Net neutrality has made its way into DoD policy discussion, judging by comments of John Grimes, Pentagon CIO and asst. Secy.-networks & information integration. Speaking to FCBA members Wed., Grimes touched briefly on net neutrality and what he called the recent politicization of the National Security Telecom Advisory Committee (NSTAC), among many other matters. An information network means information is available over multiple pathways, Grimes said. Network neutrality means keeping those pathways clear, he said. “When you start talking about charges and costs, it does have an impact” on the ability of that network to remain useful in national security and emergency responses, he said. Grimes didn’t comment further on the matter. Grimes voiced disappointment at what he called the NSTAC’s politicization. The body, crucial to homeland security efforts, has “gotten politicized” the past 2 presidential administrations, he said. Strict rules determine selection of member companies from telecom, IT and defense companies. The president chooses the officials from those companies to sit on the committee. Created by President Reagan in 1982 in the climate that led to the AT&T breakup, the panel is to provide “industry-based advice and expertise to the President on issues and problems related to implementing national security and emergency preparedness communications policy.” NSTAC’s executive agent is DHS Chmn. Michael Chertoff, but it advises and answers to the president exclusively. Representatives for Grimes didn’t return our requests to elaborate on his comments.
PALO ALTO, Cal. -- Creating a model that uses schools as wireless broadband emergency hubs is the aim of an unusual alliance of a federal institution, local public agencies, business and a Silicon Valley nonprofit. At a meeting here late Tues., the not-for-profit Wireless Communications Alliance (WCA) introduced its Emergency Communications & Leadership Information Center (eCLIC) and the Livermore Information Network Collaborative (LINC) that the center helped organize east of Silicon Valley. Other LINC participants are the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the Cal. Office of Emergency Services, the school district and the police and fire departments in Livermore, Cal., and Trapeze Networks.
Don’t burden the Emergency Alert System (EAS) with overly prescriptive, one-size-fits-all solutions, wireless firms told the FCC Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee at its inaugural meeting Tues. Carrier sources said afterwards they have few fears because the WARN Act, which created the committee, makes mobile alerts voluntary and carriers can opt out if solutions aren’t practical.
Urgent action is needed to restart a stalled plan to roll out eCall in new European cars by 2009, the EC said Mon. “We urgently need to get eCall back on track,” Viviane Reding, EU Comr. for Information Society & Media, said. Mon. Iceland added its name to an eCall memo of understanding by 9 other European countries working for a pan-European eCall service based on emergency number 112 and its location- enhancement, E112. EU nations expect to solve legal, technical and socio-economic issues with deploying 112, E112 and eCall, said the EC, which will arrange with industry associations to put eCall in vehicles. The GSM Assn. wants an in-band solution, so 3GPP has started to evaluate the solution, but the work hasn’t gone very far, said Stephen Hayes, chmn. of the 3GPP technical specification group on services and system aspects. The 3GPP standards work for eCall slowed last summer.
Urgent action is needed to restart a stalled plan to roll out eCall in new European cars by 2009, the EC said Mon. “We urgently need to get eCall back on track,” Viviane Reding, EU Comr. for Information Society & Media, said. Mon. Iceland added its name to an eCall memo of understanding by 9 other European countries working for a pan-European eCall service based on emergency number 112 and its location- enhancement, E112. EU nations expect to solve legal, technical and socio-economic issues with deploying 112, E112 and eCall, said the EC, which will arrange with industry associations to put eCall in vehicles. The GSM Assn. wants an in-band solution, so 3GPP has started to evaluate the solution, but the work hasn’t gone very far, said Stephen Hayes, chmn. of the 3GPP technical specification group on services and system aspects. The 3GPP standards work for eCall slowed last summer (CD June 13 p7).
It takes 40 MHz of spectrum to build a sustainable WiMAX business, according to analysts, companies like Clearwire and, most recently, mobile satellite services firms looking at wireless broadband. “To be a real player, you need more spectrum than we have,” Motient & TerreStar CEO Robert Brumley told a UBS conference last week. TerreStar has 20 MHz of S-band spectrum, as does S-band competitor ICO. Separately, neither could make a solid go of WiMAX due to interference risks, Brumley said -- but if the S-band players teamed up, it might be a different story.
BERKELEY, Cal. -- The tide is turning against network security, and computer networks will be vulnerable at least 10 years, security researcher Vern Paxson, speaking at the U. of Cal. here, said: “The notion that we'll build fundamentally trustworthy systems is a very longhaul notion.” Paxson, who chaired the Internet Research Task Force 2001- 2005, teaches and does research at the university and is centrally involved in IT security at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Govt. and private clients of disaster-recovery IT providers like SunGard need to press for more options in IT system packages, a Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) official told the congressionally created Information Security & Privacy Advisory Board at its Thurs. meeting. Providers currently offer short-term plans for IT systems, services and space for customers displaced by emergency or disaster, but there’s too little demand to offer long-term plans, said Gil Hawk, CIO for USDA’s National Finance Center, which handles that agency’s data center and payroll services. SunGard, IBM and other IT behemoths provide “cold sites” -- basically warehouses with IT systems and network services. The Center leased a SunGard cold site in Philadelphia last year after closing its New Orleans facility in advance of Hurricane Katrina. In such instances, SunGard has a “subscription service” guaranteeing “like” equipment -- not necessarily what customers request -- for 6 weeks maximum, after which gear is “ripped out from under you” and given to other customers, Hawk said. Such sites are strictly short-term solutions; the one in Philadelphia would have cost $25 million to buy -- not a bad price but too much upfront, Hawk said. But “don’t single out SunGard,” he told board member and Cornell U. Prof. Fred Schneider, who asked whether SunGard’s model is bad for agencies in duress. The industry standard for disaster recovery is 30 days, and the Center has pressed SunGard and IBM to recast these services to agency emergency needs -- a lost cause unless more customers demand that, Hawk said. The CIO described to a clearly-moved board the Center’s “absolutely phenomenal” 7-week stint building the Philadelphia data center -- normally a 9-12 month job -- and its gradual “migration” from SunGard subscription products to a permanent equipment base, amid turmoil in its New Orleans office. SunGard gives priority in its services to clients who declare an “emergency,” a cry customers use less often than might be thought, Hawk said: “Just to declare [an emergency before Katrina hit] cost us $700,000. If we had been wrong, it’s an expensive mistake.” The Center’s New Orleans facility reopened quickly, since it wasn’t damaged, and within a week shifted the local workforce to a server-based, remote-access Citrix platform based in Philadelphia, with an added encryption layer from Secure Remote. The Center’s only previous experience with remote access was Web-based interfaces for employee e-mail and external-customer access, Hawk said.
The FCC should deny a Cingular request for Universal Service Fund (USF) subsidies in Va., wireline companies said, arguing the big wireless company doesn’t need USF subsidies. Letting Cingular draw on the USF could sap the subsidy program, Verizon said in an opposition filed late Mon. USF subsidies should be used where telecom service otherwise isn’t financially feasible, Embarq said. “It should not be wasted on uneconomic arbitrage,” said the company, a spinoff of Sprint’s wireline operations.
Congress, DHS and the FCC must ensure that first responders get the equipment, money and administrative support they need to build a strong interoperable emergency communications system, 2 former govt. officials said Wed. The Deficit Reduction Act, which spelled out rules for the DTV transition, ordered 24 MHz of spectrum auctioned for public safety -- “prime” frequency that will meet 21st Century communications needs, said a white paper by Larry Irving and Michael Gallagher, former Commerce Dept. communications officials under President Clinton and the current President Bush, respectively.