FirstNet passed a critical milestone Tuesday, making “ruthless preemption” available to customers that subscribe to its network with AT&T. Pre-emption enables first responders to communicate and coordinate when commercial networks become congested. With about two weeks before the Dec. 28 opt-out deadline, 19 of 56 states and territories haven't revealed decisions. An Illinois decision is imminent, and Washington and Oregon will convene soon to review bids to their joint request for proposal, state officials told us. New Hampshire last week was the first to opt out (see 1712070035), and 36 other jurisdictions accepted AT&T radio-access-network plans.
With the FCC poised to declare "internet freedom," there is much disagreement about whether deregulated broadband providers will have the incentive and ability to engage in paid prioritization of traffic that favors some content and applications, potentially harming rivals and consumers. Cable and telco ISPs said they generally don't want to discriminate among data streams, even if they can, and an order to remove "utility-style" net neutrality regulation, which commissioners plan to vote on Thursday, will promote broadband investment and innovation. They said adequate safeguards remain, including at the FTC and DOJ, to curb harms to consumers or competition, but net neutrality advocates disagree. (In related news Monday, see 1712110050 on congressional rollback efforts and 1712110049 on an draft FTC-FCC ISP monitoring plan.)
With the FCC poised to declare "internet freedom," there is much disagreement about whether deregulated broadband providers will have the incentive and ability to engage in paid prioritization of traffic that favors some content and applications, potentially harming rivals and consumers. Cable and telco ISPs said they generally don't want to discriminate among data streams, even if they can, and an order to remove "utility-style" net neutrality regulation, which commissioners plan to vote on Thursday, will promote broadband investment and innovation. They said adequate safeguards remain, including at the FTC and DOJ, to curb harms to consumers or competition, but net neutrality advocates disagree. (In related news Monday, see 1712110050 on congressional rollback efforts and 1712110049 on an draft FTC-FCC ISP monitoring plan.)
A higher percentage of emergency alert system participants received the alert signal during the 2017 national EAS test (see 1709270071) than in 2016, but more than 1,000 fewer EAS participants sent their receipt and transmission results to the agency afterward, and more TV stations didn't get the alert and so didn't pass it on, said initial results Thursday from the FCC Public Safety Bureau. “Performance appears to have improved over what we observed in the 2016 nationwide EAS test,” said a public notice. This year, 95.8 percent of test participants successfully received the simulation, vs. 95.4 percent. But 19,069 broadcasters provided information afterward, compared to 20,389. More participants received the alert through the Integrated Public Alert Warning System in 2017, 59.3 percent v. 43.5 percent. Only participants that received the alert through IPAWS were able to send out Spanish-language alerts, and 207 test participants did so in 2017, up from 75 in 2016. The results could change with further analysis, the PN said. “Together with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], the Bureau will continue to analyze the results of the 2017 nationwide EAS test and release more detailed findings when available.”
The World Telecommunication Development Conference in October in Bueno Aires "really laid in sharp relief" some challenges the U.S. faces in the ITU, with sizable pushes by several nations for a much bigger ITU role in managing the Internet, Steve Lang, acting director-multilateral affairs, State Department communication and information policy office, told International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) members Thursday. Lang said the U.S. had some successes at WTDC-17 in areas such as broadband deployment, emergency deployment and connecting rural communities. There was a clear division about the ITU, with the U.S. and allies on one side and Russia, China and some developing nations on the other, he said.
The World Telecommunication Development Conference in October in Bueno Aires "really laid in sharp relief" some challenges the U.S. faces in the ITU, with sizable pushes by several nations for a much bigger ITU role in managing the Internet, Steve Lang, acting director-multilateral affairs, State Department communication and information policy office, told International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) members Thursday. Lang said the U.S. had some successes at WTDC-17 in areas such as broadband deployment, emergency deployment and connecting rural communities. There was a clear division about the ITU, with the U.S. and allies on one side and Russia, China and some developing nations on the other, he said.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate joined an advisory committee for the Advanced Warning and Response Network, the AWARN Alliance said Wednesday. AWARN said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, National Weather Service and APCO remain on the committee. DHS will “leverage its social science and other expertise to help us design the most effective warning messages,” said alliance Executive Director John Lawson. The group will begin developing “an end-to-end AWARN technical solution” with input from the panel in 2018; a beta version is planned for 2019, it said.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate joined an advisory committee for the Advanced Warning and Response Network, the AWARN Alliance said Wednesday. AWARN said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, National Weather Service and APCO remain on the committee. DHS will “leverage its social science and other expertise to help us design the most effective warning messages,” said alliance Executive Director John Lawson. The group will begin developing “an end-to-end AWARN technical solution” with input from the panel in 2018; a beta version is planned for 2019, it said.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate joined an advisory committee for the Advanced Warning and Response Network, the AWARN Alliance said Wednesday. AWARN said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, National Weather Service and APCO remain on the committee. DHS will “leverage its social science and other expertise to help us design the most effective warning messages,” said alliance Executive Director John Lawson. The group will begin developing “an end-to-end AWARN technical solution” with input from the panel in 2018; a beta version is planned for 2019, it said.
The Trump White House, like the Obama White House, seems particularly focused on enabling commercial space operations, and the resurrected National Space Council (see 1710050042) could provide a route for getting regulatory agency consensus on tackling such issues as orbital debris, said Moon Express Vice President-Government Affairs Ben Roberts in a Policy Studies Organization talk Friday. In most administrations, the president is making only the toughest decisions, and the key to space policy thus comes in choosing the staffers and advisers who formulate most of the policy, said Roberts, who most recently was in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama administration. But Planetary Society Space Policy Adviser Jason Callahan said those staffing decisions aren't enough because of the competing interests, like Congress, requiring that the president have ongoing engagement. Callahan said that has been a space policy failure in the U.S. for years, with presidents setting a space policy goal and then moving on to other issues and that policy going nowhere. The burgeoning commercial space industry is changing that dynamic, making the transition from one presidential administration to another less dramatic, said Commercial Spaceflight Federation Director Tommy Sanford: "The Elons and the Jeffs ... they're continuing to do their thing regardless of who is in office," referring to Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos, founder of spaceflight company Blue Origin. The most dramatic space activity in coming years will be among commercial operators, and the Trump administration has shown an inclination to partner with them, Sanford said. Added Roberts, the Trump White House seems likely to approach civil space efforts in a coalition with the private sector. The space industry's best resource currently "is a bunch of nerdy billionaires," he said. Commercial space companies have the biggest incentives to deal with orbital debris, Sanford said, saying the federal government is a huge generator of debris and often breaks its own 25-year deorbiting rule. A big challenge to addressing orbital debris is having the federal government follow its own rules, he said. Added Callahan, governments likely will look for -- and use -- effective commercial solutions to debris when they emerge.