APCO, the National Emergency Number Association, USTelecom and others jointly asked the FCC to extend the deadline for filing comments on its Nov. 21 911 governance NPRM. “The Notice raises a large number of jurisdictional, governance, and legal authority questions with implications to every aspect of 9-1-1 service,” the group said. “Given the scope and complexity of the issues raised in the notice, the Joint Petitioners believe that an extension of the comment filing deadlines would be in the public interest.” Comments should be due no earlier than March 23, replies no earlier than April 21, the filing said. Comments are currently due Monday, replies April 7. The filing was posted Friday in docket 13-75.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert & Warning System will send a common alerting protocol message containing the national periodic test event code along with geocodes for four participating states March 18 at 2:30 p.m. EDT, said Al Kenyon, FEMA’s IPAWS national test technical lead. He spoke on an IPAWS north central regional emergency alert system (EAS) participant webinar Thursday. The test will be done for about 2,000 EAS participants in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, he said. “This is above and beyond the day-to-day requirements of EAS,” Kenyon said. “We’re doing what we can to make it better.” Representatives from Digital Alert Systems, Monroe Electronics, Sage Alerting Systems and Trilithic Emergency Alert Systems discussed how to configure their devices for the upcoming test. In a Sept. 17 IPAWS test, about 90 percent of the participating stations successfully transmitted the test message, Kenyon said. “A 90 percent success rate where you don’t have the opportunity to pretest the test is very good.”
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., commended broadcasters in Wednesday’s Congressional Record. “These broadcasters provide the public with the news that is most important, and most useful for them, because it is the news from their own communities,” Matsui said. “This is true in Sacramento and across the nation. Our broadcasters play an integral role in Sacramentans' day-to-day lives, informing all of us about everything from local traffic to an in-depth look at local political issues.” She emphasized broadcasters' value during emergencies. “They have also played an important part in growing and investing in our nation’s airwaves,” she said. “The spectrum sharing agreement that the broadcasters entered into with the Department of Defense helped solidify the Federal Communications Commission’s recent record breaking spectrum auction of the AWS-3 band. This spectrum auction generated nearly $45 billion in revenue, enough to fully fund FirstNet, the nationwide interoperability network for America’s first responders and public safety officials.”
More than 2 billion people in developing and emerging countries are priced out of accessing the Internet, said a report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that was released at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report spans 51 developing and emerging nations and found that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen in these countries about 40 percent of their monthly income. Mobile broadband is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10 percent of monthly income or about as much as developing country households spend on housing, the report said. It maps the links between policy and lower prices, and finds that five key areas are needed to create a roadmap to affordable Internet, including the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan, an environment that promotes enhanced competition, strategies that permit efficient spectrum allocation, models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing, and widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues. Some of the organizations and countries that are members of the A4AI are Ghana, Google, GSMA, Intel, Microsoft, Mozambique, Nigeria, USAID and the U.S. State Department.
More than 2 billion people in developing and emerging countries are priced out of accessing the Internet, said a report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that was released at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report spans 51 developing and emerging nations and found that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen in these countries about 40 percent of their monthly income. Mobile broadband is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10 percent of monthly income or about as much as developing country households spend on housing, the report said. It maps the links between policy and lower prices, and finds that five key areas are needed to create a roadmap to affordable Internet, including the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan, an environment that promotes enhanced competition, strategies that permit efficient spectrum allocation, models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing, and widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues. Some of the organizations and countries that are members of the A4AI are Ghana, Google, GSMA, Intel, Microsoft, Mozambique, Nigeria, USAID and the U.S. State Department.
More than 2 billion people in developing and emerging countries are priced out of accessing the Internet, said a report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that was released at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report spans 51 developing and emerging nations and found that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen in these countries about 40 percent of their monthly income. Mobile broadband is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10 percent of monthly income or about as much as developing country households spend on housing, the report said. It maps the links between policy and lower prices, and finds that five key areas are needed to create a roadmap to affordable Internet, including the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan, an environment that promotes enhanced competition, strategies that permit efficient spectrum allocation, models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing, and widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues. Some of the organizations and countries that are members of the A4AI are Ghana, Google, GSMA, Intel, Microsoft, Mozambique, Nigeria, USAID and the U.S. State Department.
EU governments let the Latvian Presidency begin talks on net neutrality with the European Parliament and Commission ("trialogue"). The net neutrality and mobile roaming proposals are the only parts remaining of the EC-proposed telecom single market "connected continent" legislative package, the Council said Wednesday. The presidency's negotiating mandate covers EU-wide rules on the open Internet, safeguarding end users' rights and ensuring nondiscriminatory treatment in access services, it said. The European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee said it will try to convince governments to "include proper safeguards" for net neutrality. A digital rights advocate called some of the draft "bizarre."
EU governments let the Latvian Presidency begin talks on net neutrality with the European Parliament and Commission ("trialogue"). The net neutrality and mobile roaming proposals are the only parts remaining of the EC-proposed telecom single market "connected continent" legislative package, the Council said Wednesday. The presidency's negotiating mandate covers EU-wide rules on the open Internet, safeguarding end users' rights and ensuring nondiscriminatory treatment in access services, it said. The European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee said it will try to convince governments to "include proper safeguards" for net neutrality. A digital rights advocate called some of the draft "bizarre."
The Public Safety Bureau circulated for FCC action an item addressing call-forwarding requirements for non-service-initialized phones. Public safety officials said Tuesday that the commission circulated an NPRM that will pose various questions and help the FCC develop a time table for sunsetting a requirement that out-of-service cellphones can still call 911. Public safety answering points have complained of myriad prank 911 calls made from old, untraceable phones. APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators filed a petition in 2008 at the FCC seeking action in effort to stop fraudulent calls to 911 (see 0803050126).
As the smoke clears from an initial flurry of reaction, privacy advocates and some lawmakers applauded President Barack Obama's push to protect privacy, with the release of a draft of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights (CPBR) last week, (see 1502270052), calling the first draft a step in the right direction. Consumer privacy advocates, industry -- with the exception of Microsoft -- and Democratic and Republican lawmakers initially criticized the draft. Privacy groups said in a letter that they were shown a rough draft of the bill a week before its public release and asked several changes be made, some of which were implemented, including changes to "maintain longstanding privacy protections under the Communications Act.” Privacy groups said that if other changes are adopted, the bill could protect consumers. Industry groups, however, maintain the draft is a step backward, with many expressing concerns about innovation, and some saying the bill distracts from critical data security legislation that's needed.