DORA and the Public Utilities Commission briefed the Joint Business Committee on Jan. 22 on Colorado’s 2024 State of 9‑1‑1 report, summarizing recent regulatory work and recommending a path forward to improve statewide emergency call delivery and operational standards.

Patty Salazar, DORA executive director, introduced the agency’s portfolio and then turned the committee to Joe Branson, telecom program section chief at the PUC, who highlighted six key points from the PUC’s annual 9‑1‑1 report. The PUC concluded a 2024 rulemaking strengthening requirements on outages and billing credits for extended disruptions and is adjudicating a tariff from the basic emergency service provider (CenturyLink/Lumen) to complete Colorado’s transition from legacy analog 9‑1‑1 to an Internet Protocol‑based Statewide NG‑911 network.

Branson told lawmakers the PUC concluded a Basic Emergency Service Improvement Plan that allows the incumbent provider to add an additional rate to its tariff to pay for planned network upgrades; those improvements will raise the statewide 9‑1‑1 surcharge by 3 cents starting immediately. The Legislature also created a 9‑1‑1 services enterprise in SB24‑139; the enterprise board is seated and expected to begin collecting funds in 2026 for statewide projects and grants to local centers.

Key issues highlighted in the report:
- Local disparities in emergency telephone charge (ETC) rates: some rural jurisdictions now charge as much as $4 per line per month while others remain at about $0.70, producing a broad gap in local revenue capacity for PSAPs (public safety answering points).
- Colorado is one of only seven states with no minimum statewide operational or training standards for 9‑1‑1 call centers; the PUC and some stakeholders prefer voluntary development of standards and said the Colorado 9‑1‑1 Training Standards Institute is continuing work to develop voluntary standards.
- The PUC staff continue to track and investigate disruptions; outage counts rose in 2023 (likely due to better reporting) then declined in 2024; average outage durations remain a concern (multi‑hour events).
- Cybersecurity and readiness at local 9‑1‑1 centers: while the PUC reviews cybersecurity controls for the network, there is no statutory mechanism to ensure or fund cybersecurity readiness at local PSAPs; PUC recommended the new enterprise consider voluntary cybersecurity assistance or funding.

The PUC recommended that the Legislature consider (1) a process to develop voluntary minimum operational and training standards for PSAPs, and (2) steps to address growing ETC rate disparities (options include greater statutory guidance for the PUC on ETC approvals or a cap mechanism adjustable for inflation).

Lawmakers asked detailed operational questions about network diversity, fiber loops, voicemail reroutes and continuity of operations; PUC staff said the short‑term mitigations are reroutes to alternate answering points or local 7‑digit redirections (which can lose automatic location), while the long‑term solution requires more network redundancy, geographic diversity and the enterprise funding mechanism now being established.