The automotive industry asked the FCC to drop a proposal to make spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band available for unlicensed use on a secondary basis. The opposition wasn’t a surprise because the automotive industry raised concerns in January, after former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced at the Consumer Electronics Show an initiative to free up 195 MHz of spectrum for Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band. The automotive industry plans to use part of the spectrum targeted by Genachowski, the 5850-5925 MHz band, for a vehicle-to-vehicle warning system, which is already being tested.
California may change how it subsidizes broadband deployment and adoption in several ways, under legislation on the table this session. Senate Bill 740 and Assembly Bill 1299 seek to expand how California grants broadband subsidies -- one focusing on expanding how hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money is spent in building out the state’s broadband infrastructure, the other on connecting public housing. Some stakeholders worry about changes hurting the fund and limiting funds to the bigger players as the bills evolve.
The FCC should require all carriers to certify their systems meet “a core set of 911 resiliency practices,” which would be developed by public safety and other stakeholders, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in reply comments. The comments responded to a March NPRM (http://bit.ly/YtIwc5) from the commission, reacting to last year’s derecho wind storm. It led to outages that affected 77 public safety answering points across Ohio, the central Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic states, with 17 PSAPs losing service completely (CD March 21 p4).
California may change how it subsidizes broadband deployment and adoption in several ways, under legislation on the table this session. Senate Bill 740 and Assembly Bill 1299 seek to expand how California grants broadband subsidies -- one focusing on expanding how hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money is spent in building out the state’s broadband infrastructure, the other on connecting public housing. Some stakeholders worry about changes hurting the fund and limiting funds to the bigger players as the bills evolve.
The FCC should require carriers to notify public safety answering points within 15-30 minutes of a detected outage, CEO Brian Fontes and others from the National Emergency Number Association said in a meeting with Public Safety Bureau officials. NENA reacted to proposed rules by the commission, saying a requirement of immediate notification should be further refined. “The requirement under the PSAP notification rule should substantially differ from that under the Commission’s general network outage reporting rules,” NENA said. It said that a single notice of an outage won’t suffice. “We recommended that the Commission consider requiring regular supplemental notices, no less than twice per day, to keep PSAPs up-to-date as carriers and other service providers gain further information about an outage,” the filing said. “We also noted that while telephone and email contacts should be mandatory, PSAPs, carriers, and service providers should be free to adopt other notification methods, provided that PSAPs have a legitimate private choice as to whether they will adopt any particular method offered by a carrier or service provider.” NENA also weighed in on when PSAPs and carriers should be responsible for the connection of 911 call centers to the larger carrier network. “Diversity of circuits connecting end office switches with selective routers, as well as those connecting selective routers with the main distribution frames (or their equivalents) of end offices serving PSAPs should be the responsibility of carriers or service providers while the diversity of circuits connecting the ‘outside’ faces of main distribution frames with PSAPs should be the responsibility of PSAPs and 911 authorities,” the filing said. The FCC had said 911 calling problems were widespread following the derecho that hit the Midwest and East Coast June 29 (CD July 20 p1).
A U.K. government request for input on a draft EU measure on network and information security sparked a warning Friday from a conservative think tank that failure by the information technology industry to respond could leave important Internet issues in the hands of the euroskeptic U.K. Independence Party (UKIP). The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation document (http://bit.ly/Zi7eSG) seeks comment on a Feb. 7 European Commission legislative proposal (http://bit.ly/123IEH0) aimed at ensuring a “high common level of network and information security.” The directive would require EU countries to develop national cybersecurity strategies, establish computer emergency response teams, and share information with each other. It would mandate that public and private operators of critical infrastructures take steps to manage security risks and report incidents “that have a significant impact on the security of core services they provide” to national regulators.
A U.K. government request for input on a draft EU measure on network and information security sparked a warning Friday from a conservative think tank that failure by the information technology industry to respond could leave important Internet issues in the hands of the euroskeptic U.K. Independence Party (UKIP). The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation document (http://bit.ly/Zi7eSG) seeks comment on a Feb. 7 European Commission legislative proposal (http://bit.ly/123IEH0) aimed at ensuring a “high common level of network and information security.” The directive would require EU countries to develop national cybersecurity strategies, establish computer emergency response teams, and share information with each other. It would mandate that public and private operators of critical infrastructures take steps to manage security risks and report incidents “that have a significant impact on the security of core services they provide” to national regulators.
Old and new methods of distributing emergency alert system warnings need improvement, said a new GAO report. It recommended the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency work to get an Internet-based EAS message system rolled out by states. “Weaknesses” in the traditional broadcast-based method of distributing warnings from government agencies to radio listeners, TV viewers and multichannel video programming distributor customers persist after a GAO report found problems in 2009, said the study. It said the FCC and FEMA have taken limited steps to improve traditional EAS after a first-of-its-kind nationwide test of the system in 2011.
Old and new methods of distributing emergency alert system warnings need improvement, said a new GAO report. It recommended the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency work to get an Internet-based EAS message system rolled out by states. “Weaknesses” in the traditional broadcast-based method of distributing warnings from government agencies to radio listeners, TV viewers and multichannel video programming distributor customers persist after a GAO report found problems in 2009, said the study. It said the FCC and FEMA have taken limited steps to improve traditional EAS after a first-of-its-kind nationwide test of the system in 2011.
LAS VEGAS -- Some 30 emergency alerts were sent to wireless subscribers in Oklahoma Monday as tornadoes struck the state, killing at least 24 people, industry officials said during a CTIA public safety panel Tuesday. Another 17 emergency alerts went out on Sunday as the storm began. However, CTIA Assistant Vice President Brian Josef said that consumer expectations for the level of warnings they'll get on their cellphones are on the rise.