Upcoming national homeland security strategy to be unveiled this summer will be broader than similar 2-year-old strategy released under Clinton Administration, John Tritak, dir.-Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), said in interview Fri. with our affiliated Washington Internet Daily. Overarching strategy will include private sector and state and local govts., where Clinton strategy focused mainly on federal programs and agencies, he said. In fact, 2 state organizations -- National Governors Assn. (NGA) and National Assn. of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) -- have been tapped to help CIAO create state-level network security strategy to be included in upcoming national strategy, he said. “It’s the Bush strategy version 1.0, not version 2.0 of the old strategy,” Tritak said.
CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler said that as carriers voluntarily provided priority access service (PAS) capacity to emergency service and national security personnel, federal govt. had to “get on with the allocation of additional spectrum” for that and other users. At New America Foundation lunch on spectrum policy Fri., he said federal govt. asked carriers after Sept. 11 to set aside “a minority of their spectrum in case of emergency” to provide access to prioritized national security and emergency workers. Trade-off for consumers, he said, is that as one of 5 priority classes of govt. users is occupying given channel, “then somebody else isn’t.”
National rental spending for videogames increased 6.4% to $14.6 million in week ended March 3 from $13.75 million comparable week year ago, Video Software Dealers Assn. (VSDA) said Thurs. Year to date, rental spending in category climbed 13.6% to $148.2 million from $130.5 million in 2001. In week, top 5 renting games were identical from week earlier, with Rockstar’s State of Emergency and Grand Theft Auto 3 for PlayStation 2 (PS2) in #1 and #2 spots again, respectively. State earned additional $730,000 in week for total earnings of $1.32 million since Feb. 2. Grand Theft, meanwhile, earned additional $400,000 for $8.98 million total since Oct. 1. Although 2 games for Xbox and one for GameCube managed to make top 10 week ago, only one title for each of those next-generation consoles made top 10 this time, with Wreckless: Yakuza Missions for Xbox again at #4 and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for GameCube climbing up one slot to #6. Remaining games in top 10 were all for PS2.
Compared with many other forms of telecommunications, including fiber and cellular, “satellites tend to be relatively invulnerable” to terrorist attacks, consultant Walter Morgan said. Speaking at Satellite 2002 conference Wed., he said opportunity for rogue nation to jam some satellite systems did exist, but in process, that country would “inadvertently announce themselves to the world” and would inflict only small wound to satellite system: “It certainly [wouldn’t be] fatal.” Possibility of taking control of satellite and steering it off into another orbit is highly unlikely because of command signal encryption, he said.
FCC’s Wireless Bureau outlined parameters of technical inquiry on issues affecting rollout of Enhanced 911 services for wireless callers. In Nov., FCC named former Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Dale Hatfield to head inquiry. Among technical and operational issues that bureau said Tues. it would examine as part of inquiry were: (1) Claims by wireless carriers that network equipment and location-capable handsets weren’t available in time to comply with FCC’s original Phase 2 deployment timelines. FCC granted waivers to 6 national wireless carriers last fall, revising deployment schedules for Phase 2 capabilities. (2) Contentions by carriers that they had difficulty obtaining necessary LEC facility upgrades for Phase 1 deployment, issue that has potential to emerge under Phase 2 roll-outs. Last fall, both public safety groups and carriers such as Sprint PCS highlighted role of LECs in closing E911 connection among wireless subscribers, carriers, databases and public safety answering points. In some cases, LEC cooperation was described as “missing link” in E911 situations. “The focus of this inquiry will be on the future of wireless E911 deployment, including any obstacles to deployment and steps that might be taken to overcome or minimize them,” FCC said. At close of Hatfield’s investigation, he will issue report of his finding that FCC plans to release for public comment. Bureau said it would use findings to evaluate potential obstacles to E911 deployment, consider methods to address these obstacles and “accelerate deployment.” Point of inquiry is to “obtain an expert, informed unbiased assessment” of such issues, FCC said. Scope of investigation will be as broad as needed with information gathered from wide array of sources, including technology and equipment vendors, carriers, public safety community, carriers. Information to be evaluated will include technology standards issues, hardware and software development and supply conditions. FCC has created docket for this inquiry (02-46), in which comments can be submitted.
Growing number of non-PlayStation 2 (PS2) titles is having impact on videogame rental results, Video Software Dealers Assn. (VSDA) said in most recent report. Although games for Sony’s next-generation console still managed to win 7 of top 10 spots, results for GameCube and Xbox continue to improve on rental chart. For week ended Feb. 24, 2 Xbox games -- Wreckless: Yakuza Missions at #4 and WWF: Raw Is War at #10 -- made it into top 10 list compiled by VSDA. Week earlier, Wreckless became first Xbox game to enter top 10 rental chart, when it also placed 4th (CED Feb 22 p8). Meanwhile, first GameCube title -- Sonic Adventure 2 Battle -- entered top 10 at #7. Also significant was that Rockstar’s new State of Emergency for PS2 dethroned its own title -- Grand Theft Auto 3, which had been best-renting title since late last year. State of Emergency made it into first place in its first week, earning $580,000, for $590,000 total since Feb. 2. On sour note, national rental spending in videogame category fell 17% to $13.5 million in week from $16.29 million in comparable week year ago. But, year to date, rental spending in category increased 14.4% to $133.6 million from $116.7 million.
Access control was major obstacle for many who were part of telecom restoration effort that followed terrorist acts of Sept. 11, said members of “Sept. 11: IT Lessons Learned” panel at AFCEA conference in Washington Wed. on Homeland Security. There were at least 4 changes to policy and procedures involved with gaining access to facilities in controlled areas in N.Y.C., said Brenton Greene, deputy mgr., National Communications System. Greene said N.Y. city police initially controlled access, until duty was turned over to N.Y. State police. After that, access control changed hands between National Guard and FEMA, making it difficult for some involved in restoration effort, he said: “There were significant changes in procedures… Access procedures need to be consistent.”
VoiceStream and National Communications System (NCS) told FCC that GSM wireless operators planned to develop “fully featured” wireless priority service (WPS) capability for nationwide rollout by year-end. Complete WPS capabilities then would be available by end of 2003. VoiceStream said it was in final negotiations with NCS to deploy initial WPS system in Washington and N.Y. NCS had planned to award contract for first leg of system by as early as last Dec. System that will be available immediately in those 2 cities will serve 5,000 users with priority status, Feb. 13 filing said. VoiceStream has short-term waiver petition pending before FCC for one technical requirement for priority access service. Commission in 2000 issued order laying out technical requirements for carriers that chose to deploy WPS but agency didn’t made that offering mandatory. Peter Fonash of NCS said in filing that WPS eventually would “be offered by several wireless operators as a public service, further increasing public safety access to WPS and further diluting the nominal impact WPS would have on nonpriority customers.” Govt.-industry engineering effort has been focused on specifications for how comprehensive, industrywide system would operate. One issue for carriers has been how to reach balance between capacity subscribers would have on network during emergencies and capacity set aside for govt. national security and emergency personnel (NS/EP) (CD Dec 17 p2). NCS said: (1) WPS would be accessed only for public safety reasons. (2) “Nominal impact on nonpriority users would be only near the scenes of emergencies.” (3) NCS would monitor WPS usage to detect potential improper usage. In plans for nationwide rollout, GSM operators are developing ways to preserve portion of system capacity for calls that aren’t priorities or 911 requests “if the system were to become ‘monopolized’ by the priority users.” Filing said: “Unlike the wireline service, the wireless industry is severely constrained by the amount of radio spectrum it can use to offer both WPS and nonpriority services.” As result, NCS said balance must be struck between priority users and general public. Filing included research results on behalf of NCS and CTIA by SAIC and Telcordia on impact of WPS. Analysis assumed, based on past performance of wireline Govt. Emergency Telephone System, 15% probability that wireless calls would be blocked during emergencies. If no radio channels were reserved for priority users, blocking probability for wireless calls in emergencies would hit 85.7%, research showed. That probability rises slightly to 89.4% if 25% of radio channels are reserved for NS/EP users, NCS said.
Citing stepped-up efforts on homeland security initiatives, FCC unanimously approved order Thurs. to allocate 50 MHz of spectrum in 4.9 GHz band to support public safety operations. Commission said band could be used for applications such as high-speed digital technologies and wireless local area networks for emergency response. Order allocated 4.9 GHz band for fixed and mobile use and designates band, which has been transferred from govt. to nongovt. use, for support of public safety, said Wireless Bureau Chief Thomas Sugrue. At agenda meeting, FCC also adopted further notice seeking comment on what licensing and service rules “will further our goal of providing public safety personnel access to the latest broadband technologies,” he said.
National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) questioned whether Nextel proposal to contribute $25 million to public safety community would impinge on independence of those groups. FCC last year granted requests of Nextel and other carriers for waivers of Enhanced 911 Phase 2 implementation deadlines. In waiver request, Nextel proposed contributing $25 million over 2 years to help public safety community upgrade facilities to process Phase 2 location information. NENA said last week that its executive board still was gathering information on proposal. But it said it believed that grant of operating funds from NENA or Assn. of Public- Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO) “would call to question the independence of each organization’s FCC and regulatory representation function on wireless and radio spectrum issues currently and in the future.” NENA said direct grants from wireless carriers to NENA, APCO or related organization “may jeopardize the ability of public safety to speak in an independent and objective manner in the long term.” Both groups could have regulatory positions in future that conflicted with stance of Nextel and other carriers in FCC proceedings, NENA said. “This concern extends to foreseeable radio spectrum issues, as well as the current wireless Phase 2 process that is still fully open and likely to have more issues requiring public safety advocacy,” it said. Group also said it didn’t want to “discourage” Nextel or others from contributing funds to public safety organizations. Instead, it said, it wants parties to create “completely neutral and detached governmental recipient” of funds, such as USTA. That could serve as “granting organization” for funds that Nextel and others would donate, NENA said. Nextel spokeswoman said carrier made $25 million offer to help public safety agencies with E911 implementation “in good faith.” She said: “We are in the early stages of talking to all public safety organizations as to how best to go about implementing this. We have every intention of working cooperatively.”