The Obama administration is expanding public interest group representation on the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, which was created under President George W. Bush to improve management of the airwaves. Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld will join longtime member Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation, as a public interest member of the group. Both have been strong advocates of unlicensed spectrum. Feld had sought to become a member in the past but had been turned down.
The FCC will seek comment on emergency alert service (EAS) issues, including use of a national location code, national periodic test (NPT) code use, and video crawl and audio accessibility, it said in a rulemaking notice released last week (http://bit.ly/URszkY). The commission seeks comment on whether it should require the NPT to be activated like any other EAS alert, it said. Doing so would satisfy Federal Emergency Management Agency’s desire for a test in the near future, “and would do so in a manner that imposes minimal costs on EAS participants,” it said. The commission asks what might constitute “a speed that can be read by viewers,” and whether it should include a specific crawl speed in its rules, it said. The initial and reply comment deadlines are 30 days and 45 days from the Federal Register publication date respectively, it said.
E-911 technology isn’t at the point where it can meet the standards for location accuracy being contemplated by the FCC, said AT&T and CTIA officials at an FCBA continuing legal education seminar Thursday. The emphasis should be on reaching a point where dispatchers can be sent to an exact address, they said. With the development of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, that level of accuracy could happen “sooner than people think,” said Joseph Marx, AT&T assistant vice president-federal regulatory, not predicting a time frame. No “peer-reviewed” studies have shown that the standards being contemplated are possible in the FCC’s time frame, said Brian Josef, CTIA assistant vice president-regulatory affairs.
National hotel chains have made real progress enabling guests to dial 911 directly, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1v24oLt). Pai said in January he would contact major hotel chains to ensure 911 works wherever it’s dialed (CD Jan 14 p14). He raised a December incident in which a child tried to dial 911 when her mother was being strangled by her estranged husband. The child “tried to call 911 four times but never reached emergency personnel” because the hotel required her to first dial 9 to get an outside line, Pai said then. The Wyndham Hotel Group reported earlier this year that only 80 percent of its owned and managed properties allowed direct dialing to 911, but now all its properties do so, Pai said. Hyatt initially reported that 75 percent of its managed properties allowed direct 911 access, but it now provides this functionality at 99 percent of its properties, he said. The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) is “continuing to play an important role in solving this problem,” Pai said. “AH&LA has now issued an industry-wide recommendation that encourages all of its members to move to direct 911 dialing.” AH&LA is hosting a members-only webinar on the issue Thursday (http://bit.ly/1v28wLs).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is trying to line up votes in favor of E-rate reform for action at the agency’s July 11 open meeting. It’s unclear whether Wheeler will be able to get Republican support for the changes, dedicating $1 billion to Wi-Fi in 2015, industry and agency officials said Tuesday. To that end, Wheeler is emphasizing that his proposal does not increase the E-rate budget, but relies on $2 billion commission staff recently found has been set aside for E-rate but never spent.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is trying to line up votes in favor of E-rate reform for action at the agency’s July 11 open meeting. It’s unclear whether Wheeler will be able to get Republican support for the changes, dedicating $1 billion to Wi-Fi in 2015, industry and agency officials said Tuesday. To that end, Wheeler is emphasizing that his proposal does not increase the E-rate budget, but relies on $2 billion commission staff recently found has been set aside for E-rate but never spent.
The upcoming AWS-3 auction should lead to a more competitive wireless industry, but only if the FCC gets the rules right at the start, said the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge, in reply comments. NAF, PK and other commenters stressed the importance of the FCC imposing different rules for the paired and unpaired spectrum blocks that will be up for sale in the auction. The FCC approved service rules for a 65 MHz AWS-3 auction March 31 (CD April 1 p1), setting the stage for the agency’s first major spectrum sale since 2008. Replies on proposed bidding rules were due Monday in docket 14-78. The auction is to begin Nov. 13.
The federal government must protect GPS, which has become hugely important to public safety, critical infrastructure and the economy as a whole, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Friday at the start of a daylong commission workshop. “We have to make sure that we don’t mess that up,” he said. “These are not abstract issues."
The FCC further ramped up pressure on its Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council Wednesday to take the lead on cybersecurity. David Simpson, chief of the Public Safety Bureau, led off the meeting, amplifying remarks FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made last week at the American Enterprise Institute, warning that if a private-sector-based initiative doesn’t work the FCC stands ready to impose regulation(WID June 13 p1).
The FCC further ramped up pressure on its Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council Wednesday to take the lead on cybersecurity. David Simpson, chief of the Public Safety Bureau, led off the meeting, amplifying remarks FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made last week at the American Enterprise Institute, warning that if a private-sector-based initiative doesn’t work the FCC stands ready to impose regulation (CD June 13 p1).