The government and broadcasters are working to improve the delivery and efficiency of emergency alert system messages using wireless capabilities, broadcasters and some FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday during an emergency alert system meeting in Washington. The meeting was organized by NAB and the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations. Making the system more effective will involve improving cybersecurity and keeping pace with advancements in broadcast technology, they said.
The focus of the FCC in March is once again on public safety communications, with a rulemaking likely to force the agency to revisit whether to again impose backup power requirements on carriers. An NPRM for the March 20 meeting, which circulated late Wednesday, raises numerous questions following up on the commission’s January derecho report (CD Jan 11 p3).
FCC Managing Director David Robbins told FCC staff in a town hall meeting Thursday sequester may not mean furloughs for staff, at least initially. But Robbins didn’t provide much detail about what will happen next, agency officials told us. Robbins briefed FCC staff at FCC headquarters and the briefing was carried over the agency’s internal intranet. Staff for the FCC commissioners are to be briefed separately.
The Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC) “strongly supports” an FCC proposal to allocate spectrum for Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry in the 5091-5150 MHz band, the group said in comments filed at the FCC. “The 5091-5150 MHz allocation proposal is in response to U.S. recognition that the extraordinary growth in telemetry data rates places serious constraints on existing allocations for flight test telemetry,” AFTRCC said (http://bit.ly/YzLVVC). “The strained capacity of the existing bands adversely affects aviation development and, if the situation were left untreated, the productivity and global competitiveness of U.S. aerospace manufacturers could be undermined.” AFTRCC also supported the deletion of the non-federal Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry allocation at 2310-2320 MHz, as also proposed by the commission. “It is of limited utility due to its secondary status which precludes its use for safety-related applications,” the group said. “Given that and the impending development of LTE systems in that band, AFTRCC would urge that the allocation be removed. However, recognizing that there are a few (three) licensees which still hold authorizations for this spectrum, AFTRCC would urge that a reasonable period of time be allowed for a phase-out of the allocation, either five years or the end of each respective licensee’s current license, whichever is longer.” Boeing supported AFTRCC’s comments, with an additional caveat. “Because of the sensitivity of flight test receive equipment, and the critical nature of flight test communications, Boeing would urge the FAA to coordinate any implementation of WiMax at airports with operators of flight test receivers that could suffer harmful interference from co-channel operations in the 5091-5150 MHz band,” Boeing said (http://bit.ly/YEzpYZ).
The FCC 2011 pole attachment order was upheld unanimously by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/XAuJD3). The FCC had found that ILECs were included in the protections of Section 224 of the Communications Act, which gives advantages to some companies that seek to attach cables and network equipment to utility poles. Even though the order in some places “reverses decades-old Commission policy,” the commission met the required “modest demands for changing its policy,” Senior Judge Stephen Williams wrote for himself and Judges David Tatel and David Sentelle. “Upholding its decision follows ineluctably."
IP-to-IP interconnection policy isn’t relevant to AT&T’s proposed wire center trials, the telco said in reply comments on its proposal Monday. The FCC need not address IP interconnection issues to OK the trials, AT&T said. Nonetheless, “because so much of the advocacy opposing AT&T’s petition focuses on these issues,” the telco took the opportunity to respond: IP-to-IP interconnection is “needless, harmful, and unlawful,” and the FCC lacks Title II authority over the interconnection of information services. Verizon argued against new regulation of broadband networks and services, and the imposition of unbundling obligations on new technologies. CenturyLink said the commission should reject attempts by CLECs to gain a “competitive advantage” by imposing “unnecessary and counterproductive regulations on next-generation IP networks and services” (http://bit.ly/XAm5ok). But state regulators, CLECs and others criticized AT&T’s request as a thinly veiled attempt to maintain ILEC power while preempting state regulations.
The FCC should reallocate the 135.7-137.8 kHz band to use by amateur radio operators, the American Radio Relay League said in comments on a Nov. 19 NPRM, which proposed changes to Parts 2 and 97 of FCC rules. The band would be allocated on a secondary basis under the proposal. The FCC also proposed giving amateur radio operators primary use of the 1900-2000 kHz band, which they can now use on a less protected secondary basis. “The subject of an LF [low frequency] allocation for the Amateur Radio Service has a long history at the Commission,” ARRL said (http://bit.ly/VIMrUu). “To date, however, the Commission has not created one. Presently, the lowest domestic frequency allocation for the Amateur Service ... is at 1800-2000 kHz. There is an Amateur Radio allocation in all other areas of the radio spectrum, providing for experimentation in virtually all types of radio frequency communications.” ARRL also sought primary status in the 1900-2000 kHz band. The FCC notes in the NPRM: “Federal use of the 1900-2000 kHz band is ‘light,’ and that there are only 10 assignments authorizing Federal operations of any type in this band,” ARRL said.
If the FCC agrees that Sprint has paid out enough in 800 MHz rebanding costs so the carrier won’t owe the federal government a “windfall” payment for the spectrum it received as part of the 800 MHz rebanding agreement, the FCC should also relax the auditing and accounting requirements faced by public safety licensees, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials said in a filing at the agency. “Those requirements have in some cases imposed substantial administrative costs on public safety incumbents, diverting time and resources from other critical agency tasks,” APCO said (http://bit.ly/Xa9QgY). “While Sprint will obviously have a continued interest in minimizing its costs and ensuring the legitimacy of all payments, the Commission will no longer have a need to protect the Treasury as there will no longer be a potential anti-windfall payment.” The letter was also signed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the International Association of Fire Chiefs. In January, Sprint asked the FCC (http://bit.ly/ZvvL2k) to declare it has met the obligation Nextel took on before it merged with Sprint, in the FCC’s landmark 800 MHz rebanding order in 2004, which required Nextel to pay the full value of the 10 MHz national spectrum license it got as part of the rebanding agreement. The public safety groups also asked the FCC to act with care in granting Sprint a reduction in the amount that must be covered by a letter of credit guaranteeing that funds will be available to pay all remaining reconfiguration expenses. “The Public Safety Organizations urge the Commission to scrutinize Sprint’s request carefully to ensure that the LOC is adequate to address a worst case scenario,” the filing said. “Sprint bases its proposed LOC amount in part on the [800 MHz] Transition Administrator’s metrics that document the range of reconfiguration expenses incurred so far by incumbents of various sizes. The Commission’s analysis should assume the [worst], i.e., that all of the reconfiguration costs still to occur will be at or above the highest percentile in the metrics."
State regulators were critical of AT&T’s proposal to implement wire center trials where certain legacy regulations would be lifted. Their opinions came in early reply comments posted Monday in WC docket 12-353. Sprint Nextel also opposed the proposal, arguing the pro-competitive provisions in the 1996 Telecom Act are technology-neutral. Intel said it supported the proposal as a way to test the effect of deregulation.
4G Americas marked the one-year anniversary of the 2012 spectrum law Friday with a letter urging the FCC to move forward on an auction of the 1755-1780 MHz band, long viewed by carriers as one of the most valuable bands for wireless broadband. Commissioner Robert McDowell said Friday he shares the group’s concerns.