Power management and restoration practices for telecom networks are under review following the massive Aug. 14 blackout in the Northeast, wireline and wireless industry officials told the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) Mon. Of particular NRIC interest was the impact of the sustained outage on wireless networks, which suffered from both spikes in call volume and, in some cases, from backup generation that ran out (CD Aug 18 p1). FCC Chmn. Powell said such demand spikes were likely to be something the industry would have to factor in for future emergencies.
In the 2nd hearing in a week on funding for first responders, former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-Vt.) again said interoperability was a first priority. However, a House Govt. Affairs National Security Subcommittee hearing Tues. focused more on funding than on specific priorities. Last week, before the Senate Judiciary Terrorism Subcommittee (CD Sept 4 p6), Rudman and other security experts repeatedly emphasized the need to develop interoperable communications systems for first responders. On Tues., he pushed the need for national standards for first responders and for the govt. to establish those standards after conducting threat assessments. Rudman led the Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders that issued a report in the spring that estimated nearly $90 billion was needed to properly fund first responders for terrorism preparedness. But Rudman said that number could be wrong and until there was more planning and assessment, no one knew how much needed to be spent. “We need to establish priorities, but we can’t until we know what the standards are,” he said. Rudman said interoperability wasn’t likely to be an expensive project to fix, highlighting the test of software patches that could make communications systems more interoperable. Grant Sieffert of TIA agreed and told us that the issue with interoperability was one of procurement, not technology. The Dept. of Homeland Security should conduct a threat assessment and establish first responder standards, which Rudman said should take 9 months. From there, Congress should establish a system of funding that included oversight mechanisms. Appropriations bills should have time lines written in because funds had been too slow to arrive at municipalities, Rudman said. Subcommittee Chmn. Shays (R-Conn.) agreed that standards needed to be set: “Without standards, time and money will be wasted on a dangerous and costly illusion, while police officers and firefighters, emergency medical teams, public health providers and emergency managers confront terrorism without the tools they need,” he said. Subcommittee ranking Democrat Kucinich (Ohio) said the Bush Administration needed to pull out of Iraq and spend those funds on homeland security. Rep. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said that politicization needed to be taken out of the grant distribution process. Wyo., which has few homeland security funding priorities, gets $32.50 per person while N.Y., a much more likely target, gets just $4.60 per person, Maloney said.
Faced with the challenge of raising funds to fill an expanded number of channels that come with digital conversion, some of the public TV duopolies are opting to sell their 2nd stations, and national public broadcasting leaders are worried over religious broadcasters’ moving in. “There is definitely a trend toward some sort of restructuring of public television,” Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS) Pres. John Lawson told us. But, he said, the trend that would be “most positive for the country would be some sort of consolidation that results in public television licenses staying in public hands.”
Public broadcaster WNET N.Y./Newark (Ch. 13) said it received $500,000 funding from the National Imagery & Mapping Agency (NIMA) to develop a prototype emergency alert system that would use the station’s digital spectrum to distribute emergency alerts, emergency response information and command and control information to the public, first responders and homeland security personnel. WNET is developing the system in conjunction with Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group under the auspices of the National Technology Alliance (NTA). WNET said the $500,000 initial award would be used to develop and analyze an urban testbed project using the station’s licensed ITFS spectrum for dissemination of information to first responders in national disaster situations. The ultimate goal, WNET said, would be to create a hybrid system in which both the ITFS and normal DTV spectrum bands were used to provide information and 2-way communication to first responders. The DTV channel could be used to broadcast traditional emergency alerts to the public as well as to deliver supplemental datacast information about evacuation routes and emergency treatment center locations to those with data receivers. The ITFS channel could be used to disseminate encrypted data such as building blueprints, procedures for handling dangerous materials and other sensitive information to emergency responders, it said. “The crisis of September 11, 2001, brought Thirteen and New York City together as never before,” Pres. William Baker said: “Ever since that fateful day, Thirteen has been determined to harness its transmission resources to provide vital information that will help save lives in the event of a regional emergency.”
The business plans of Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the evolved expendable launch vehicle (EELV) program are “extremely flawed,” said a report by the Defense Science Board/Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (DSB/AFSAB) Joint Task Force. The report on the “Acquisition of National Security Space Programs” said the EELV program was designed with the expectation that robust commercial and govt. space programs would emerge to provide a financial foundation for the contractors and the program: “The [govt.] also needs to realize that the assumed commercial space program did not materialize to the degree expected as a result, the [govt.] is the prime user of EELV program products. Absence of market volume has created a funding shortfall for the EELV program.” The task force recommended that assured access to space become a national security policy rather than just a budget concern. It also said funding should be available by fiscal year 2004 and a long-term plan should be established to deal with future contracting issues. The report said significant cost increases and scheduled delays experienced in national security space programs were due to: (1) Cost replacing mission success as the primary driver. (2) Unrealistically low cost estimates. (3) Undisciplined definition and uncontrolled growth in system requirements. (4) Erosion of govt. capabilities to “lead and manage the space acquisition process.” (5) Failed implementation of proved practices. Recommendations for program improvements included increasing the authority of the Undersecretary of the Air Force for implementing DoD space program budgets, determining realistic cost budgets and implementing acquisition competitions “only when clearly in the best interest of the” govt. as in situations of new missions capabilities, major new technologies or poor incumbent performance, the task force said.
As petitions for reconsideration came tumbling in to the FCC Thurs., the agency was awash in questions over how it would handle pending broadcast transactions now that a court had ordered the agency to put its new rules on hold (CD Sept 4 p1). The stay order by the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia, said the decision by the 3-judge panel was predicated on the fact that “the magnitude of this matter and the public’s interest in reaching the proper resolution” warranted a stay pending a “thorough and efficient judicial review.” The judges said a temporary stay would cause little harm to the agency, but the decision immediately touched off confusion about a set of new broadcast transaction forms the agency just recently said were ready for use (CD Aug 15 p9).
Bechtel National said it had awarded a $25 million subcontract to Lucent Technologies to carry out emergency repair and rehabilitation of the communications network in Iraq. It said it had estimated that 80% of the actual deployment work would be done by Iraqi workers and engineers. The project, which Bechtel said was the first major communications infrastructure subcontract it had awarded in Iraq, is part of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) rebuilding and reconstruction efforts. Earlier this year, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded Bechtel a contract to design, rehabilitate, upgrade and reconstruct Iraq’s infrastructure, including emergency work on the country’s communications system. Under the subcontract, Lucent will provide 13 central switches, advanced optical transport technology and network management systems designed for voice and high-speed data transmissions. Bechtel said it would work with Lucent Worldwide Services, the Iraqi Telephone & Post Co. (ITPC) and local Iraqi contractors to install and deploy the switching units to restore service on 240,000 of 540,000 telephone lines within ITPC’s network serving Baghdad and the region around it. Before the conflict, 1.1 million Iraqis subscribed to ITPC’s landline telephone service. Lucent also said it would establish an aggressive program to train Iraqi personnel to enable the transition of network operations to ITPC. “The training programs will facilitate critical knowledge transfer to ensure a successful implementation and management of the network,” it said. Deployment is scheduled to begin next month.
The Triennial UNE Review order, which the FCC released late Thurs., included several changes from the document the agency voted on Feb. 20, but not enough to alter any commissioners’ minds. Among them, according to sources, the order: (1) Spells out national rules for states to follow in determining whether an element should remain on the UNE list. For example, the order would make it difficult for states to retain switching as a UNE if there were 3 CLECs in the market using their own switches or at least 2 wholesale providers of switching. (2) Makes it clear that Bell companies can retire copper loops without obtaining PUC permission. That would apply to situations where a Bell installed new fiber and wanted to replace the copper loop that was being replaced by the fiber. FCC Chmn. Powell had indicated shortly after the order was approved that copper retirement would be permitted without PUC approval, but it wasn’t spelled out. (3) Spells out transition and grandfathering details on its earlier decision to eliminate line sharing.
The House Energy & Commerce Committee said last week’s electricity blackouts wouldn’t affect its telecom agenda once Congress returned in Sept. The Committee already has announced one hearing to examine the cause of the blackouts and some industry officials worried that the issue could monopolize legislator and committee time and divert them from telecom and Internet issues.
Wireless carriers, privacy advocates and public safety groups differed over details of when federal law requires a mobile operator to divulge caller location information sent to a 911 center receiving an emergency call. The FCC sought feedback on a public safety petition on how provisions on customer privacy in the Communications Act intersected with newer language in the Patriot Act and other laws. One issue raised was the privacy protections when a 911 caller was dialing on behalf of someone else.