Carriers say they're prepared for winter storm Nemo, expected to hit New England Friday night. Verizon employees are on standby, as is plenty of backup power if commercial power fails, the company said (http://xrl.us/bofoqn). Verizon also described its Major Emergency Response Incident Team, which is on standby, and a disaster recovery fleet of emergency vehicles, specifically referring to a 51-foot mobile command center, two 53-foot mobile emergency calling centers and satellite trailers in its release. AT&T released separate updates for various regions in New England. It has “activated our storm preparedness process as we closely monitor the path of the winter storm,” the telco said Friday (http://xrl.us/bofoqv). It added that it’s “installing more back-up and permanent generators at critical cell sites and switching facilities; locating critical equipment in less vulnerable areas; upgrading electronics critical to network operations above expected flood levels; and protecting physical facilities against flooding.” AT&T New York President Marissa Shorenstein cautioned consumers: “With a storm of this magnitude, we may have some outages.” AT&T would restore service as soon as possible, she added in her statement, a sentiment repeated in other regional releases in states such as New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. “We've topped off fuel at generators positioned at cell sites, installed and tested high-capacity back-up batteries at cell sites, installed ‘Quick Connect Generator Plugs’ at many of our cell sites and staged additional emergency response equipment in strategic locations,” AT&T said. FairPoint also provided its customers with readiness tips and said its personnel were preparing for possible impact (http://xrl.us/boforo). It’s “positioning crews and supplies -- poles, cable and other equipment -- for rapid deployment should they be needed,” it said. Granite Communications posted an update on its website describing steps it has taken -- the telco has “added to Granite’s emergency response staff, who will be present at Granite’s secure headquarters 24/7” during Nemo, “prepared Granite’s multiple sources of backup power generation, including multiple diesel generators at Granite’s headquarters” and “activated Granite’s mid-west disaster recovery center, an auxiliary work site outside of Chicago that is backed by multiple redundant power supplies,” among other preparations. Sprint Nextel “has fully fueled hundreds of portable generators and permanent cell site generators; confirmed the availability of fuel vendors for future needs; coordinated with dozens of network and response technicians on their standby and deployment status; and ensured that all network switching facilities in the storm’s path are fully operational and fueled,” a spokeswoman told us. Retail stores closed early in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, she said. Sprint asked for patience as it restores any wireless outages the weather may cause, she said.
The United Church of Christ cautioned against concluding that radio stations don’t augment the diversity of voices in a local market. If the FCC does so, it will “substantially undermine its ultimate goal of adopting rules that promote media ownership diversity for radio,” UCC said in an ex parte filing in dockets 09-182 and 07-294 about a teleconference with its attorney and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake (http://bit.ly/VLwb7m). Significant studies, including several Future of Music Coalition studies, “provide evidence that radio stations do, in fact, offer a viewpoint regardless of whether they report original news.” UCC said there are no newspapers owned by people of color in the U.S. that are subject to the newspaper-broadcast cross ownership (NBCO) rule, and thus “it was unlikely that changes in the NBCO would result in improvements in the provision of news by owners of color through joint ownership.” Under the quadrennial review provision, the FCC “has the discretion to retain the ownership rules that promote diversity of viewpoint on radio,” it said.
The FCC is likely to reach a decision on two key spectrum issues by early fall -- on how much of Clearwire’s 160 MHz of spectrum should be added to the commission’s spectrum screen and how much broadcast TV spectrum Verizon Wireless and AT&T will be allowed to buy in the upcoming incentive auction, said Guggenheim analyst Paul Gallant in a Friday research note. “It is too early to draw any firm conclusions, but we suspect the agency will attempt to steer a middle ground that increases the spectrum ownership cap without promising that AT&T and Verizon can make major acquisitions or dominate the broadcast TV spectrum auction,” Gallant said. The FCC recently took in comments on two related issues, the spectrum screen and rules for the incentive auction. Gallant predicted the FCC will add, at a minimum, 70 MHz to the 435 MHz denominator used in the screen. Under current FCC policy, the commission looks most closely when a carrier holds more than one-third of the spectrum included in the screen in a given market. Assuming the FCC makes changes “the current 145 MHz screen seems likely to be reset anywhere from about 170 to 200 MHz per company,” Gallant said. “In theory, the additional headroom from a higher spectrum screen should allow AT&T and Verizon to actively participate in the broadcast auction (assuming no deals before then). But the public comments suggest ways that the FCC still might limit AT&T and Verizon from unlimited auction participation.”
The FCC should not require carrier consent before cellphone signal boosters can be used on their networks, said representatives of booster maker Wilson Electronics, in a meeting with Matthew Berry, chief of staff to Commissioner Ajit Pai. The FCC has teed up a report and order on cellphone signal boosters for its Feb. 20 meeting. “The imposition of such a requirement is unnecessary, given that the Commission and the industry are in agreement that the new standards will ensure that signal boosters cause no harm to wireless networks,” Wilson said, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/14HZojV). “The Wilson representatives argued that a carrier-consent requirement will seriously inhibit the sale of well-designed signal boosters that meet the Commission’s standards.” If carrier signoff is part of the order, “Wilson suggested that the Report and Order put carriers on notice that they cannot unreasonably withhold their consent,” the filing said.
The modification of the FCC’s rules for vehicle-mounted earth stations will take effect next month. The final rules will promote flexibility for VMES operators, which should enable the VMES industry “to create more spectrally-efficient broadband solutions in the Ku band without causing harmful interference to fixed satellite service providers and without exposing the general public to harmful radiofrequency radiation,” the FCC said in a Federal Register notice to be published Monday. The rules will be effective 30 days after publication, the FCC said.
The final rules for the Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) in the 2310-2360 MHz band will be effective March 13, the FCC said in a Federal Register notice to be published Monday (http://xrl.us/bofocm). The revised rules aim to enable Wireless Communications Service (WCS) licensees to deploy broadband services in the 2305-2320 MHz and 2345-2360 MHz WCS bands while continuing to protect SDARS operator Sirius XM Radio, it said. They also facilitate the flexible deployment and operation of SDARS terrestrial repeaters in the 2320-2345 MHz SDARS band, “while protecting adjacent bands WCS licensees from harmful interference.”
Some elements of the EU cybersecurity strategy announced Thursday (CD Feb 8 p11) will strengthen European citizens’, companies’ and public sector bodies’ resilience to cyberincidents and criminal activity, but there’s room for improvement, said digital technology industry trade association Digitaleurope Friday. EU governments are building communities and trust through local, regional or sector-specific private-public partnerships, “yet we see a general change in approach in the draft Network and Information Security Directive from working hand-in-hand with industry, to top-down, unidirectional reporting obligations and requirements.” Those obligations could drain resources from effective security measures and undermine the benefit companies get from bidirectional exchange that allows them to understand new threats and boost incident response, it said. The sector also worries that measures imposed on market players could interfere with the design and manufacture of information and communication technologies products, it said. The proposed requirements shouldn’t be targeted at sectors that aren’t critical infrastructure, including enablers of Internet services, it said.
The North American Portability Management telecom consortium said Thursday it’s officially seeking proposals for selection of the region’s next Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA). Neustar, the current LNPA, said it was pleased the selection process has begun and “applauds the efforts of the industry, North American Numbering Council and the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau for their careful consideration of the public comments and for the final RFP.” Neustar said it particularly supports “the RFP’s strong neutrality requirements and the fact that there is no requirement to submit untested regional-based models. We believe the RFP will generate proposals that are in the best interest of the industry and consumers.” Steve Edwards, Neustar senior vice president-carrier services, said Neustar is confident its “proven track record over the last 15 years will speak for itself.” LNPA proposals are due by April 5, with the final selection expected by Aug. 5 and FCC approval of the pick expected by Sept. 20. The new LNPA contract will go into effect in July 2015, Neustar said.
The FCC should not impose a registration obligation on “the 2 million consumers who legally purchased boosters in good faith,” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said in a meeting with Renee Gregory, aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The FCC has teed up a report and order on cell signal boosters for its Feb. 20 meeting. A registration requirement would be “particularly unjust in light of the Commission’s previous determination to grandfather over a million illegally marketed wireless microphones, and grandfather users and uses that in no way even remotely complied with the existing rules,” Feld said (http://xrl.us/bofgc5). “Under what theory is it just, reasonable and non-arbitrary for the FCC to fully pardon Broadway theaters and karaoke bars, but to impose new burdens on rural users and others who purchased lawfully marketed devices, and who rely upon these devices not for karaoke, but for vital communication services?” The FCC should also allow at least a year for booster makers to sell off their current inventory and convert to a new standard, Feld said. “The absence of evidence of widespread interference issues, coupled with the fact that the devices were legally manufactured and sold in accordance with the Commission’s rules (as understood at the time), argues for a reasonable transition period that will not impose significant costs on either merchants or manufacturers,” he said.
The FCC explained the history of its universal service rules and exactly why a major revamping was necessary, in a brief filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bofga9). The intercarrier compensation that the FCC used to subsidize local phone service for decades “no longer serve[s] the evolving communications needs of 21st century America,” the commission wrote in its response to the joint preliminary brief of the petitioners, who are challenging many of the USF and intercarrier compensation rules in the commission’s landmark 2011 order. The FCC explained its rulemaking process, its solicitation of comment, and its review of the “voluminous” administrative record, before ultimately reforming and modernizing its “antiquated” rules. Universal service and ICC were “two dysfunctional regulatory regimes in need of reform,” the commission wrote. “The 20th century framework for intercarrier compensation no longer made sense in the modern communications market.” The commission also discussed the waste associated with the old systems, and how the USF/ICC order was designed to address those problems. Finally, the FCC reminded the court that the agency is entitled to Chevron deference, and where Congress has not spoken directly to the question at issue, the agency is entitled to adopt a “permissible construction” of the statute. “Judicial review of FCC action under the [Administrative Procedure Act] ‘is no more searching’ where (as here) the agency’s decision ‘represents a change in policy,'” the FCC wrote, quoting circuit precedent. The commission argued for a “deferential standard of review,” in which a court “may not displace the agency’s choice between two fairly conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have made a different choice."