A $450,000 Bureau of Justice Assistance grant will cover a public safety interoperability program developed jointly by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials and the IJIS Institute. The aim is “to improve the real time information sharing capabilities in the emergency response environment,” the grant proposal said. The program will set a strategy for cross-jurisdictional use of a standard model for sharing critical information between emergency communications centers and between the Justice Department and agencies under the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Latimes.com reports that in approximately two weeks Costa Ricans will head to the polls to vote on the Dominican Republic - Central America Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. and six other countries. (Latimes.com, dated 09/21/07, available at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cafta21sep21,1,13700.story)
The FCC released an agenda for the Public Safety Bureau’s Sept. 25 summit on communications-network surge management in emergencies. The main event is a panel chaired by Jeffery Goldthorp, chief of the bureau’s communications systems analysis division, and featuring panelists from AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Carolina West Wireless, the National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors and the Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons.
The National Emergency Number Association and the COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance jointly called on the Department of Homeland Security to play a more significant role in developing next-generation emergency data standards. A letter from them says responder agencies will soon be able to send and receive data in various forms, such as live video. Agencies may find it impossible to share new forms of data unless it’s standardized, the letter said. “A variety of data, including vehicle telematics, personal medical information, and chemical/biological detection data, will be coming into emergency agencies,” said Judith Woodhall, executive director of COMCARE. The next generation “emergency communications system needs to be an intelligent system that is able to read standardized data to help it make routing and processing decisions based on certain components of data. And, this has to happen prior to human interaction at the receiving ends.”
MAKUHARI, Japan -- Xbox 360 remains last in sales in Japan by far among the three new consoles, but this holiday season will see sales grow, Takashi Sensui, general manager of the company’s Home & Entertainment Division, told Consumer Electronics Daily at the Tokyo Game Show late last week. He predicted potentially significant growth but wouldn’t be more specific.
Public safety groups and industry officials said they support an E-911 bill (HR-3403), with the exception of USTelecom, which couldn’t commit to full endorsement of the measure, they told the House Telecom Subcommittee Wednesday. The bipartisan bill, which has been in the works for more than two years, would facilitate deployment of IP-enabled 911 and E-911 services. While there is still squabbling over details, the hearing paved the way for a markup and final passage, lawmakers said.
AT&T warned that the FCC is on perilous legal ground in approving rules for E-911 location measurement before it wrapped up a broader rulemaking. Carriers are widely expected to challenge the Sept. 11 order in federal court (CD Sept 11 Special Bulletin). Carriers were upset last week when the FCC established a five-year deadline, with benchmarks, for measuring success in locating wireless E- 911 callers at the public safety answering point (PSAP) level rather than using statewide averaging. The FCC action was stage one of a two-part E-911 rulemaking, which focused on measurement standards. Reply comments in the next phase, looking at broader E-911 issues, were due this week.
Construction and launch of global satellite navigation system Galileo would be funded entirely with public money, under a plan unveiled Wednesday by the European Commission. Collapse of industry talks on deploying and operating the embattled program forced changes in financing, Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said. He acknowledged that national finance ministers will be a tough sell.
Markup will proceed on a bill reauthorizing the five- year farm bill sometime before the Oct. 8 Columbus Day recess, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Thomas Harkin, D-Iowa, said Tuesday. The multi-title bill would set up a national center focusing on rural telecommunications to assess service and recommend strategies for extending services to rural areas, according to a discussion draft circulating in the Senate. Senate staffers are still working on the measure and changes are likely, a committee aide said.
The European Commission aims to deregulate 10 electronic communications markets and boost its enforcement power over remaining markets, according to draft recommendations and other documents obtained by Washington Internet Daily. Other proposals include creation of an independent body to advise the EC on competition decisions, stronger national regulatory authorities (NRAs), and a revamp of EU spectrum management rules.