Work on comprehensive emergency communications legislation will come next year when the FCC finishes its broadband plan and perhaps takes up revamping the Universal Service Fund, House aides said at an E-911 Institute meeting Thursday. The need for a nationwide strategy and funding for next-generation E-911 services could be taken up in a USF bill or some other broadband-related vehicle, aides said. Some of this year’s broadband stimulus awards could go to public-safety projects, as called for in the Recovery Act, but much more money will be needed to fulfill longstanding plans for a nationwide interoperable network, people at the conference said.
The February 2009 collision of Russian Cosmos satellite and an American Iridium satellite and other close calls have prompted renewed calls for an international law on disposing of defunct satellites, said the U.N. information service in Vienna. The five current space-law treaties were negotiated before space debris was an issue, said Niklas Hedman, the chief of the Committee Services and Research Section at the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs. The calls for an international law aren’t coming from the major space-faring nations, Hedman said, as much as from developing countries and emerging space-faring powers. Space-faring nations have strategies for dealing with the problem, he said.
The FCC “should ensure that any actions taken regarding the establishment of a wireless public safety broadband network in the 700 MHz band (1) result in a network that is built nationally; (2) that takes advantage of the significant research and development of the commercial wireless industry; and, (3) that has a known and recurring funding source for public safety to access and utilize the wireless broadband network,” said National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes. He explained the group’s stance on a public safety wireless broadband network in a meeting with Erin McGrath, aide to Commissioner Meredith Baker, the association said in an ex parte letter filed at the FCC.
A federal emergency official told House members Wednesday that there’s a plan to improve the nation’s emergency alert system before fiscal 2013. The plan is “not without its challenges,” Damon Penn, assistant administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at a House Public Safety Subcommittee hearing. “There must be no more delay in building a modern alert system,” said Subcommittee Chairman Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.
The FCC sought comment on four public safety issues involved in creating the National Broadband Plan, including safety agencies’ need for a wireless broadband network. The other matters are next-generation 911, cybersecurity and emergency alerts. “Broadband offers a variety of potential benefits to emergency responders and other public safety agencies,” the commission said. “However, commenters in the record have noted that these networks may not meet specialized public safety requirements. Public safety agencies today typically have only access to broadband services that they obtain from commercial service providers. In particular, public safety agencies generally lack access to mobile wireless broadband service that meets their specialized requirements (e.g., coverage, hardening, reliability, etc.).” The future of the 700 MHz D block, which had been set aside for a public safety wireless network, has long been a top public safety matter at the commission. “We seek specific details on both current and anticipated needs of the public safety community for mobile wireless broadband networks and applications,” the commission said. The FCC requested comments about the “anticipated peak, average, and cell edge broadband traffic” that are likely on this network and probable number of users; which applications are expected to ride on the network, and associated data rates; “specific requirements for hardening of cell sites and other network facilities;” and the best ways to define and quantify mission-critical voice and mission critical data. “We seek information on experiences and lessons learned to date by current public safety use of mobile wireless broadband networks … including use of such networks at central locations,” the FCC said. “We seek comment on what particular mobile wireless broadband needs could be satisfied by commercial broadband service providers in the short term and over the long term. Are there any assessment studies or field trials that show areas in which next-generation mobile networks (4G) meet or do not meet Public Safety requirements?” Comments are due Nov. 12. At a public safety broadband workshop Aug. 25, speakers disagreed about how a wireless broadband network would be used by public safety (CD Aug 26 p1). A cybersecurity workshop is scheduled Wednesday.
Satellite and mobile interests in ITU-R are divided over whether to recommend using some C-band frequencies for national emergency and disaster relief. Administrations are encouraged to use 3.4-4.2 GHz or any of various other satellite frequencies in their national planning for emergency and disaster relief, according to draft text in a revised ITU-R recommendation. Mobile satellite interests have played the disaster relief angle for years and now the fixed service wants to join in, said a mobile executive involved in regulatory affairs and ITU-R. The draft suggests that countries refer to the recommendation in following through on a WRC-07 resolution on spectrum management guidelines for emergency and disaster relief communications. Any of about a dozen other GHz frequencies could be used depending on the country, it said. They're 5.725-5.85, 5.85- 6.7, 10.95-11.2, 11.45-11.7, 11.7-12.2, 12.2-12.5, 12.5- 12.75, 13.75-14.5, 17.7-21.2 and 27.5-31 GHz. About 390 networks use the frequencies, the draft said, and other bands may be used in the future.
A pilot program by the National Communications System to use satellite phones as an alternative for emergency calls by national security and emergency preparedness personnel, has been ended, said a Government Accountability Office report. The service is in the Department of Homeland Security. Although the “pilot began in December 2007 and is estimated to last 3 years and cost $1.9 million, as of May 2009 NCS could provide little documentation to explain its objectives for the pilot, and how it planned to meet those objectives,” the GAO said. NCS officials provided briefing slides to GAO investigators “to elaborate on the pilot program and describe some high-level program objectives,” but “these slides lacked key program information such as a methodology for evaluating pilot results to determine whether the intended pilot objectives were met, and milestones for pilot implementation,” the GAO said. In April, DHS officials said the pilot had been put on hold. “NCS subsequently terminated the pilot in May 2009, according to NCS officials,” the GAO said. “NCS officials acknowledged that the pilot program needed improved planning and metric documentation and noted that NCS took a number of issues into consideration including the current availability of push-to-talk capability among existing satellite service providers in making the decision to end the pilot.” The GAO report, which provided a broad overview of the NCS, said the DHS has failed to complete a strategic plan for the program, despite previous GAO recommendations. “Strategic plans are an essential element in results-oriented program management, and provide agencies and stakeholders a common set of operational principles with which to guide actions and decisions,” the GAO said. “Although DHS stated that it was taking steps to finalize its strategic plan in response to our June 2008 recommendation, it has not yet finalized the plan which has been in draft since mid-2007 or committed to incorporating key elements of a strategic plan.”
Unless the FCC sharpens its outreach, thousands of people who are deaf may be left without functionally equivalent phone service, said consumer advocates and telecom relay service providers during a workshop Friday at the FCC. Video and IP-based relay users must register 10-digit numbers or they won’t be able to make non-emergency calls after Nov. 12 (CD Aug 12 p1). The deadline has already been extended over concerns about consumer confusion, lack of public education, and technical issues. But education problems remain, workshop attendees said.
A public-private partnership remains a good solution for creating a nationwide, interoperable public safety network, said House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D- Calif., at a Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday. Several groups offered proposals for solving the longstanding lack of a nationwide public safety network, as well as ways to pick up the pieces after the failed auction of spectrum set aside for such a network in the 700 MHz auction last year. But no consensus emerged among lawmakers or witnesses. Lawmakers did agree a solution is imperative either through legislation or FCC action.
APCO continues to support a nationwide public-safety broadband network in the 700 MHz D block, the group said in comments to the FCC on 700 MHz waivers requested by public safety agencies. APCO filed comments on the eve of a House Communications Subcommittee hearing about recent developments concerning a national wireless network for public safety. The network will “ensure interoperability, provide economies of scale, deliver required levels of coverage and reliability, facilitate public-private partnerships to reduce costs and improve spectrum efficiency, and provide opportunities for all public safety agencies to obtain the benefits of broadband communications,” APCO said. The group said that “nearly all other national public safety organizations” oppose a suggestion by the National Emergency Number Association that the D block be auctioned “and that, in return, public safety users receive lower cost access to commercial networks.” APCO said, “Commercial services will not provide sufficient coverage, reliability, or access to meet most public safety requirements.”