Implementation of the National Suicide Hotline Act of 2018

<RULE> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[WC Docket No. 18-336; FCC 24-111; FR ID 258492]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Implementation of the National Suicide Hotline Act of 2018</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopted a <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> that requires wireless providers to implement a georouting solution for calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988 Lifeline or Lifeline) to facilitate access to critical local intervention services. The majority of calls to the 988 Lifeline are made from wireless phones. However, the 988 Lifeline's system was originally designed to route calls to crisis centers based on a caller's area code and exchange, which may not correspond to the caller's physical location. With georouting data, the 988 Lifeline will be able to route wireless calls to local crisis centers based on the geographic area where the handset is located at the time the 988 call is initiated while maintaining privacy by not identifying the caller's precise location. The <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> also revises the Commission's existing 988 voice and texting rules to permit routing to the 988 Lifeline without translation to a toll free access number, giving wireless providers flexibility in implementing georouting solutions. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Effective date:</E> This rule is effective December 12, 2024. <E T="03">Compliance dates:</E> Compliance with the addition of 47 CFR 52.202 is required for nationwide Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) providers by 30 days after December 12, 2024 and compliance is required for all CMRS providers by 24 months after December 13, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For further information, contact Merry Wulff at <E T="03">Merry.Wulff@fcc.gov</E> or at (202) 418-1084. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This is a summary of the Commission's <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> in WC Docket No. 18-336, FCC 24-111, adopted on October 17, 2024 and released on October 18, 2024. The full text of the document is available on the Commission's website at <E T="03">https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-111A1.pdf.</E> To request materials in accessible formats for people with disabilities ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Braille, large print, electronic files, audio format, etc.), send an email to <E T="03">FCC504@fcc.gov</E> or call the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Congressional Review Act</HD> The Commission has determined, and the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, concurs, that this rule is non-major under the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 804(2). The Commission sent a copy of this <E T="03">Third Report & Order</E> to Congress and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, <E T="03">see</E> 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Synopsis</HD> 1. In this <E T="03">Third Report and Order,</E> and consistent with our proposal in the <E T="03">Implementation of the National Suicide Hotline Act of 2018, Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</E> ( <E T="03">SFNPRM</E> ), 89 FR 46340 (May 29, 2024), we adopt a rule that would require wireless providers to implement a georouting solution for calls to the 988 Lifeline. We find that a georouting mandate will strengthen and improve access to the critical benefits of the 988 Lifeline for callers in crisis. We then define the type of location data that qualifies as georouting data. Next, we require nationwide and non-nationwide Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) providers to have the capability to provide georouting data with 988 calls to the Lifeline Administrator in a format that is compatible with the 988 Lifeline's routing platform to allow routing of calls by generating location data using cell-based location technology. We require CMRS providers to aggregate the cell-based location data to a level that will not identify the location of the cell site or base station receiving the 988 call or otherwise identify the precise location of the handset, thereby protecting the privacy of the caller. 2. To give wireless providers flexibility for this mandate, we do not specify a particular method for aggregating the location data and allow providers to use technically feasible options for meeting this requirement to the extent that they are compatible with the systems used by the 988 Lifeline. This approach is consistent with solutions deployed or being deployed by the three nationwide CMRS providers. We then establish an implementation timeline for georouting calls to the 988 Lifeline of 30 days following the effective date of the rule for nationwide CMRS providers, which is supported by the nationwide providers' representations that they will have already deployed compliant 988 georouting solutions by the compliance deadline. This action will ensure that as soon as possible, the vast majority of callers to the 988 Lifeline in the United States have access to support and resources most closely connected to their location with appropriate privacy safeguards. We expect that non-nationwide CMRS providers will be able to leverage the solutions implemented by the nationwide providers, and for that reason, we require non-nationwide providers to implement georouting 24 months after the effective date of the rule. Finally, we revise our existing 988 voice and texting rules to allow for routing to the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) without need for translation to the toll free number. Overall, we find that the reasonable and flexible georouting mandate and rule revisions we adopt will provide certainty that 988 callers will be connected to the crisis center nearest to them. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Georouting Will Improve Access and Efficiency of the 988 Lifeline</HD> 3. Under our current rules, calls to 988 must first be routed to the existing toll free ten-digit access number for the 988 Lifeline, from which they are then routed to one of over 200 regional crisis centers based on the area code and exchange of the caller's telephone number supplied by the originating service provider. The Commission's rules also require covered 988 text messages to be routed to the 988 Lifeline's current toll free ten-digit access number. The Wireline Competition Bureau granted a waiver to allow covered text providers to route covered 988 text messages to the 988 Lifeline using the short code protocol without translation to the Lifeline's current toll free access number. This allows return texts from the 988 Lifeline to appear on consumer devices as coming from 988 rather than 1-800-273-TALK. As technology trends have shifted from landline phones to mobile phones, many callers now rely on wireless devices with area codes that may not correspond to their physical locations when contacting the 988 Lifeline, complicating their access to vital local services. In the <E T="03">SFNPRM,</E> we explained that the majority of calls placed to the 988 Lifeline are from wireless phones, and the area codes of those phones often do not correspond to the location of the caller. The Lifeline Administrator estimates that 80% of calls placed to the 988 Lifeline are from wireless phones. While 988 call takers can provide support regardless of a caller's location, they may not be able to connect callers in crisis to local resources. We proposed to adopt a rule that would require wireless providers to implement one or more georouting solutions for calls to the 988 Lifeline in order to ensure more accurate routing of calls. After reviewing the record in this proceeding, we find that requiring wireless providers to support georouting for wireless 988 calls is essential to improve the public's access to the 988 Lifeline's critical mental health crisis and suicide prevention services. 4. The record demonstrates near-unanimous agreement for the assertion that there is a need to improve routing of wireless 988 calls to help ensure that callers are routed to geographically appropriate crisis centers. Commenters, including industry and mental health advocates, agree that georouting for 988 wireless calls will improve access to critical local resources and help connect callers to counselors who may be more knowledgeable about unique community stressors and other regional, cultural, and economic factors impacting callers in distress. As several mental health advocates emphasize, access to local resources and support can mean the “difference between life and death for hundreds of thousands of individuals annually.” Commenters also highlight that georouting for 988 calls will improve access to referral and follow-up services that may reduce the risk of future mental health crises and suicidality. For example, Mental Health America states that connecting callers to “support based on their physical location can enable crisis contact centers to provide connections to local resources and follow-up services, reducing the risk of suicidality for individuals in crisis.” Several commenters also assert that follow-up services are “more meaningful when a caller is connected to local crisis support.” 5. Mental health and crisis counselors ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 119k characters. 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