Former FCCer: Hold Off on 988 Text Georouting Mandates

Technology companies and others are already working on issues surrounding georouting texts to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, and that process should play out before the FCC gets involved with deadlines and requirements, Media Institute Senior Fellow and former FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly wrote Wednesday. He said the idea that only FCC public safety mandates can get the work done "has been disproved time and time again," and there are numerous examples of the agency wrongly imposing mandates before the technology was ready. Given the "reasonable level of uncertainty as to when georouting for 988 texts could be technically operational and deployed," the commission should watch the process for now, he said. "Nothing is to be gained by setting arbitrary requirements and/or deadlines." Some communications industry interests have also argued that the agency should hold off on setting 988 text georouting requirements (see 2501100033).