LAS VEGAS -- Beginning to “understand and keep protected the world of VoIP” will be one of the FCC’s biggest jobs this year, Chmn. Powell said Fri. at the CES here. He said “ignorance” was the biggest threat to VoIP, particularly “policymakers who don’t really understand the technology, but think they do because it looks like a phone.” Powell also touted unlicensed spectrum and DTV as big issues for the year.
On January 9, 2004, the Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced that the national threat level has been lowered to yellow (elevated risk) from orange (high risk).
AT&T Wireless asked the FCC in a letter Wed. to confirm it lawfully could disclose certain customer proprietary network information (CPNI). The carrier said it was in talks with the National Communications System (NCS) to provide wireless priority service (WPS). NCS initially awarded a WPS contract to T-Mobile USA and said last year it was on track to add other wireless operators to the program, which provides priority access to wireless networks to national security and rescue workers during emergencies. AT&T Wireless said it also was talking with NCS’s agent Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) on providing WPS. Although the carrier said it would provide the service directly to its customers, it noted that NCS administered the program and was responsible for assigning priority status to end users. AT&T Wireless said NCS and Computer Sciences had requested that it provide WPS subscribers’ call records, including location and charges for the calls, so they could ensure the system wasn’t being misused. “Because NCS/CSC simply provides wireless carriers with a list of the authorized WPS users on their networks, AWS is not in a position to obtain the customers’ consent to the disclosure of this information before it initiates service,” AT&T Wireless said. It said NCS had said it didn’t plan to obtain consent from WPS subscribers to access their CPNI or to condition grant of WPS status on an agreement to allow AWS to disclose such information. Sec. 222 of the Communications Act generally bars carriers from disclosing customers’ CPNI to 3rd parties without customer approval or a court order. AT&T Wireless said it believed that the customer information covered by the WPS program would be covered by an exception to Sec. 222, which allows disclosure in certain cases to protect against fraudulent or unlawful use. “Because widespread abuse of the WPS program could undermine its effectiveness, prevent life and property- saving calls by legitimate WPS users and tie up circuits that AWS’s other subscribers could be using, AWS would be permitted under Sec. 222(d)(2)’s antifraud provision to disclose, without customer consent, the call detail records of WPS users,” it said. Even with this exception in place, AT&T Wireless said it still would be willing to include certain contractual provisions to guard the privacy of WPS users. It said the contract would specify that the CPNI provided to NCS could be used only under the terms set out in the antifraud provisions of Sec. 222. The contract also would require NCS to provide notice to WPS users that the records of those calls might be provided by a wireless provider to NCS.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Homeland Security officials don't plan to drop the orange alert just yet, stating that the terrorist threat is still high after the holidays. (WSJ, dated 01/06/03, www.wsj.com )
In light of the 20th anniversary Jan. 1 of the AT&T breakup, telecom groups and associations rushed to express their opinions on the impact the divestiture had on the telecom industry. Telecom Research & Action Center (TRAC) Chmn. Samuel Simon said the Bell system breakup “got it wrong. We broke up the telephone company into the wrong parts -- local on one end, long distance and equipment on the other.” He said a lesson to learn from the last 20 years was that “the government needs to get out of the business of micromanagement of telecommunications regulation.” He said the focus should be on setting broad national policies that encouraged investment and deployment of new services and “to then keep a watchful eye out for possible abuses. I believe that we would have seen some of the most powerful technologies of the last 20 years -- such as wireless and high-speed broadband -- emerge even faster if the market had been calling the shots instead of regulators and lawmakers protecting special interests.” In a separate statement, USTA Pres. Walter McCormick said with competition being “on a far grander scale than ever could have been envisioned in 1984,” it’s “time for a new communications policy that empowers consumers to determine market winners, rather than regulators.” He urged the govt. to “end telecom’s status as virtually the last major U.S. industry not permitted to fully participate in the nation’s free-market economy… and pass the reins to consumers.” Meanwhile, Teletruth provided “29 reasons to not celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Baby Bells” -- www.newnetworks.com/TelecomRiotActof2004.htm. It said customers were disconnected by the Bell monopolies that controlled the wires and it was “now clear that America put its trust in companies who essentially allowed corporate greed to overtake the public interest.”
The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) told the FCC it backed a request by BellSouth for more time to comment on a further notice involving wireline-to-wireless local number portability (LNP). BellSouth recently asked the FCC to extend the comment deadline a month to Jan. 30, citing the holidays and a N. American Numbering Council meeting set for mid-Jan. NENA said it wanted to identify technical problems and solutions involving porting that crossed wire telephone rate center boundaries. “Because any conclusions reached and recommendations offered must be approved by a technical committee structure that brings to bear data transfer and networking, among other perspectives, these multiple reviews would be difficult to complete by the Dec. 30 date falling between Christmas and New Year’s,” NENA said.
Crucial govt. agencies should have redundant telecom systems for emergencies, the Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) said. In a report, PFF Senior Fellow Randolph May said the Dept. of Homeland Security or General Services Administration should issue guidance by regulation, bulletin or guideline. “Many federal agency buildings and installation locations apparently do not currently have true telecommunications network redundancy installed in their buildings,” the report said: “Served by a single connection running through a single outside communications central office or switching hub, many are too vulnerable.” May said a Feb. 2003 White House white paper, “The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets,” and a recent Markle Foundation report had called for more redundancy in federal buildings. May said some progress had been made upgrading and securing communications, but “more needs to be done, and it is especially important that the federal government itself takes steps to ensure that it has built into the communications networks upon which it relies sufficient redundancy to maintain the availability and continuity of communications in times of crisis.” Communications lines to buildings must be “physically separate, by a significant distance, from the facilities of the incumbent provider,” he said. There must be separate rights-of-way between the building and the routing center, and redundant services should use a physically separate switching or routing center, the report said. May told us that information about redundant systems at govt. buildings was difficult to find, and he didn’t know whether that was for security or whether the govt. had taken a comprehensive look at redundancy. May’s report did say the govt. should prioritize any efforts to establish redundant communications systems. For instance, the Center for Disease Control is a higher priority than the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The report said the 1996 Telecom Act and its encouragement of network sharing had had an impact on construction of redundant networks. May and PFF have argued in favor of deregulating local phone rates and abandoning RBOC sharing requirements, such as UNE-P (CD Dec 15 p1).
In a development that could have implications for the creation of a new realm of CE devices, the FCC adopted rules Wed. for systems that provide a short-range, wireless link for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).
Touting benefits for homeland security, the FCC adopted rules Wed. for systems that provide a short-range, wireless link for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The service and licensing rules cover Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) at 5.9 GHz, including collision avoidance at intersections and electronic toll collection. The Transportation Dept. said the move would let research started in the mid-1990s continue, in part by freeing dedicated spectrum. Meanwhile, the FCC deferred a decision on a coordination issue involving the fixed satellite service until negotiations between govt. and industry conclude.
Parties strongly disagreed on the ways the FCC should review -- if at all -- the TELRIC rules that state regulators use when setting UNE prices. They expressed their opinions in comments filed in the Commission’s TELRIC proceeding, opened in Sept. (CD Sept. 11 p2). The FCC emphasized then it wanted to send “more appropriate economic signals to promote efficient facilities investment” by all carriers and simplify the rules to make UNE prices easier for state commissions. This is the first comprehensive review of TELRIC methodology since its 1996 adoption.