Maine gave FairPoint its $32 million E911 contract, the telco said Thursday (http://xrl.us/bn46zi). FairPoint will supply and maintain the system for the state’s 26 911 centers, making Maine “one of the first states in the nation to deploy a Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) system compliant with the National Emergency Number Association standards,” said FairPoint. The system will “link voice, data and video elements to E9-1-1 call facilities,” “transfer data seamlessly” and “provide the capability to read text messages and view video when the industry standards are developed,” said Vice President Karen Romano in a statement.
There were a “few areas of success” after nearly a week of work on the future International Telecommunication Regulations, said Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation at the Dubai World Conference on International Telecommunications, in a Thursday press briefing. Kramer sees progress on the “overall wording of the preamble” of the future ITRs and also an “agreement on the definition of telecommunication.” But he acknowledged there might still be people “talking about ICT,” a concept the U.S. is rejecting for potential confusion between pure infrastructure providers and companies involved in processing or even VoIP providers like Skype. Kramer said: “If there is a dispute, we need to go back to the fundamental of the treaty,” which is “How do we advance broadband and the telecom infrastructure?” No consensus has emerged on whether the ITRs should address recognized operating agencies -- public network providers like AT&T or Verizon -- or operating agencies, including private Internet providers and government network providers. “That issue has [more] left to be worked on,” he said. While a lot of time was spent in bilateral meetings talking through this issue, Kramer said “we are not keen to get in any discussions about the Russian proposal because we think it is out of scope.” Russia proposed an Internet-related chapter. He called a short-time outage of one of the ITU websites Wednesday a helpful reminder of the need to solve the growing cybersecurity issues by cooperation of a variety of organizations. Cybersecurity was not supported as a topic in the ITRs, he said, out of the concern that what was a “seemingly harmless proposal” could develop into a situation where the monitoring of traffic and content would get governments into “making judgments about that content.” At the official press briefing of the ITU earlier Thursday, Joshua Peprah, director of the National Communications Authority of Ghana, said the ad hoc group working on Article 6, the charging and accounting schemes, would work Friday and Saturday and bring back potential results Monday.
There were a “few areas of success” after nearly a week of work on the future International Telecommunication Regulations, said Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation at the Dubai World Conference on International Telecommunications, in a Thursday press briefing. Kramer sees progress on the “overall wording of the preamble” of the future ITRs and also an “agreement on the definition of telecommunication.” But he acknowledged there might still be people “talking about ICT,” a concept the U.S. is rejecting for potential confusion between pure infrastructure providers and companies involved in processing or even VoIP providers like Skype. Kramer said: “If there is a dispute, we need to go back to the fundamental of the treaty,” which is “How do we advance broadband and the telecom infrastructure?” No consensus has emerged on whether the ITRs should address recognized operating agencies -- public network providers like AT&T or Verizon -- or operating agencies, including private Internet providers and government network providers. “That issue has [more] left to be worked on,” he said. While a lot of time was spent in bilateral meetings talking through this issue, Kramer said “we are not keen to get in any discussions about the Russian proposal because we think it is out of scope.” Russia proposed an Internet-related chapter. He called a short-time outage of one of the ITU websites Wednesday a helpful reminder of the need to solve the growing cybersecurity issues by cooperation of a variety of organizations. Cybersecurity was not supported as a topic in the ITRs, he said, out of the concern that what was a “seemingly harmless proposal” could develop into a situation where the monitoring of traffic and content would get governments into “making judgments about that content.” At the official press briefing of the ITU earlier Thursday, Joshua Peprah, director of the National Communications Authority of Ghana, said the ad hoc group working on Article 6, the charging and accounting schemes, would work Friday and Saturday and bring back potential results Monday.
The advent of next-generation 911 will create both jurisdictional and funding challenges, government officials and stakeholders said. The pending changes call for new coordination. When Tennessee first created a statewide 911 board in the late 1990s, most local 911 centers “thought it was a terrible idea,” said Lynn Questell, the board’s executive director, speaking Thursday at the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in Washington. But the presence of a board allowed coordination and implementation of E911 technologies in better and faster ways, she said, saying seven U.S. states still lack 911 boards and showing maps that revealed a dearth of 911 advances in those states.
The European Commission plans to deal with troublesome online content issues starting next year, it said Wednesday after an “orientation debate” called by President José Manuel Barroso. With Europe’s digital economy predicted to grow seven times faster than its overall gross domestic product in the next few years, the EC wants to ensure that copyright rules work in the digital context, it said. Parallel tracks will deal next year with several issues where quick progress is needed, with decisions coming in 2014, it said. The EC hasn’t really tackled those matters until now, focusing instead on studies and limited topics such as collective licensing and orphan works, EC sources said. But the Digital Agenda mid-term review, due Dec. 19, is expected to name copyright reform as a top priority, and government leaders want concrete acts to spur the digital single market. There wasn’t enough work being done on the critical issues, and then the polarized focus on enforcement in the context of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) made things worse, they said.
The European Commission plans to deal with troublesome online content issues starting next year, it said Wednesday after an “orientation debate” called by President José Manuel Barroso. With Europe’s digital economy predicted to grow seven times faster than its overall gross domestic product in the next few years, the EC wants to ensure that copyright rules work in the digital context, it said. Parallel tracks will deal next year with several issues where quick progress is needed, with decisions coming in 2014, it said. The EC hasn’t really tackled those matters until now, focusing instead on studies and limited topics such as collective licensing and orphan works, EC sources said. But the Digital Agenda mid-term review, due Dec. 19, is expected to name copyright reform as a top priority, and government leaders want concrete acts to spur the digital single market. There wasn’t enough work being done on the critical issues, and then the polarized focus on enforcement in the context of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) made things worse, they said.
The Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach strike "is now at the national emergency stage impacting industries far and wide," said National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay, renewing his request that President Obama intervene in the strike. There was no reported resolution of the strike of clerical workers and longshoremen (see ITT's Online Archives 12120317) at our deadline.
Advocates of the deaf and hearing impaired asked the FCC to approve an order requiring carriers “to implement their end of SMS-to-911,” while leaving over-the-top texting mechanisms to a further notice of proposed rulemaking. The stance of the groups largely supports the FCC’s strategy on text-to-911 and an order slated for a vote at the commission’s Dec. 12 meeting (CD Nov 29 p1). “While we appreciate the actions that some carriers have undertaken to support SMS-to-911, filings by some other carriers in opposition to SMS-to-911 indicate that voluntary efforts will fall short of providing a nationwide accessible interim text-to-911 solution,” the groups said in a filing at the FCC posted Monday (http://xrl.us/bn4nye). “The deaf and hard of hearing communities cannot afford to wait any longer to regain direct access to 911.” The filing was signed by Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, the National Association of the Deaf and the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University. “We asked that the Commission formally act as soon as possible on implementation and deployment of the interim solution with SMS for text-to-911 emergency calling, and that firm but fair deadlines be set,” they said.
Some cargo ships were beginning to divert to other ports as a result of the longshoremen strike that shut down most terminals at the Port of Los Angeles and half of them at the Port of Long Beach, industry officials said. Port users urged negotiators for employers and union workers to resume talks, and some were even seeking intervention by President Barack Obama, citing the potential impact of the strike on the economy since the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports bring in over 40% of the nation's imports. Talks did resume Thursday evening, Nov. 29, between the Harbor Employers Association and ILWU Local 63 O.C.U.
Computer emergency response teams (CERTs) increasingly must work with law enforcement agencies to deal with cybercrime and cyberattacks, but their collaboration is being stymied by legal, regulatory, cultural and operational hurdles, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) said Wednesday. There has been little research on how to connect the two communities and the ENISA report on good practice for addressing network and information security aspects of cybercrime (http://bit.ly/TlzqMk) will help combat cyberincidents by identifying ways to surmount the challenges, the agency said.