The FCC completed the transfer of the FirstNet spectrum license to the FirstNet board by killing two FirstNet-related provisions in notices in the Federal Register, as anticipated last month. The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau introduced the broadband provisions of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 in the Federal Register Oct. 15, effective Wednesday. The FCC then removed two Title 47 Part 90 provisions in the Code of Federal Regulations: 90.18 and 90.528. The amendments removing the two provisions were first published as part of the Oct. 15 notice and then made effective Thursday in a separate entry published that day (http://xrl.us/bnzt8i). The removal will mark “the date of issuance of a license” to the FirstNet authority, the Thursday document said. The two removed provisions refer to the 763-768/793-798 MHz band, the intent for FirstNet, its authority under the Public Safety Broadband Licensee rules and the authorization to build base stations throughout the United States.
The FCC’s approach to cybersecurity is to “break down the challenges into categories that allow for meaningful discussion and problem solving,” Chairman Julius Genachowski told a U.S. Central Command conference in Herndon, Va., Wednesday, according to his prepared remarks provided by the FCC Thursday. Commercial networks, the FCC’s primary focus, are “increasingly integrated” with networks that sustain vertical industries like financial services and the energy grid, he said. The commission tackled small-business security problems -- 83 percent in the U.S. don’t have cybersecurity protection plans -- by bringing together the Small Business Administration and business groups to develop “basic materials with easy-to-understand steps small businesses could take to improve their security,” Genachowski said. He made a “deliberate choice” in a multistakeholder initiative with ISPs, to focus on specific areas -- botnets, “Internet route hijacking” and domain name fraud -- rather than a “general charge” on cybersecurity, he said. That led the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, including Verizon, Amazon and PayPal, to develop an “anti-bot code of conduct,” recommend ISPs implement “expert-designed security improvements” for the domain name system, and come up with technical standards for ISPs to secure Internet routing through an “authoritative registry,” he said. As a result ISPs serving about 90 percent of the country have committed to implement the council’s recommendations, Genachowski said. The FCC’s work has been guided by the broader values of Internet freedom and privacy, which is “complementary” to security because “both are essential to consumer confidence in the Internet and to adoption of broadband.” A newer FCC focus is mobile device security, because the commission is “concerned that consumers are generally not taking adequate precautions against the threats that can harm their devices and exploit the information on their devices,” he said: The FCC will announce “concrete steps” to protect such devices “in the coming weeks.” The commission’s approach is to recruit “top talent” in each of these areas, coordinate with stakeholders including businesses and other federal agencies, and give them “concrete problems” to solve, he said. It used the same approach in the government response to Superstorm Sandy, supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies by reporting “daily” on communications networks’ status in New York and New Jersey, and regarding the 2010 Haiti earthquake where the FCC collaborated with FEMA and the U.S. military to restore communications there, he said. Genachowski said that approach should also be used regarding “cable landing stations,” often controlled by private licensees and “under protected” as pieces of critical infrastructure. The chairman discussed cybersecurity’s role in the World Conference of International Telecommunications (WCIT) taking place in Dubai next month, “which poses real challenges to these values” of Internet freedom and market-based approaches: “Calls to add cybersecurity provisions in the International Telecommunication Regulations are misplaced and ultimately counterproductive. International regulations are simply too broad, too inflexible, and too slow to change to effectively address cybersecurity issues.” WCIT will succeed by taking a “pragmatic, flexible, and real-world approach” and avoiding “extreme positions,” he said. Genachowski said the FCC is committed to “greater transparency … and making information about our policies and practices available online.” It’s “actively engaged” in the region the U.S. Central Command directs for the military, and the FCC has hosted 28 delegations from countries including Egypt, Iraq, Qatar and Yemen in the past two years, he said.
House Republicans unanimously elected Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., on Wednesday to chair the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). Walden will also remain chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee, he said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnzt2p). The prospect of Walden’s future at the NRCC had fueled speculation about whether he would relinquish his leadership of the subcommittee (CD May 11 p3). As NRCC chairman, he becomes the fifth-highest ranking Republican in the House and will work with Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to advance a “pro-jobs, pro-growth agenda in the House,” said Walden.
Consumer broadband revenue will continue growing through 2017, with growth in revenue from fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and cable modems forecast to offset expected declines in DSL revenue, Atlantic-ACM said Thursday in a report. FTTH will continue to capture additional market share over the course of the next five years, while cable modem revenue will eventually peak, Atlantic-ACM said. However, FTTH growth is expected to slow as its market penetration matures and carrier builds begin to slow. FTTH adoption will be mostly limited to major metropolitan areas, while rural markets will have increased penetration by cable providers and additional government stimulus for DSL, Atlantic-ACM said. Longer term, cable and rural DSL will face competitive pressure from LTE-based services (http://xrl.us/bnzt3o).
Lee County, Fla., gave LightRiver Technologies a contract to overhaul its emergency communications system. The county’s information technology department has access to more than 70 miles of fiber through a local partnership, and LightRiver hopes to “migrate” the county’s communications from leased lines to county-owned or partnership-shared fiber, the company said Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnzt3f). LightRiver will design and engineer the county’s next-generation Ethernet services network, using reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer technology over a new dense wave division multiplexing communications backbone, according to the company. County workers will be able to manage the new network independently after training, it added.
The Senate reauthorized the U.S. SAFE WEB Act for another seven years, by a voice vote Wednesday evening. Lawmakers in the upper chamber passed HR-6131, a House-passed bill to extend the 2006 law that provides the FTC with legal authority and information sharing tools to combat international Internet scams, spyware and fraud targeted at U.S. citizens. The bill was authored by outgoing Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., and unanimously passed the House in September. Bono Mack said reauthorizing the bill was one of her top priorities and said it’s necessary to protect American consumers from “online predators” who are “jeopardizing future innovation as well as our nation’s fragile economic recovery,” in a news release following the Senate vote. Bono Mack lost her bid for reelection to Democratic challenger Paul Ruiz, a physician.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to mark up a bill to loosen video privacy laws at 10 a.m. Nov. 29 in Room 226 Dirksen, the committee said Thursday. Separately, Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., tweeted: “The Senate Judiciary Committee’s focus will be on updating technology laws, incl. #ECPA & #VPPA, in our post-Thanksgiving markup meeting.” He'd said earlier this week the bill wouldn’t be marked up this Congress (CD Nov 15 p15). In September, the committee postponed its markup of HR-2471, a House-passed bill that would update the Video Privacy Protection Act to let companies like Netflix share users’ viewing choices with their permission. Leahy delayed a vote on the bill after law enforcement agencies spoke out against his amendment to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The provision would require the government to notify individuals when their email or personal information is disclosed by ISPs to law enforcement and provide them with a copy of the search warrant. State, local and federal law enforcement agencies said the Leahy amendment would increase the burdens of obtaining electronic communications necessary to catch criminals. A spokesman for Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, did not comment.
The CEA disagrees with the National Transportation Safety Board’s call for a ban on non-essential use of mobile devices by transportation operators, said Michael Petricone, CEA’s senior vice president-government and regulatory affairs, in a statement Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnztth). The NTSB said Wednesday in its annual list of “most-wanted” transportation safety improvements that state and federal governments should ban device use by operators of vehicles, planes, trains and vessels. Companies should develop and enforce policies aimed at eliminating distracted operation, while device manufacturers should develop technology that would render mobile devices inoperable when they're within the reach of a transportation operator, the NTSB said (http://xrl.us/bnztsi). The NTSB’s approach “misses the mark,” Petricone said. “By calling for an ‘abstinence-only’ approach, the NTSB ignores established realities of human behavior, as well as the fact that in-vehicle technology -- when used correctly -- can make for vastly safer roadways. Rather than calling for broad regulations or outright bans, policymakers should encourage the use of the many innovative driver safety technologies coming on to the marketplace.” CEA gave the NTSB earlier this year with a list of third-party apps that “promote safe use of portable technologies in the automobile,” Petricone said.
Washington, D.C., wants to create a city-wide Wi-Fi network within the next five years, Mayor Vincent Gray announced. His five-year economic development plan released Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnztrq) includes such a network. It will “strengthen and open education and work opportunities, it will attract businesses and talent to the city,” his plan said. D.C. should be a “high-tech magnet,” according to the plan, which lists telecom as one of its three subsectors. Telecom is undergoing a “convergence” of companies, said the report, which identified “critical developments” including a transition from wired to wireless, voice to data and the rise of VoIP technology and smartphones. It includes charts describing the District of Columbia’s telecom industry. The Washington metro area has, as of 2010, 26,000 telecom employees out of 903,000 nationally, according to the report. That statistic breaks down to 39 percent working for wired carriers, 14 percent for satellite providers, eight percent for wireless carriers and 40 percent for “other telecommunications,” one chart said, but the report said “these numbers may be skewed because many major firms in both the wired and wireless telecommunication subsectors are classified under the wired telecommunications category.” It also suggests that the city’s employment numbers, and specifically the “other telecommunications” employment category, may be influenced by proximity to policy makers, regulators and the FCC. Wired telecom employment is more stable in D.C. than it is nationally and pays about 56 percent more than the national average, the report said. The “federal footprint” in real estate would also be reduced due to teleworking, the 116-page plan added, referring to federal agencies that “rely on teleworking and hoteling (mobile workers using by-reservation office space) up to four days out of the week.” There’s “no clear evidence” whether telecom will contribute to D.C.’s economic growth, the report said.
The National Emergency Number Association launched a new 911 center registration website Thursday, it said (http://xrl.us/bnzto3). The new database will come with “increased functionality and improved performance” and is the result of a partnership with Digital Data Technologies, NENA said. The new website comes with better search functions, easier login, “streamlined” registration, status updates on any 911 center change requests and automated password resets, it said. Users of the registry system will be sent a prompt requesting the creation of a new username and password Thursday, it said.