Congress should coordinate government cybersecurity to fend off attacks against the electrical grid, witnesses said Thursday at a House Commerce Energy Subcommittee hearing. Draft legislation discussed at the hearing would authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to move promptly against cybersecurity threats. Stakeholders disagree over how much authority FERC has over the subject and over what constitutes a “threat,” witnesses said. Some industry groups object to language that would allow the agency to act in instances of threats to national security. The bill could benefit from consideration at a classified briefing planned for next week, said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. Energy Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher of Virginia hopes to get consensus and move the bill to the full committee, then the House floor, he said. “There is significant risk of attack,” said Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., Homeland Security Cybersecurity Subcommittee chairman, at Thursday’s hearing. According to his panel’s findings, business must do more to reduce the threat, he said. FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher said legislation is needed to bolster the commission’s inadequate legal authority concerning attacks. Kelliher wants a bill authorizing FERC to fight cyber threats and national security threats, including power to act preemptively. The threshold for labeling a threat “should not be so high as to be insurmountable,” he said. FERC should be able to require industry “to take adequate measures to address” threats, Kelliher said. Langevin endorses FERC’s request for more power, he said. House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., said legislation needs to ensure that the government “is not improperly hobbled by legal and jurisdictional boundaries in the case of an emergency.”
T-Mobile asked the FCC not to adopt new requirements for dual-mode CMRS-VoIP phones as the commission revises rules for VoIP E-911. The dual-mode phone issue loomed large last month as commissioners debated a rulemaking required by the NET 911 Improvement Act. Other commenters said the dual-mode issue appears unique to T-Mobile and asked the FCC to table the issue to focus on the Act’s main thrust: Ensuring that interconnected VoIP providers have access to E911 services.
“Skulduggery” in the prepaid calling card business must be stamped out, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said at a hearing he chaired Wednesday on his reform bill (S-2998). Consumer advocates and Federal Trade Commission Chairman William Kovacic agreed that stronger enforcement and better consumer education could keep many low-income consumers from unwittingly buying cards that don’t deliver promised services. Kovacic also made a plug for repealing the common carrier exemption from FTC enforcement, which he said blocks his commission from going after all bad actors.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a final rule, effective October 9, 2008, amending its regulations to reference the most recent version of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Handbook 133, which contains standards for determining the reasonable variations allowed for the declared net weight on labels of immediate containers of meat and poultry products; the procedures to be used to determine the net weight and net weight compliance of meat and poultry products; and related definitions. FSIS is also consolidating the separate net weight regulations for meat and poultry products in a new CFR part, applicable to both meat and poultry products. (D/N FSIS-2008-0015, FR Pub 09/09/08, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-20559.pdf)
T-Mobile asked the FCC not to adopt new requirements for dual-mode CMRS-VoIP phones as the commission revises rules for VoIP E-911. The dual-mode phone issue loomed as commissioners debated a rulemaking required by the NET 911 Improvement Act. Other commenters said the dual-mode issue appears unique to T-Mobile and asked the FCC to table the issue to focus on the Act’s main thrust: Ensuring that interconnected VoIP providers have access to E911 services.
Concern that tropical storm Hanna would hit Wilmington, N.C., during its early analog TV cutoff Monday raised sales of Winegard’s back-up battery pack for its coupon-eligible converter boxes. The $15 RC-BP9V, which uses six D cells to power Winegard’s RCDT09 and RCDT09A boxes, was promoted extensively in the area as the DTV switch neared. “It’s going pretty well,” Grant Whipple, Winegard national sales manager for digital reception products, told us Monday. “When we first launched, the battery pack was only available online and through one distributor there. Since then, we moved it into more channels. The pack will be available throughout the U.S. through dealers and our website, although we won’t be promoting it as heavily as we did in Wilmington.” Demand for a battery-powered converter box to use with analog AC/DC portable TVs in power outages hasn’t been hurt by the higher prices and short supplies for portable DTVs (CED Sept 5 p2). Those are limited to 7-inch LCD models that sell for $150 and $200 under Best Buy’s and RadioShack’s Insignia and Accurian house brands. They were scarce in Wilmington late last week as Hannah neared. Their usefulness is limited, since they run on internal rechargeable batteries rather than the replaceable cells used by most small-screen analog portables. They cost more than small-screen CRT analog sets, which sold for as little as $30. Winegard’s battery pack can run its converter boxes up to 18 hours and connects to the set-tops’ 9-volt DV input. “In general, the box greatly outruns the battery usage in portable TVs,” Whipple said. The converter box could run perhaps twice as long using so- called industrial cells. But they're not sold at retail. They're distributed to institutional users and emergency services by companies including Duracell, Eveready, Panasonic, Sanyo and Sony. Industrial cells are the same size as standard ones, but have higher milli-amp hours, longer shelf-life and reinforced casings. The ATSC “Mobile/Handheld” standard should be completed early next year, enabling smartphones and similar devices getting over- air DTV broadcasts to hit the market in Q3 of 2009. Front- runners in that category include LG, which holds multiple patents for DTV reception and has a large market share in cellphones.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin proposed regional licenses for the 10 MHz of public safety D-block in auction rules he circulated Thursday evening among fellow commissioners. Martin seeks a vote on the item at the Sept. 25 agenda meeting. The FCC would have to seek additional comment before approving final rules. Martin said a D-block auction is unlikely before April and will take place then only if the commission completes work on an order this year. The FCC had hoped to hold a new auction this year. Martin discussed details of the complicated order on a conference call Friday with reporters.
The 700 MHz public safety D-block’s future remains in question entering what are likely the last five months of Kevin Martin’s chairmanship. Among the main problems facing advocates of a public-private partnership is seeming reluctance by some of the nation’s largest systems to take part, as seen at an FCC en banc hearing on the D-block (CD July 31 p1). Public safety sources say many first responders still don’t understand the benefits offered by a broadband wireless network, and may not until the network is built.
The American Trucking Associations, with the support of its Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, filed its legal reply in the U.S. District Court in California to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach's defense of their "Concession Plans." ATA believes the concession programs unlawfully re-regulate the port trucking industry to the detriment of motor carriers, shippers, businesses, and consumers that depend on the products that are handled at those ports. (ATA press release, dated 08/29/08, available at http://www.truckline.com/NR/exeres/66B9C653-13FA-4AA2-ABE1-DAF5D210889C.htm)
The FCC immediately should start looking into Arbitron’s audience-measurement devices (CD Aug 8 p12), said a coalition of advocacy groups and 10 companies serving minority audiences. Arbitron’s Portable People Meters “grossly undercount” the number of minorities in radio audiences, said its emergency petition for a commission inquiry under section 403 of the Communications Act. The petition was filed by the PPM Coalition, whose members include the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, the Spanish Radio Association, Spanish Broadcasting and Univision. “Unless the Commission acts now, the current PPM methodology will most likely wipe out half of the nation’s minority broadcasters -- beginning on October 8, 2008, when PPM attains currency in eight markets including the top four radio markets,” they said. “Years of negotiations with Arbitron have produced only stonewalling and delay.” Arbitron said the groups raised no new points and failed to acknowledge that the company still is talking with urban and Hispanic broadcasters, and that the PPM outperforms a written diary of radio listening. Arbitron said the FCC lacks jurisdiction over it but the company is “committed to continue our voluntary meetings with the FCC.”