you and good morning commissioners. For todays meeting you will be presented with two items in five Enforcement Actions for yourr consideration. First you will consider a second further notice of proposed rulemaking which would propose to require the implementation of one or more geo routing solutions for calls 988 the site in crisis lifeline to ensure calls are based on the geographic location for the origin of the calls rather than the area code and exchange associated with the wireless phone. Second, you will consider declaratory ruling, order reported order and order on dereconsideration that would reestablish the commissions authority to protect consumers and safeguard the fair and open internet by classifyingas Broadband InternetAccess Service as a Telecommunications Service and classifying mobile Broadband InternetAccess Service as a commercial mobile service. Exercising broad and tailored and reinstating straightforward clear rules to ensure internet openness. Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth he will consider separate enforcementh, action. This is the agenda for today. Todays the first item is titled implementation of the National Suicide hotline t act of 2018 wl be presented by the Competition Bureau chief of the bureau will give the introduction. Thank you so much madam secretary. Now count before we turn to the bureau for their presentation we have a very special guest. I like to introduce and is the chief executive officer of every mind a Nonprofit Organization with a mission to strengthen communities and empower individuals to reach optimal mental wellness. As ceo, and advances every mind mission exiting strategic plan. She ensures every mind has the infrastructure and Financial Resources to meet its Ambitious Goals maintain an Extensive Network of partners and advances local regional agendas and for thought leadership and Mental Health advocacy. Thshes also a crucial steward f this organizations culture and values. Now, 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 company, maryland a pair which is in our own backyard. She has been providing direct Mental Health support education to over 50000 youth, older adults, veterans and their families. And i would like her to start up our discussion of 988 today tell us what she knows of her role leading every mind and her many, many years of experience with Mental Health wellness and Suicide Prevention parts are taken away. Thank you. Good morning madam chairwoman. An esteemed commissioners. My sincere gratitude to represent you each morning. Every mind deeply enhancing health and wellness. I speak with conviction on the critical importance of implementing geo routing within that 988 infrastructure. Our work spans diverse demographics focusing particularly on underserved communities. Segment reductioner and improvig access to Mental Health services. For over 50 years art 24 7 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 continuously evolved binary crisis hotline Tech Services in maryland over a decade ago. Our dedicated team of 50 frontline hotline krause crisis counts into space writing listing and suicide intervention on over 50000 calls and texts this o year. Despite our efforts challenges persist. Especially in routing calls from transient areas such as Montgomery County and the National Capitol region. Allow me too illustrate the significance of geo routing with two poignant examples from our hotline. Matty, crisis counselor on our amteam received a text third 988 from eli, a 16yearold who bravely confided his mother was contemplating suicide. He liked text 988 looking for help. While providing a light with much needed support and guidance on how to approach the situation with his mom, mattie reach out to Montgomery CountyCrisis Center. Guiding them to the situation with the Vital Information to assess the need for a mobile crisis team response. Once it was realized the situation was dire, with compassion and is to a questioning mattie was swiftly able to coordinate with the local crisis services. Matties and guidance ultimately 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 the person it nay is actually across the country. Crisis counselors like ours across the nation face immediate hurdles. They rely on the visitor toat share specific location details. Which can be uncomfortable. For example, one of our crisis hotline counselors, erin, answered a call from arena at 28yearold experiencing a panic attack and after devastating breast cancerce diagnosis. Diag. 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 the absence of geo routing limits ability to proprovide support underscoring the urgent need for more effective system. How many people have a different area code from where they reside . I do. Nowhere is this evident than in washington, d. C. Area where the Pew Research Center estimates that 55 of residents with a cell phone have a number outside of the district. According to the Census Bureau approximately 36 million americans yet they rarely change phone number. Geo routing provides challenging solution by directing nearest Crisis Center, swift access to support during moments of crisis. Moreover it empowers organizations like every mind to identify areas of high demand facilitating targeted resource allocation and enhancing service delivery. Since launch of 988 the development of Mental Health services has surged dramatically. Annual call volumes increased 50 in the first year and additional 30 in the second year, tech support have risen by 500 in the same period. With the significant portion originating from young people turned age of 24 highlighting urgent need for accessible Mental Health services. Awareness of 988 remains low. Only 13 of people are aware of 988 existence. This lack of awareness coupled with in effective routeing systems creates layers as well as marylands nine Crisis Call Centers for 988 suicide and crisis lifeline every mind is at the forefront of providing support of those in need. In conclusion, i urge the commission to approve this proposal on geo routing to timely local Mental Health support and Crisis Support centers to ensure that every color and texture receive the same high quality effective and lifesaving services that eli and his mother did. Together we can save countless lives, thank you. For your attention and dedicated dedication to this critical issue. Thank you. Thank you so much and for your words today and for setting the stage describing what we are about to embark on really is, i really appreciate you being here and with that, lets proceed. This morning is Competition Bureau to consider second further notice ifno adopted woud take an important step towards improving access to lifesaving Services Provided by the 988 suicide and crisis lifelong. The office of economics and analytics and the office of general crucial for review and input. I would like to thank our federal partners Substance Abuse and Mental Health services. Sitting at the table from the bureau are liz associate chief and hendrickson, 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 the suicide and Mental Health crisis. According to the centers for Disease Control and prevention suicide was leading cause of death in the United States in 2021 resulting in 48,000 deaths. Suicide and crisis lifeline provides critical lifesaving services for people in suicidal crisis or emotional dye stress g vital component. Over the last several years the commission to facilitate access to 988 as lifeline, 9digit number to reach the lifeline ans providers to provide Text Messages to the lifeline. Lifeline has received an routed 9. 6 million calls, texts and chats. Based on original design of 988 lifeline system, callers may not receive support from local Crisis Centers, approximately 80 are made from wireless phones and the system currently routes those calls to Crisis Center in exchange which presents challenges because many callers have wireless phones with area codes that do not match their physical occasions. College students and service members. Mental health andnd crisis counselors have opine that connecting callers to local Crisis Centers is essential to ensure 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. Technical solutions for directing calls based on theph origin of the call without transmitting information about the callers precise location. This second further notice proposed rulemake if adopted 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 geo routing solution for calls in t the 988 lifeline. Second further notice would seek to obtain information thoroughly and transparently with geo routing solutions in the scope of mandate and identify work to implement routing solution. Next if adopted the second further notice would be comment on a variety of aspects related to implementing the geo routing solutions for the 988 lifeline including Technical Specifications and limitations and requiring routing data and necessary infrastructure and system changes or upgrades,ng testing requirements and timelines for deployment. The second further notice if adopted would also seek comment on routeing challenges and any potential or needed geo routing solutions for nonwireless calls and text to 988 lifeline. Lastly the second further notice if adopted would see comment on commissions authority to adopt rules to implement one or more geo routing solutions for wireless calls to 988 lifeline. The bureau recommends adoption andon the editorial privileges, thank you. Thank you. We will now hear comments. We will start with commissioner car. Thanks so much. Thanks the bureau for the presentation on this. A year ago while i was in sioux falls, south dakota i had a chance to visit the Helpline Center which is an organization that provides mental and behavioral Health Services and answersvi over 100,000 calls to 988 a year. Thats where i had the chance to meet janet, counselors, someone who makes a difference in peoples lives every single day as she goes to work. The story she told me were very similar to the ones that we heard andhe just relay about communication between mattie and eli. Nowic the point that is janet ad her colleagues conveyed to me when we met was that 988 is making a real difference, she noted that its easy to remember number has resulted in people reaching out for help earlier in the life cycle of a crisis. And thats resulted in their counselors being able to be more effective in the help that they provide. In fact, they estimate since 988 has ruled out theyve seen 200 inaccuracy in the number of calls and texts coming into the center. But they always thought more the fc could continue to do in particular flag call routing with mobile phones, portability as we heard. People dont always call 988 from the same Geographic Area associated with their area code on their phone. That means someone reaching out for help in south dakota, as we heard with the call between erin and reyna. Local helpline while continuing to protect the privacy of callers and making sure thate theyre not discouraged from reaching out for help. Thats exactly the idea that the chair has put forward today. I want to thank carolyn for her leadership and work on this issue for seeing how we can further improve this system. Imi want to recognize centers barrasso to advance 988 lifeline location improvement act. This was legislation that ensures that we have the strong footing necessary to make sure that this vital resource continues to be accessible. Finally, i want to thank the staff for their work on this important issue and the item has my support. Thank you for that. Commissionernk stark. Yeah, thank you, madame chairwoman, i want to thank ms. Masur for your testimony, advocacy, folks that are having Mental Health issues, that was a startling statistic you set here. Chat and Tech Services needs up by over 500 , that is something that is we should all take note of. And more than anything, you know, 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 for the 3digit code that we are talking aboutut here. 988 since the nationwide transition in july of 2022, the lifeline has as we heard received and routed 9. 6 million ndcalls texts and chats. I would call that success but as weve heard quite clearly there is more room for us to do better, to continue to grow. All primary responsibility here at the fcc is to ensure that meaningful access to the lifeline and weve done this by setting forth reliability, resiliency and today we continue on that great theme following the council of Mental Health advocates, geo routing solutions for 988. Currently as we heard, a caller dials 988 the call is routed to a Crisis Center but where the majority of calls are made from a wireless phone, we do have that opportunity to make it even closer, even better so that itto performs Mental Health and crisis counseling experts have virtually unanimously advised that connecting callers in crisis to local Crisis Centers is vitally important and so the Substance Abuse and Mental HealthServices Administration samsa, the administrator, industry partners, we have all completed the proof of concept trial of the solution that we are talking about here for geo routing and this will continue to require cooperation between those carriers originating the calls, the lifeline giadministrator that controls ad obviously theres more need for us to get the word out as we heard for folks that are experiencing this very critical issue. And so thank you to the chairwoman for the leadership and thank you to the hard work of the team here. It really deserves our full pride. It has my very full support. Thank you for that. Commissioners, thank you. 305 number. It was in my immediate family under my roof. For those of you who and 306 number. But if youre defining the quad lateral that that draws, should be Northern Virginia chicago and south florida. Personally, i would appreciate being geo located whenever theres a need for services like. This obviously we are just in a dif