The FCC picked up more expressions of interest in participating in wireless emergency alert tests in combination with the agency over the past week, including by some larger players, with more than 40 filing as of Friday (see 2205060058). The City of Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications said it would like to participate in a test, in a brief filing in docket 22-160. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management expressed an interest. “We serve over 1.1 million people within our jurisdictions of both the City of Charlotte as well as Mecklenburg County,” the agency said: “As part of a fixed nuclear facility program due to the location of the McGuire Nuclear Station in our county, we have an enhanced need for strong WEA capabilities to communicate with members of the public.” King County, Washington, noted its population is larger than that of 15 states. “Seattle will participate and use their volunteers to verify performance within the city; their emergency managers can also send WEA messages during the test,” King County said: “Other cities within the county will also be invited to assist. These known entities can be pre-trained in what to expect and can be relied upon to provide accurate data about their location and time when a message is received.” The Orange County Operational Area in California volunteered, noting it includes “a resident population of approximately 3.2 million, including densely packed urban areas through sparse rural canyon populations.” The FCC released a public notice last month seeking partnerships with local emergency agencies to gather data on how WEA is performing at the local level (see 2204210050). The FCC is seeking “testing partners that represent the diverse environments where WEAs are sent (i.e., dense urban, urban, suburban and rural areas).”
Howard Buskirk
Howard Buskirk, Executive Senior Editor, joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News. Follow Buskirk on Twitter: @hbuskirk
The FCC, as expected, denied petitions for reconsideration filed by wireless-mic makers Sennheiser and Shure of a December 2020 order (see 2012080064) closing the agency’s 2015 NPRM on whether to allocate a vacant channel for use by white space devices and wireless microphones (see 2204060068). The companies faced an uphill fight, with strong opposition from NAB and a united commission voting to close the proceeding. “We uphold the conclusions and reasoning in the Termination Order,” said an FCC order listed in Thursday’s Daily Digest. While “we have concluded that we should not proceed with the proposals in this docket, the Commission is committed to supporting white space devices and wireless microphones and has pursued, and continues to pursue, avenues to ensure adequate spectrum availability for the important services they provide,” the order said. The record reflects “a large number of comments” and opposition by NAB, the FCC said: “Generally, the comments are similar statements expressing strong support for the important functions performed by wireless microphones and support for the designation of one UHF channel for wireless microphone use.” After reviewing comments, the FCC found adoption of rules proposed in a 2015 NPRM “would not strike the most reasonable balance that would best serve the public interest,” the order said: “We make this determination in light of other actions taken by the Commission since the 2015 NPRM that will support wireless microphone users and the burdens that the proposal would impose on broadcasters.”
China has a growing presence in telecom standards bodies like the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, but experts said the U.S. still has significant influence, during a USTelecom webinar Thursday. Experts agreed the election of American Doreen Bogdan-Martin as ITU secretary-general is important to the development of industry-led standards (see 2205110039). The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) is scheduled to vote at a May 24 meeting on a draft letter to the president on standards.
AT&T said Wednesday two of the better-known executives in its Washington, D.C., office are retiring. Joan Marsh, executive vice president-federal regulatory relations, and Tim McKone, executive vice president-federal legislative relations, are leaving. Marsh has been at AT&T for 26 years and McKone for 27. “Marsh has been a terrific community leader and committed to advancing AT&T’s regulatory agenda in Washington and state capitals across the country,” said Ed Gillespie, senior executive vice president-external and legislative affairs, in a statement: “McKone has been instrumental in sharing our vision with policy makers in Washington. Tim’s efforts on Capitol Hill for Southwestern Bell, SBC, Cingular wireless and AT&T have helped shape the company we are today.” Industry officials said the departures were voluntary but reflect AT&T’s ongoing cost-cutting (see 2204210061), with some higher-paid executives also leaving AT&T’s Dallas headquarters. Replacements haven't been named.
Doreen Bogdan-Martin remains the front-runner to be elected ITU secretary-general at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, which starts Sept. 26, but industry officials who have been trying to count votes say nothing is guaranteed. Some warned of "ripple effects" if Russian nominee Rashid Ismailov is elected, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The vote comes a year ahead of the next World Radiocommunications Conference.
Moving to open radio access networks is critical to smaller players like XCOM-Labs, as well as for innovation, said its founder Paul Jacobs, the former Qualcomm CEO, during an Open RAN Policy Coalition webinar Wednesday. Other speakers said the move to the cloud will spur ORAN, but developing standards and better interoperability remain challenges.
As electric utilities and other companies move to private 4G and 5G networks, they will likely get better security than on their legacy networks, experts said during a Fierce Wireless virtual conference Tuesday. Speakers said security needs will vary by company and simplicity is usually better than building a network that’s too complex. “If you make something too complex, you have more variables, you’re asking for trouble,” said Roy Chua, principal at AvidThink: “Complexity is one of the biggest enemies of security.”
Private 5G is in the nascent stage, but adoption is starting to accelerate, speakers said during a Fierce Wireless virtual conference Monday. Speakers said the network often has to be tailored for the individual business and has to go beyond a “turn-key” solution.
Development of open radio access networks, and the security and reliance of 5G, require cooperation between government and industry, said Brendan Dowling, an Australian communications official, during an Open RAN Policy Coalition virtual conference Monday. The session is part of the ongoing Quadrilateral Security Dialogue among the governments of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. Leaders of the quad countries will meet May 24 in Tokyo for a summit, where infrastructure is expected to be a main topic, speakers said.
The FCC is racking up expressions of interest in participating in wireless emergency alert tests in combination with the agency. The FCC released a public notice last month seeking partnerships with local emergency agencies to gather data on how WEA is performing at the local level (see 2204210050). A national WEA test showed the “need for localized WEA testing to confirm WEA’s performance at the local level and to generate data on WEA’s geotargeting performance,” said an April 21 notice by the FCC Public Safety Bureau. The FCC sought “testing partners that represent the diverse environments where WEAs are sent (i.e., dense urban, urban, suburban and rural areas).” So far, more than 20 have filed in docket 22-160, from diverse markets. The Maricopa County, Arizona, Department of Emergency Management Friday became one of the first large county entities to offer to work with the FCC. The county, which includes Phoenix, “conducts annual siren tests around a commercial nuclear power plant and has included WEA in the past several years,” it said: Maricopa “coordinates volunteers annually for these tests and will be able to utilize these volunteers and other municipal participants for this test.” The county said it conducted a WEA test in 2019 “with substantial press and public outreach and will continue to provide public awareness campaigns on the use of WEA and this upcoming test.” Monroe County Emergency Management offered the ability to test in an area that starts in the mainland of Florida and extends through the entire Florida Keys. Idaho offered to involve the entire state in a test. “Our city is a very diverse urban locality (53 square miles) and home to the world's largest naval station,” said the Norfolk, Virginia, Department of Emergency Preparedness and Response: “The diversity and demographics of the city will provide a unique platform to ensure all citizens can be contacted during emergency notifications.” The Ingham County, Michigan, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said it’s interested in participating in the testing. “This would be countywide and include the City of Lansing and Michigan State University,” the county said. Ingram said it also has an agreement with Eaton County for a two-county test.