The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do a nationwide emergency alert system (EAS) test Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. EDT, FEMA said in a reminder news release (see 1609130060). The test will be similar to more commonplace EAS tests -- “this is a national test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test” -- except the message will indicate the nationwide scope, FEMA said.
U.S. cybersecurity policies depend on strong partnerships with Canada and Mexico, said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews and industry executives Monday. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto agreed in June to engage on cross-border cybersecurity practices, including on incident responses that affect the three main North American nations. Andrews said during a New America event the goal is to “start a dialogue between our three governments and our business communities on our cybersecurity threats, practices and priorities.”
U.S. cybersecurity policies depend on strong partnerships with Canada and Mexico, said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews and industry executives Monday. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto agreed in June to engage on cross-border cybersecurity practices, including on incident responses that affect the three main North American nations. Andrews said during a New America event the goal is to “start a dialogue between our three governments and our business communities on our cybersecurity threats, practices and priorities.”
Recent events point to the importance of 911 and public safety answering points, and the risk of cyberthreats, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson Friday at a meeting of the Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture. TFOPA is preparing a follow up to its report released earlier this year on how to speed the U.S. transition to next-generation 911 (see 1601290051). TFOPA has done a lot of work and has lots more to do, Simpson said.
Small carriers bemoaned the shrinking number of states paying 911 wireless cost recovery to carriers. After Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) signed a bill Aug. 10 to end compensation for wireless carriers’ 911 costs, we could find only nine other states' with laws requiring annual payments. Delaware said it will use the saved money to fund 911 systems, but the Competitive Carriers Association said ending wireless cost recovery is an example of fee diversion. National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes urged states to seek carrier transparency on 911 costs and to consider reducing payments with depreciation. The money adds up to millions of dollars annually.
Recent events point to the importance of 911 and public safety answering points, and the risk of cyberthreats, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson Friday at a meeting of the Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture. TFOPA is preparing a follow up to its report released earlier this year on how to speed the U.S. transition to next-generation 911 (see 1601290051). TFOPA has done a lot of work and has lots more to do, Simpson said.
Wireless and public safety officials updated the FCC Public Safety Bureau on their joint progress toward meeting new requirements for wireless 911 location accuracy reporting. The agency released its fourth report and order on the subject in February 2015. “Parties discussed the template the carriers intend to use when reporting live 9-1-1 call data on a quarterly basis or upon request of a Public Safety Answering Point, as required by the Order,” said a filing in docket 07-114. Representatives of AT&T Mobility, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, CTIA, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association attended.
Despite Ligado assurances its terrestrial low-power service plans, with proper protection zones, won't cause interference to National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration downlinks sharing the same spectrum, NOAA said interference problems it has from Ligado operations (see 1608120033) demonstrate otherwise. "Nothing Ligado has done or shown ... has changed our view," said NOAA Chief Information Officer Zach Goldstein told us. On whether sharing is possible at all in the 1675-1680 MHz band, he said, “We don't know. We don't have a technical solution as we stand here today -- that doesn't mean we can't develop one.”
Social media is increasingly important to public safety agencies, FirstNet said in a Friday blog post. “These days, you probably use social media to update your audience on what you are doing, share an interesting article or two, and catch up on the day’s news,” the authority said. “Government agencies -- federal, tribal, state, and local -- are using social media in many ways to keep the public informed and hopefully safer.” FirstNet cited the use of Twitter by many government agencies. “When a natural disaster such as a tornado, wildfire, or hurricane hits,” the National Weather Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Guard “are among many agencies who are communicating key info to the public on social media platforms,” FirstNet said. “Just check out the hashtags #SMEM, #LESM, etc., and you’ll see,” he said, referring to the hashtags for social media emergency management and law enforcement in social media.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, CTIA and the National Emergency Number Association jointly warned the FCC against mandating backward compatibility for text telephone devices, for nonemergency calls, as it pushes forward on the TTY to real-time text (RTT) transition. Representatives of the groups reported on a meeting with FCC staff working on the issue. The FCC approved an NPRM in April on the transition (see 1604280055). Transcoder overloading is a real threat, the groups said. “Representatives from ATIS explained that, when RTT-enabled phones are configured to accommodate all incoming calls from the circuit switched network as TTY calls, the network must reserve an RTT to TTY transcoder in case it may be needed for the call (i.e., a party activates an RTT session),” the filing said. “Otherwise, a transcoder may not be assigned and calls that begin as voice calls will not be able to transition to an RTT session. However, if an RTT call is initiated as RTT, ATIS noted that the transcoder overloading issue is less of a problem as normal traffic engineering practices can be applied.” ATIS said the backward compatibility requirement proposed by the FCC “could have a significant impact on the industry and could require the industry to upgrade all transcoders to support RTT, or to develop more specific transcoding resourcing with the ability to assign instantaneously.” The filing was in docket 16-145.