SILICON VALLEY -- A regional forerunner to the national public safety network is making headway recruiting public institutions to join but meeting more resistance than it thinks it should, an official said. The BayRICS effort in the San Francisco Bay area includes a 700 MHz LTE network called BayWEB, financed with a $51 million NTIA stimulus grant to cover just more than half the cost. The effort is attracting interest from universities “and we're working on” the two holdout cities in Alameda County to join, said Chief Information Officer Clancy Priest of the city of Hayward, which is in the county. “It’s like if you build it they will come.” The initials stand for Regional Interoperable Communication System and for Wireless Enhanced Broadband.
SILICON VALLEY -- A regional forerunner to the national public safety network is making headway recruiting public institutions to join but meeting more resistance than it thinks it should, an official said. The BayRICS effort in the San Francisco Bay area includes a 700 MHz LTE network called BayWEB, financed with a $51 million NTIA stimulus grant to cover just more than half the cost. The effort is attracting interest from universities “and we're working on” the two holdout cities in Alameda County to join, said Chief Information Officer Clancy Priest of the city of Hayward, which is in the county. “It’s like if you build it they will come.” The initials stand for Regional Interoperable Communication System and for Wireless Enhanced Broadband.
An NPR satellite feed caused a systemic audio glitch with Wednesday’s first-ever nationwide test (CD Nov 10 p2) of the emergency alert system (EAS). The Squawk Channel feed was used by some commercial radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming providers to carry the test alert from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, executives said. The feed also was used for some noncommercial stations, which got the channel directly from NPR and who then passed it onto the other types of EAS participants. Broadcasters and MVPDs that relied on the feed for the test had the audio test message disrupted. The exercise nonetheless worked as intended, because the EAS participants got the simulated warning and passed it on, even though the announcement couldn’t be clearly heard, said executives who participated in the test.
The President has issued a notice and message to Congress on his decision to extend for another year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12938 of November 14, 1994 as amended by EOs 13904 and 13382, regarding the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the U.S. posed by the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons (weapons of mass destruction) and the means of delivering such weapons. The national emergency is extended until November 14, 2012.
The first-ever national emergency alert system test saw glitches at cable operators, DBS providers and commercial and nonprofit radio and TV broadcasters, our survey of those EAS participants and our own research found. The exercise was shortened last week to 30 seconds from three minutes, after the NCTA unsuccessfully sought a delay because many cable encoder-decoder units that pass the alert on couldn’t show video saying it was a test (CD Nov 7 p6). That prompted worries among government and industry officials that viewers would think an actual emergency occurred, but broadcast executives said that didn’t appear to have happened, based on initial reports. All EAS participants have a month and a half to report to the FCC how things went.
SILICON VALLEY -- Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said Wednesday she wants to make sure that the zeal for raising federal revenue doesn’t prevent adding “open space for innovation” in the airwaves. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is looking to spectrum auctions “to raise money for the federal government,” she noted at the Silicon Valley Wireless Symposium, organized by Joint Venture Silicon Valley. But Lofgren said she wants to make sure that when it comes to adding spectrum for broadband “not everything gets auctioned,” so unlicensed capacity is available. “We need to think about how we can incent additional efficient use of spectrum,” she added.
SILICON VALLEY -- Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said Wednesday she wants to make sure that the zeal for raising federal revenue doesn’t prevent adding “open space for innovation” in the airwaves. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is looking to spectrum auctions “to raise money for the federal government,” she noted at the Silicon Valley Wireless Symposium, organized by Joint Venture Silicon Valley. But Lofgren said she wants to make sure that when it comes to adding spectrum for broadband “not everything gets auctioned,” so unlicensed capacity is available. “We need to think about how we can incent additional efficient use of spectrum,” she added.
Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Rhode Island diverted 911 fees to their state’s general fund while Virginia and West Virginia used diverted fees for other public safety-related purposes, said the FCC’s third annual report to the Congress about states that have diverted 911 fees. The states’ governor’s offices couldn’t be reached immediately for comment. The report, released Tuesday, was submitted to Congress Nov. 1. In conjunction with the report, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau proposed to collect more detailed information from states and U.S. territories about their collection and use of 911 fees, including whether such fees are or can be used to support Next Generation 911 initiatives, a public notice said. It also seeks comment on whether the agency should recommend potential legislative changes to Congress that would provide more accountability in the collection and expenditure of 911 funds. The good news is there are fewer states this year diverting 911 funds to non-public safety purposes, Chairman Julius Genachowski said. The FCC seeks input on the most effective use of 911 fees to enable the transition to next generation emergency communications and on recommendations to Congress to ensure “its laws have real teeth,” he said. Many states and local communities are facing a tough economy and budget deficits but that’s not the reason to be “penny wise and pound foolish by depleting funds that are essential to 911 and emergency communications operations,” said Gregg Riddle, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. Even though there are fewer states that are poaching from the 911 funds, it’s disappointing to see states “blatantly ignore what is best for their citizens and first responders, CTIA Vice President Jamie Hastings said. The National Emergency Number Association urged ending the practice of redirecting 911 fee revenue.
Emergency Alert System participants must not broadcast EAS tones or attention signals except during Wednesday’s test of the national EAS system (CD Nov 7 p6), the FCC said Tuesday. That means any news coverage of the test should exclude the EAS tones, codes and attention signals, it said in a public notice released by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. “Any rebroadcast of the EAS tones and attention signal not only would violate FCC rules, but would also pose a public danger because rebroadcast of the tones could trigger a false alert from EAS equipment that picks up such a rebroadcast."
The President has issued a message to Congress stating that he has determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to Iran in order to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the situation in Iran. Therefore, the national emergency with respect to Iran that was declared on March 15, 1995, is to continue in effect beyond November 14, 2011.