Month: April 2015

From the FCC Daily Digest, April 6, 2015

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The FCC has fined CENTURYLINK $16M and INTRADO $1.4 M for multi-state 911 outage that occurred in April 2014 that prevented more than 11 million people in seven states from being able to reach emergency call centers for over six hours.  https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-332853A1.pdf

The American Petroleum Institute (API), Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) met with Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau staff and 8th floor FCC staff to oppose vehicular repeaters on the 173 MHz band telemetry channels.  Also note that API, EEI and UTC recommended the FCC relax the technical rules in the band to allow 12.5 kHz operations that would support increased utility and CII capacity requirements for certain applications.

Following is a link to one of the exparte notices filed. http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=60001027847

Spectrum Vice Chair Stu Overby Writes on NPSTC Filings for Mission Critical Magazine

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In the April Issue of Mission Critical Magazine, Spectrum Management Vice Chair, Stu Overby, discusses recent activities in which NPSTC has been engaged to support public safety narrowband spectrum and operations, including work on 700 MHz Deployable Channels, the P25 CAP rules, Part 22 filing, cellular power limits, and interference from energy efficient lighting.  Read article here:

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, April 3, 2015

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This week’s email blast with the news recap is late, and it is late because I was waiting to verify that what I had learned about the NTIA freezing the LTE portion of the LA-RICS project was accurate.

An article published by Urgent Communications as breaking news today says that LA-RICS is looking to the State of California and to the Feds for assistance to get the project back on track. The NTIA has suspended the product until April 13, 2015 when they expect LA-RICS to have come up with a plan that can be approved by both the City and County of Los Angeles, the two major jurisdictions that have voted to halt the project within the County. From my perspective there were a number of mistakes made by a number of different people and groups which lead up to the problem which is that the Fire Fighters union believes that towers placed at their fire stations for the LTE system will cause cancer and other illnesses and they have riled up the citizens near the fire stations as well.

The result is that I believe,if the Board of Supervisors and the City Council of LA voted to stop work because of health concerns they are, in fact, breaking a Federal law which mandates that cell sites cannot be precluded because of perceived health risks. They can be stopped by the permitting process for aesthetics, or height restrictions or some other valid reason but not for perceived health hazards to anyone. The fact of the matter is that there is no danger at all to the fire fighters and if, as I have heard it rumored, the Union has stated that the problem will go away if the fire fighters are paid hazard duty pay that is all of the more reason that this project should not have been stopped. As I said, that is rumor and speculation but the law is the law.

I have presented and given testimony at 100’s of cell tower and communications tower hearings about the placement of the towers, and the subject of RF hazards does still come up because there are “experts” out there who will say anything if they are paid enough money. In reality, the height of the antennas above the fire stations and the sheriff’s stations will mitigate any RF exposure issues, if there were any, which I am convinced there are not. It is unfortunate no outreach was done with the fire fighters who, by the way, use two-way radios every day of their duty lives, because the system they are fighting is one will make their jobs easier, and safer, and could result in saving their lives or the lives of the citizens they serve. I hope LA-RICS gets back on track and soon! This is a holiday week-end, 3 days for some and 2 for others, but I hope that each of you will have a great week-end no matter what you are doing. Andy

Los Angeles officials halt public-safety LTE network, clouding FirstNet’s progress – Tech Investor News via Google Alerts Apr  2 21:15 The Los Angeles City Council voted to halt the construction of a massive 700 MHz LTE network that was intended to cover 4,000 square miles and …

Los Angeles officials halt public-safety LTE network, clouding FirstNet’s progress – FierceWireless via Google Alerts Apr  2 18:35 According to various media reports, opponents of the network raised a …

FCC approves new net neutrality rules – USA TODAY – newlaunchcars.info via Google Alerts Apr  3 16:21 Fcc approves net neutrality rules, reclassifies broadband, It’ good day … Continue reading →

DHS Issues Grant Guidance

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Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson today announced the release of fiscal year 2015 funding and grant guidance for nine preparedness programs. More than $1.6 billion is being released, including more than $1 billion for the Homeland Security Grant Program.  That program includes more than $402 million for the State Homeland Security Program and $587 million for Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grants.

Courtesy TRDaily

Extension Sought for 700 MHz Plan Changes

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The National Regional Planning Council (NRPC) has asked the FCC to extend from June 2 to Dec. 31, 2015, the deadline for 700 megahertz band regional planning committees to modify their regional plans.

“Due to the reassignment by the Commission of former 700 MHz Reserve Channels to General Use Channels for use as both Nationwide Deployable 700 MHz System channels and other General Use within each region, the requirement for the 700 MHz Regional Planning Committees to modify their regional plans within six (6) months of the publication of the Report and Order has been found to be an insufficient amount of time given the information each region must have to modify its 700 MHz plan,” NRPC said in a March 30 filing in PS docket 13-87.

Courtesy TRDaily

 

Sprint Reports Border Rebanding Progress

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Sprint Corp. said that the company and incumbent 800 megahertz band licensees in the U.S.-Mexico border region have signed 121 frequency reconfiguration agreements and 38 short-form letter agreements, for a total of a 97% signed rate. The carrier also said that 28 retunes have been completed, or a 27% rate, as part of realignment. Sprint submitted an 800 MHz rebanding report yesterday in WT docket 02-55.

Courtesy TRDaily

DHS S&T Incident Command System Transitions to Commercial Market

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Washington, D.C. – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) today announced the transition of the Next-Generation Incident Command System (NICS), a full-time emergency response capability, to the Worldwide Incident Command Services Corporation (WICS). WICS is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and DHS S&T Technology Transition Partner that provides technical and operational support to the NICS user community. This innovative first responder technology was originally developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory as a tool that provides emergency response agencies and first responders with improved communications and situational awareness.

Interested in learning more? Read the full S&T Press Release.

 

FCC Proposes to Eliminate NSI 9-1-1 Calling Mandate

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The FCC has released a notice of proposed rulemaking that proposes to eliminate after six months the requirement that wireless carriers forward 911 calls from non-service-initialized (NSI) handsets to public safety answering points (PSAPs).  In 2013, the National Emergency Number Association changed its position on whether the FCC should eliminate the requirement. The group asked the agency to phase it out as carriers transition to all-Internet protocol architectures.

NENA said there was broad support for elimination of the rule and said that “PSAPs face an ever-growing onslaught of non-emergency calls to 9-1-1 from NSI devices.”  NENA also cited a “consensus view that the promotion of NSI devices does more harm than good.” The group also contended that “most charities and domestic violence advocates [have] abandoned the practice of distributing NSI devices.” Continue reading →

LA-RICS Dealt Another Blow with LA Council Vote

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The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) was dealt another blow yesterday when the Los Angeles City Council voted to halt  construction of LTE cell sites at city police and fire stations and said its representatives on the LA-RICS Joint Powers Authority should “begin working on alternative locations, commercial structures or alternative and less intrusive technology solutions.”

On a 12-0 vote, the council also authorized its representatives on LA-RICS to “work to terminate the LTE project if it is determined that bifurcation [of governance of LA-RICS’s land mobile radio and LTE systems] is not possible and the LTE system cannot be completed by the” deadline set under LA-RICS’s $154.6 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant. The deadline for construction to be completed under that grant is Sept. 30.

The city is the latest jurisdiction in Los Angeles County to halt construction of sites for the public safety LTE system. Last month, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to halt construction of cell towers at fire stations in the county and at county-owned sites opposed by residents (TRDaily, March 27). Continue reading →

Next Gen First Responder Initiative Integrates PPE and Advanced Comm Devices

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This four-minute video briefly describes the Next Generation First Responder initiative. NGFR will integrate multi-threat Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), plug-and-play sensors and advanced communications devices to provide multi-layer threat protection and immediate situational awareness to first responders. Future innovations include embedded wearable sensor technology, mobile computing, advanced visualization and real-time network data exchange.

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