New regs for Wednesday: 911, telegraphs, taxes

Wednesday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new rules for 911 calls made from inactive cellphones, telegraph regulations, taxes for companies that trade minerals and other natural resources, and conservation standards.

Here’s what is happening:

911: The Federal Communications Commission is proposing to prevent cellphones that have not been activated from calling 911 emergency responders.

Currently, commercial mobile radio service are required to connect all calls to 911, even if they come from cellphones that are not paying a provider for service.

The problems is that 911 calls made from these non-service-initialized devices are difficult to track, the FCC says. This leads to many prank phone calls that “waste limited public resources.”

As such, the FCC is proposing to drop the requirement that these calls be connected to 911.

The public has 30 days to comment.

Telegraph: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing to eliminate outdated regulations, including references to “telegraph service.”

The agency says it is looking to “modernize our rules to better reflect the state of the current telecommunications market.”

The public has 30 days to comment.

Taxes: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is proposing new rules for companies that publicly trade minerals and other natural resources.

The rules would address qualifying income from the “exploration, development, mining or production, processing, refining, transportation, and marketing” of these minerals.

The public has 90 days to comment.

Electronic filing: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is moving forward with new rules for its electronic filing system while eliminating outdated requirements.

The changes go into effect on May 12.

Conservation: The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is moving forward with new conservation practice standards.

The agency said Tuesday it will update the National Handbook of Conservation Practices.

The changes go into effect immediately.