House lawmakers launched a full-court press on cybersecurity issues Wednesday, holding three hearings to examine what rules and law enforcement tools are needed to increase the nation’s cybersecurity defenses. Separately, President Barack Obama met with U.S. CEOs Wednesday afternoon to discuss cybersecurity issues, according to the White House schedule released to the press. In the meeting, which was closed to the press, the president planned to discuss his cybersecurity executive order and “solicit the CEOs’ input on how the government and private sector can best work together to improve the nation’s cybersecurity,” the White House said. The CEOs at the meeting included Randall Stephenson of AT&T, David Cote of Honeywell International, and Wes Bush of Northrop Grumman, among others, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
House lawmakers launched a full-court press on cybersecurity issues Wednesday, holding three hearings to examine what rules and law enforcement tools are needed to increase the nation’s cybersecurity defenses. Separately, President Barack Obama met with U.S. CEOs Wednesday afternoon to discuss cybersecurity issues, according to the White House schedule released to the press. In the meeting, which was closed to the press, the president planned to discuss his cybersecurity executive order and “solicit the CEOs’ input on how the government and private sector can best work together to improve the nation’s cybersecurity,” the White House said. The CEOs at the meeting included Randall Stephenson of AT&T, David Cote of Honeywell International, and Wes Bush of Northrop Grumman, among others, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
CEA and its members “are concerned about what we're hearing” is in a draft FCC order and accompanying further NPRM on availability of emergency programming on apparatus, said Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney. She cited a report (CD March 12 p3) that DVD and Blu-ray players would have to pass onto users video descriptions of emergency on-screen crawl information in TV-station and multichannel video programming distributors’ secondary audio program (SAP) channels. Concerning a report that the further notice tentatively finds MVPDs’ programming sent to tablets, smartphones and other devices also would face apparatus emergency programming accessibility rules, Kearney said that may not “necessarily square with the statute.” The FCC is conducting the proceeding under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Advocates for the hearing-impaired continued to tell the agency the act requires such MVPD Internet Protocol content to pass on such SAP channels. Such groups said the forthcoming order should find, as a previous order on MVPD and TV station’s IP captioning found, that fixed media players fall under the act’s rules. “CEA’s argument that Section 303(u)(1) should be interpreted inconsistently in the emergency information proceeding” from the order requiring traditional TV content be captioned when put online should be rejected, said two groups, a professor at a school that teaches the hearing impaired and their lawyers. “If the Commission seeks to exclude playback-only fixed media players from the scope of the emergency information and video description rules, it must do so pursuant to some other method, such as its general waiver authority.” Officials at Gallaudet University’s Technology Access Program, Georgetown University’s Institute of Public Representation and National Association of the Deaf met with aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski, and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing met with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-107 (http://bit.ly/YYq25q), where CEA has discussed its opposition to the IP captioning order’s inclusion of removable media players (http://bit.ly/10J9ZfU).
CEA and its members “are concerned about what we're hearing” is in a draft FCC order and accompanying further NPRM on availability of emergency programming on apparatus, said Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney. She cited a report (WID March 12 p4) that DVD and Blu-ray players would have to pass onto users video descriptions of emergency on-screen crawl information in TV-station and multichannel video programming distributors’ secondary audio program (SAP) channels. Concerning a report that the further notice tentatively finds MVPDs’ programming sent to tablets, smartphones and other devices also would face apparatus emergency programming accessibility rules, Kearney said that may not “necessarily square with the statute.” The FCC is conducting the proceeding under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Advocates for the hearing-impaired continued to tell the agency the act requires such MVPD Internet Protocol content to pass on such SAP channels. Such groups said the forthcoming order should find, as a previous order on MVPD and TV station’s IP captioning found, that fixed media players fall under the act’s rules. “CEA’s argument that Section 303(u)(1) should be interpreted inconsistently in the emergency information proceeding” from the order requiring traditional TV content be captioned when put online should be rejected, said two groups, a professor at a school that teaches the hearing impaired and their lawyers. “If the Commission seeks to exclude playback-only fixed media players from the scope of the emergency information and video description rules, it must do so pursuant to some other method, such as its general waiver authority.” Officials at Gallaudet University’s Technology Access Program, Georgetown University’s Institute of Public Representation and National Association of the Deaf met with aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski, and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing met with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-107 (http://bit.ly/YYq25q), where CEA has discussed its opposition to the IP captioning order’s inclusion of removable media players (http://bit.ly/10J9ZfU).
Transition to a replacement for the text telephone (TTY) system for emergency communications for the disabled should last 12 years, the FCC Emergency Access Advisory Committee’s (EAAC) TTY Transition subgroup said in a draft report. That timeline would include three years for getting the TTY replacement “commonly available,” three years until “no more legacy TTYs should be deployed,” and an additional six years until TTY support can cease, the subgroup said. That timeline can be sped up or slowed down depending on conditions in the overall transition from the public switched telephone network to Internet protocol, the subgroup said in the report. The subgroup recommended implementing the National Emergency Number Association i3Detailed Technical specification 08-003 and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) request for comment 6443 to achieve interoperability between service providers when at least one uses IETF Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for call control. The default interoperability protocols include: IETF RFC 3261 SIP for call control, ITU-T Recommendation T.40 for real-time text presentation and IETF RFC 4103 for real-time text transport, as well as “suitable audio and wide-band audio codecs” commonly used in the implementation environment and supported by Next-Generation 911 (N-G9-1-1). For IMS, the profile specified in GSMA PRD ir.92, including its Annex B, specify a “similar set suitable” for TTY replacement, the subgroup said. That profile also recommends IETF RFC 3261 SIP for call control and IETF RFC 4103 for real-time text, but also requires 3GPP TS 26.114 IMS Multimedia Telephony Codec Considerations for audio. A “suitable combination” with video as specified in GSMA PRD ir.94 should be considered, the subgroup said. Other real-time text protocols can also be used within each service provider’s network or between service providers, provided the functional goals for TTY transition are still met and other protocols are supported as a fallback, the subgroup said. For interoperability of calls between PSTN’s TTY and the TTY replacement, the subgroup recommended placing gateways in the network -- and that calls that may contain text should automatically be routed through the gateway. Other alternatives should also be considered and further investigated, the subgroup said. Recommendation T6.3, which allows for conversion of TTY to IP-carried real-time text at the point of entry to IP networks, is the “realistic solution” for TTY access to N-G9-1-1, the subgroup said. There should be coordination with the U.S. Access Board, the Telecommunications Equipment Distribution Programs and the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program, the subgroup said. TSR rules should be updated to “specifically support relay calls based on the protocols used in accessible interchange with N-G9-1-1,” including information requested in the NENA i3 technical specification, the subgroup said. Videophone and VRS service providers should implement TTY replacement features in combination with video, the subgroup said. NENA recommendations to provide 9-1-1 access to instant messaging users should be encouraged separately from TTY replacement activities “in order to provide 9-1-1 access for current users of these services related to both accessibility and general needs,” the subgroup said. The draft report includes two possible versions of a recommendation for a move toward TTY replacement in industry practice and FCC regulations, as the EAAC “could not come to an agreement” on a common version (http://bit.ly/Y5tvjC).
CEA and its members “are concerned about what we're hearing" is in a draft FCC order and accompanying further NPRM on availability of emergency programming on apparatus, said Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney. She cited our report that DVD and Blu-ray players would need to pass onto users video descriptions of emergency on-screen crawl information in TV-station and multichannel video programming distributors’ secondary audio program channels (CED March 12 p1). Concerning the report that the further notice tentatively finds MVPDs’ programming sent to tablets, smartphones and other devices also would face apparatus emergency programming accessibility rules, Kearney said that may not “necessarily square with the statute.” The FCC is conducting the proceeding under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Advocates for the hearing-impaired continued to tell the agency the act requires such MVPD Internet Protocol content to pass on such SAP channels. Such groups said the forthcoming order should find, as a previous order on MVPD and TV station’s IP captioning found, that fixed media players fall under the act’s rules. “CEA’s argument that Section 303(u)(1) should be interpreted inconsistently in the emergency information proceeding” from the order requiring traditional TV content be captioned when put online should be rejected, said two groups, a professor at a school that teaches the hearing impaired and their lawyers. “If the Commission seeks to exclude playback-only fixed media players from the scope of the emergency information and video description rules, it must do so pursuant to some other method, such as its general waiver authority.” Officials at Gallaudet University’s Technology Access Program, Georgetown University’s Institute of Public Representation and National Association of the Deaf met with aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski, and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing met with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-107 (http://bit.ly/YYq25q), where CEA has discussed its opposition to the IP captioning order’s inclusion of removable media players (http://bit.ly/10J9ZfU).
CTIA warned the FCC that if it imposes a text-to-911 mandate on carriers, the order may not survive a court appeal. Verizon, which has sued the FCC over its data roaming mandate and net neutrality rules, said the FCC should monitor how well voluntary agreements work before imposing rules. The FCC approved a further NPRM asking questions about how the commission can best make sure that all wireless subscribers will one day be able to send emergency text messages to public safety answering points, amid warnings that widespread ability to do so could be many years way (CD Dec 13 p12).
Cisco won’t abandon its set-top business, but will focus on delivering software, including its Videoscape Unity video platform that has gained design wins with Norwegian and Belgium cable operators, said Marthin De Beer, Cisco senior vice president-video and collaboration group, Tuesday at the Piper Jaffray conference in New York.
Cisco won’t abandon its set-top business, but will focus on delivering software, including its Videoscape Unity video platform that has gained design wins with Norwegian and Belgium cable operators, Marthin De Beer, Cisco senior vice president-video and collaboration group, said Tuesday at a Piper Jaffray investment conference in New York.
The House Communications Subcommittee named the witnesses Monday who plan to testify at the panel’s upcoming FirstNet oversight hearing. Witnesses on the first panel will be: FirstNet Board Chairman Sam Ginn; Ray Lehr, director of the Maryland Statewide Communications Interoperability Program; Chris McIntosh, interoperability coordinator for the Virginia Office of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security; James Barnett, co-chair of the telecommunications group at Venable; and Declan Ganley, chairman of Rivada Networks. Witnesses on the second panel will be: Christopher Guttman-McCabe, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs; National Emergency Number Association Director-Government Affairs Trey Forgety; Diane Kniowski, president and general manager at WOOD TV, WOTV and WXSP; and FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky. The hearing is scheduled for March 14 at 10:30 a.m. in Rayburn room 2123.