House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon and some other Communications Subcommittee Republicans appeared hesitant during a Thursday hearing to support swift advancement of the Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926) or other resiliency bills. There was more widespread support by lawmakers and witnesses for the Fee Integrity and Responsibilities and To Regain Essential Spectrum for Public-safety Operators Needed to Deploy Equipment Reliably (First Responders) Act (HR-5928) and other measures.
U.S. administration officials will meet with the European Union and Japan next month to lobby for increased scrutiny of transactions involving sensitive technologies, a top Treasury Department official said. The meetings will also feature discussions of recent U.S. reforms to foreign direct investment screening, said Thomas Feddo, Treasury’s assistant secretary of investment security, and come as the U.S. begins to implement those reforms as part of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (see 2001140060). Feddo spoke during a Feb. 26 event hosted by the Asia Society.
House Communications Subcommittee leaders are eyeing an early March markup for the Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926) and at least some of the seven other public safety communications measures it will examine Thursday (see 2002200060), industry lobbyists told us. Communications and public safety stakeholders endorsed several of the measures in written testimony. HR-5926 didn’t get universal praise. The hearing begins at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.
The Trump administration should sanction Russia for interference in the 2020 presidential election, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said in a Feb. 24 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The three senators urged the administration to sanction anyone responsible for the interference or for providing “material or financial support” to those responsible. “It is long past time” for the administration to enact sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the letter said.
Military training, precision agriculture and immigration enforcement are among possible uses for datacasting using public TV spectrum and ATSC 3.0, America’s Public Television Stations’ summit heard Tuesday. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly endorsed public TV’s focus on datacasting, in a speech. “You may just be on to something here,” he said. “Please keep me posted.”
Military training, precision agriculture and immigration enforcement are among possible uses for datacasting using public TV spectrum and ATSC 3.0, America’s Public Television Stations’ summit heard Tuesday. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly endorsed public TV’s focus on datacasting, in a speech. “You may just be on to something here,” he said. “Please keep me posted.”
The National Emergency Number Association warned floor-level data could be hard to obtain, in response to a Further NPRM on advanced vertical location, mapping and 911 services. Comments were due last week and posted through Monday in docket 07-114. “Lack of accurate, reliable floor level records represents a fundamental challenge to vertical location in the public safety setting,” the group said: “NENA has spoken with numerous participants in the real estate and indoor location industry; all agree that tax assessment records -- the most common and widely used ‘first pass’ source of building floor levels -- are roughly only 50% reliable, and nearly always require validation via another surveying method. In many jurisdictions, tax assessment records require merely square footage numbers for taxation purposes, so floor level data fields are often either left blank or inaccurately populated.” Be “mindful of the unique challenges facing rural carriers in deploying these technologies,” the Competitive Carriers Association asked. Google said the FCC should change its rules to “promote rather than discourage delivery of floor data to public safety answering points, and also encourage the use of testing protocols that account for real-world operating conditions and concerns.” T-Mobile advised flexibility. “We should not repeat the mistakes of the past, as with the initial deployments of horizontal 911 location solutions that relied on technology developed and implemented specifically for 911,” the carrier said: “Those solutions became obsolete and resulted in public safety being left behind, even as location technologies developed for the commercial market continued to develop and improve.”
APCO asked the FCC to act on the public safety organization's February petition for clarification of rules requiring national wireless carriers to meet a vertical location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless E-911 calls from z-axis capable handsets (see 2002070057). Initial comments were due Friday on a Further NPRM on advanced vertical location, mapping and 911 services. “The resolution of many questions raised in APCO’s Petition will impact whether and how to improve the location accuracy requirements,” APCO said in docket 07-114, posted Friday: “The feasibility and benefits of requiring more granular z-axis information depends on how the Commission defines what it means for carriers to deploy z-axis technology consistent with the manner in which it was tested. Which phones should consumers expect to provide vertical location information with 9-1-1 calls? How do carriers ensure that they have deployed z-axis technology in a manner that will achieve the accuracy demonstrated in the test bed?” The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies said “public safety’s many challenges are best addressed through technological innovation and collaboration between industry and public safety stakeholders.” The order rejected a more stringent standard, the council said: “Nothing has changed since the Order was adopted a few months ago to alter that conclusion. The establishment of a more stringent requirement, without the benefit of technical data to support it, would be arbitrary both in terms of the level of accuracy achievable and the timeframe in which it could be achieved.” The FCC asked in the FNPRM if "initiatives are underway to develop resources for mapping building heights and floor numbers," said 911 technology company RapidDeploy: “Indeed, such initiatives are underway, both private and public, at local, regional, and statewide levels.” Public safety answering points and first responders “can be ready to consume and utilize floor level information well before the proposed 5-year timeline -- many as soon as today,” the company commented.
The U.S. renewed sanctions against Libya under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to a Feb. 20 White House notice. The sanctions, first imposed Feb. 25, 2011, were renewed through Feb. 25, 2021, due to the continued threat to U.S. national security by the Libyan government, the notice said.
The Commerce Department is “nowhere near” publishing an export control rule on foundational technologies and is likely not close to releasing its advance notice of proposed rulemaking, Squire Patton Boggs trade lawyer George Grammas said. Commerce management has had a draft of the ANPRM since at least mid-2019, Grammas said. “It doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast,” he said, speaking during a Feb. 20 webinar hosted by Content Enablers. “We don’t seem to be anywhere near seeing a rule on foundational technologies in the near term.”