Phantom traffic problems could be lessened by extending existing call signaling requirements to all interconnected voice services regardless of technology, the National Exchange Carrier Association told the FCC in a petition filed Tuesday. NECA said FCC rules require common carriers to transmit calling party number (CPN) information but don’t extend that requirement to all providers of voice traffic sent to the public switched telephone network. As debate continues over broader intercarrier compensation reform, more carriers are facing phantom traffic problems, NECA said. “NECA member companies are faced with increasing amounts of interstate and intrastate voice calls bearing incomplete, inaccurate or missing signaling data,” the association said. NECA asked the FCC to clarify that “the calling party number transmitted in the signal reflects the true 10-digit telephone number of the… customer originating the call and not a number associated with intermediate switches, gateways or ‘platforms’ used to access the PSTN.” The association also asked the FCC to “address a growing number of disputes” over the “proper jurisdiction of calls” by clarifying that “terminating carriers may use as a default the originating and terminating telephone numbers associated with a call to determine jurisdiction for billing purposes.” The recommended changes would not only help carriers with “phantom traffic” and other billing problems “caused by missing or inaccurate call signaling information” but also would help other services that use CPN data, NECA said. CPN data is the “basis for virtually all displays of Caller ID information,” it said. “Consumers, interconnected carriers, emergency service providers, and law enforcement officials share a common interest in the accuracy of this data.”
The 700 MHz auction begins today (Thursday) on a note of pessimism among many observers since it starts during a week when U.S. markets have fallen sharply spurred by fears of recession. Credit markets were already tight. Sources said economic uncertainty has exacerbated concerns that no new major spectrum players will emerge from the auction, despite FCC pressure. Concern also has been raised that most of the spectrum will be gobbled up by incumbents and bidders won’t bid enough to meet the high reserve prices set for the auction.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Tuesday released a standard for emergency call recipients to use in handling reports of missing or exploited children. The standard, American National Standard 1.101.1-2007, was written by a committee including representatives of the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, the National AMBER Alert Initiative, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the National Emergency Number Association.
The D.C. Court of Appeals agreed to an expedited pleading cycle in a challenge by CTIA of an FCC mandate that cellsites and other telecom facilities usually running on local commercial power have emergency backup sources. The decision means CTIA and others in the industry should have a relatively quick decision in the case, though the actual hearing’s date is unclear. The court has yet to act on a Sprint Nextel move to stay the order while the case plays out.
The first digital-only station in the U.S. asked the FCC to order that Comcast immediately restore it to the company’s systems in the West Palm Beach area, after Comcast pulled the station without telling subscribers or the broadcaster. On Oct. 11 Comcast stopped showing WHDT Stuart without explanation, displaying a message in the former channel slot that WHDT “is not transmitting at this time,” the station said in a complaint filed Tuesday with the commission. Comcast denied the allegations, said a spokeswoman.
The government isn’t sure how attractive or vulnerable health care data are to cyberattackers, Mark Walker, a threat analyst at the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday at a National Institute of Standards & Technology conference. Agencies protecting infrastructure are studying the chances of health care data hacks, but understanding of the risk is “really vague,” Walker said at the conference on Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act compliance.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology offers an e-mail notification service which alerts readers to drafts or changes to foreign technical regulations for manufactured products which may be considered technical barriers to trade and are therefore required to be reported to the World Trade Organization, which distributes the information to WTO Member countries.
Federal e-waste legislative proposals may emerge on the Hill as early as Friday, sources in the industry and environmental groups said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Safety Inspection Service has posted a revised directive (5420.4, Revision 4) which details the procedures that its Office of International Affairs (OIA) Import Inspection Division (IID) field personnel are to follow when the Department of Homeland Security declares a threat condition Yellow (Elevated), Orange (High), or Red (Severe).
On December 19, 2007 the Senate passed its version of H.R. 3890, the Burma Democracy Promotion Act of 2007, which would replace the current "product of" Burma import ban with a ban on any articles "produced, mined, manufactured, grown, or assembled" in Burma; expand the blocking of assets and other prohibited activities; and for other purposes.