Month: May 2016

NTIA: Data Shows Privacy, Security Concerns Deterring Internet Use

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May 13, 2016–The user trust in online information security and data privacy that is required for the Internet “to grow and thrive” is at risk, as “Americans are increasingly concerned about online security and privacy at a time when data breaches, cybersecurity incidents, and controversies over the privacy of online services have become more prominent,” a National Telecommunications and Information Administration official said today in a blog post analyzing data collected for the agency by the Census Bureau in July 2015.

These concerns about security and privacy “are prompting some Americans to limit their online activity,” according to the collected data, wrote Rafi Goldberg, policy analyst in NTIA’s Office of Policy Analysis and Development.  Responses were obtained from more than 41,000 households that reported having at least one Internet user.

Nineteen percent of responding households reported having been affected by an online security breach, identity theft, or similar malicious activity during the 12 months prior to the survey, with risk increasing with the number of Internet-connected “computing devices” (desktop, laptop, tablet, Internet-connected mobile phone, wearable device, or TV-connected device) used by households members.

Risk doubled with the use of a mobile data plan, as opposed to households without such data plans.  Continue reading →

FirstNet Reports Consultation Progress

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May 13, 2016–The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) reported progress today on its consultation efforts. “With the Initial State Consultations and 2015 data collection efforts complete, the FirstNet User Advocacy team moved forward this year with state single point of contact (SPOC) Engagement meetings. These meetings provided us with another opportunity to collect feedback from the states and territories about their progress, activities, and concerns with preparing for the FirstNet network,” Dave Buchanan, FirstNet’s director-consultation, said in a blog posting.

“By completing 55 of these meetings between January and April of this year, we have reengaged with the SPOCs and their leadership teams to lay the groundwork for the remainder of our consultation activities in 2016,” he added. “Our objectives for the rest of 2016 are to work together to prepare for both the Governor’s decision on Radio Access Network (RAN) deployment in each state or territory and on the network adoption decision that will be made by public safety users. Both matters depend on getting … the right individuals and groups of people together and uncovering their important issues and concerns.

“Moving forward, our Consultation program for this year will focus on the following three key elements: Governance Body Consultation meetings, Consultation Task Teams, and Executive Consultation,” Mr. Buchanan said. “With this blog, I want to provide an update on the Governance Body Consultation meetings and direct you to the consultation map on our homepage, which has been updated to reflect our work with states and territories and their progress in this area.

“To date, we have completed 12 Governance Body Consultation meetings, including several in the last couple of weeks with Oregon, Massachusetts, California, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Alaska. These meetings have been valuable to FirstNet, allowing us to connect with the states on important issues like the State Plan and the Governor’s decision, and to have a dialog about the key influencers and key issues that the state and FirstNet need to consider over the next year,” the blog posting added. —Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

 Courtesy TRDaily

 

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, May 13, 2016

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It has been a relatively quiet week in the Public Safety communications space. That is not to say there is not a lot happening around the wireless industry… The FCC says it is confident it can free up 126 MHz of 600-MHz spectrum for the forward auction. This spectrum has been used for TV stations for many years. Each analog channel required 6 MHz of spectrum but the new digital systems do not require the same amount of spectrum per station. Some of the TV stations that have agreed to relocate from the 600-MHz band (channels 32-52 except for channel 37, which is reserved for radio telescopes) will move down to other open channels in their areas while others will share a 6-MHz channel with another TV station, and in some cases the TV stations could opt for taking the cash due them at the end of the forward auction and turning out the lights and locking the doors.

However, as I mentioned, the FCC is confident it will be able to auction 126 MHz of spectrum, and 100 MHz of it will be set up into 10 blocks of 5 MHz by 5 MHz, but in reality, any serious bidder will want to bid on at least a 10X10-MHz block for capacity and data speed reasons. The price for this spectrum on a per-megahertz basis will probably be a lot less than prices paid during the AWS-3 auction where participants seemed to be in a bidding war with one another and drove up the price of the AWS-3 spectrum to the highest prices ever paid in the United States for spectrum at auction. That auction raised $44 billion for the federal government. Some of this was used to fund FirstNet, some next-generation 9-1-1 activities, and $300 million for research and development for Public Safety systems, devices, and applications. The paired spectrum in the AWS-3 auction went for an average of $2.72 per MHzPOP. In the 700-MHz auction the highest price paid was $2.57 per MHzPOP but the average was in the $1.29 range. The AWS-1 auctions went for MHzPOP prices averaging in the less than $0.50 range.

The 600-MHz spectrum is better for wireless broadband than the 700-MHz spectrum already in use because the 600-MHz spectrum provides the capability of larger cell sites in non-metro areas, and better building penetration in urban areas. The downside is that the spectrum won’t be available until at least 35 to 48 months after the final round of bidding, and then it will have to be built-out and devices made to cover the new 600-MHz band. Thus a safe guess for this spectrum coming online is probably 48-60 months after the auction is completed. Based on all this, AT&T, T-Mobile, and others have said in public statements that they are fairly confident they will be able to purchase 10X10 nationwide spectrum for around $10 billion. This puts the price for 20 MHz of spectrum at about the same price Verizon paid for its 12X12 MHz of 700-MHz spectrum in the 700-MHz auction.

That naturally brings us back to what the 20 MHz of FirstNet spectrum is worth on a secondary basis. That is, as they used to say, “the 64 thousand dollar question” (or in this case, perhaps the $30 billion question). The positive for this spectrum is that it is available right away. Once the bidder is selected and the contract is in place the successful bidder can start building and using the spectrum immediately while those who won the 600-MHz spectrum can only start their planning and then wait, wait, and wait.

There are some downsides to the FirstNet spectrum as well. Even though the RFP is to award a contract that runs for 25 years, the winning bidder cannot put the spectrum on its books as an asset like winning bidders can with spectrum they bought at auction. Next is the question that has perplexed Public Safety, FirstNet, the FCC, and potential bidders: How much of this spectrum will be available for secondary use by non-Public Safety users in the larger metro areas where it seems the network operators will never have enough spectrum with the burgeoning demand for broadband services and streaming video.

The more spectrum that is available for secondary use in metro areas the more the value of the spectrum to the RFP winner. But if you track the need for secondary spectrum on a Friday and Saturday night against the Public Safety need for the same spectrum in the same locations, it is anybody’s guess how it will turn out. On one Friday night in Times Square the demand from Public Safety could be relatively light and therefore those who will have access for secondary usage will be higher. However, the next night, Public Safety might have multiple incidents occurring in that area requiring them to restrict how much spectrum can be set aside for secondary users. That is one of the issues many people have been wrestling with for a number of years. In reality, until the network is built out there is no way of knowing the answer.

Even if you look at Harris County, Texas, where there is a fairly extensive system up and running on the FirstNet spectrum, at the moment it is not being shared with anyone, there are not as many applications devoted to Public Safety as there will be, nor are there as many cameras as there will be. This will sort itself out over time I am sure, but it may be that the winning bidder will have to overbuild some of the larger metro areas in order to ensure it really does have access to the spectrum when consumer demand for broadband is highest and could run up against high demand from Public Safety. The way the network is designed, and by law, in these cases Public Safety wins, end of story. Continue reading →

99 Parties Deemed Qualified to Bid in Forward Portion of Auction

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May 12, 2016–The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force announced today that 99 parties are eligible to participate in the forward portion of the incentive auction. A public notice released this afternoon said that only five of the 104 applications that had been submitted were deemed incomplete. In March, the agency announced that 104 parties had filed applications and that 69 of those were complete and 35 were incomplete and had to be corrected by April 6 (TRDaily, March 18). Continue reading →

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At the recent SAFECOM meeting, NPSTC’s representative from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Deputy Chief Eddie Reyes, now at Amtrak, was recognized for his service to SAFECOM while at the Alexandria [VA] Police Department.  Deputy Chief Reyes and Chief Tom Roche represented the IACP at the SAFECOM meeting in Jacksonville, FL.

Eddie Receiving DHS Award for Service to SAFECOM while @ Alex PD (1)Eddie Reyes [C] Receives Award from SAFECOM. Chief Harlin McEwen [L] and Chief Tom Roche [R]

 

Urgent Comm Reports: FCC task force outlines upcoming work on cybersecurity, architecture and funding for next-gen 911

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Members of the FCC’s Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA) last week discussed this year’s vision for the second phase of their work, which includes providing greater detail about the cybersecurity, architecture transition and funding components of the report on next-generation 911 (NG911) that was released early this year.  Read more here:

http://urgentcomm.com/ng-911/fcc-task-force-outlines-upcoming-work-cybersecurity-architecture-and-funding-next-gen-911?page=2

S&T Press Release: DHS S&T Announces Launch of New, Interactive Year in Review

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WASHINGTON – Today, Deputy Under Secretary for Science and Technology Dr. Robert Griffin announced the launch of a new take on the Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) annual Year in Review at the Internet of Things (IoT) World Forum in Santa Clara, California. The interactive, web-based report provides a guided tour of S&T’s successes and developments in 2015.

S&T’s Year in Review includes highlights from 37 of S&T’s projects that represent the directorate’s progression toward meeting long-term visionary goals. The review includes an introduction on programs and initiatives and further discusses how S&T meets its mission and fits into the larger mission of the department.

“I’m proud of what we were able to achieve in 2015, and excited to share our successes in this web-based format that allows us to reach more of our audience than we have in previous print reports,” said Griffin. “The annual Year in Review has always been about showing our broad audience—Congress, DHS components, industry, responders, the American tax payer, and our international partners—what we have accomplished to improve their security, and in many cases, with their help. Now that the review is interactive, it gives us an opportunity to engage more of our audience and truly show them our work.”

A video by Under Secretary for Science and Technology Reginald Brothers opens the review with an overview about what sets S&T apart from other research and development organizations, how the department is facing shifts in research and development funding, and where directorate is going in the future with its visionary goals.

S&T’s Year in Review breaks down the directorate’s research and development efforts and the measurable differences it has brought to the homeland security landscape with animations and graphic features as aids. From the FINDER technology that saved four lives in Nepal to the improved structure fire fighter gloves that keep firefighters safe from punctures and burns—S&T tells its story of addressing problems from the global to the community level.

With this review, S&T shows the directorate’s commitment to effective communication, which was highlighted in the S&T Strategic Plan published in 2015. This review is one of the many vehicles through which S&T has worked to inform, educate, and even captivate its audience in new and inventive ways.

D.C. Court Dismisses Epic Petition on FAA Drone Regs

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today dismissed a petition filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center seeking review of a Federal Aviation Administration denial of an EPIC request that the agency adopt privacy regulations for the operation of unmanned “drone” aircraft.

According to the opinion written by Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, Congress in the FAA Modernization Act of 2012 directed the FAA to develop a plan to accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system and to include in the plan regulations to implement the agency’s recommendations.  The law, however, is “silent as to any privacy considerations,” the opinion states. Continue reading →

FirstNet Update to the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) – May 9, 2016

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FirstNet News

Last week, FirstNet continued consultation by participating in five State Governance Body Consultation Meetings in Alaska, Iowa, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Since a large percentage of these states are rural, there was significant discussion about rural coverage and FirstNet’s plans for rural areas. Consultation Task Teams (CTTs) were also a topic of much discussion, and Iowa expressed an interest in hosting a regional CTT and an Iowa state CTT in the future. FirstNet has now completed 11 State Governance Body Consultation Meetings.

On May 5, Director of Government Affairs Ed Parkinson, and Senior Fire Advisor Mike Worrell gave a general FirstNet presentation at the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s Annual Seminar in Washington, DC. The theme of the program was “Making a Difference at the National Level,” which brought together thousands of fire and EMS personnel from across the country for a series of seminars and meetings with federal agency officials and members of Congress. The FirstNet session addressed topics including the State Plan process, governor decision, and rural coverage, and one participant brought up the importance of maintaining existing LMR systems until mission critical voice is a reality. FirstNet also had meetings with representatives of the National Volunteer Fire Council and the International Association of Fire Chiefs to discuss timelines, the State Plan process, and continued engagement with their members.

FirstNet Board member Teri Takai, Mike Poth and Government Affairs staff attended the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) Mid-Year Conference and DC Fly-In last week. The DC Fly-In is an opportunity for state CIOs and other key staff to meet with Congressional and federal government decision makers on policies and programs that have a significant impact on state governments. FirstNet was a key focus area for the Fly-In, during which FirstNet representatives provided a keynote address and engaged attendees in a Q&A session on FirstNet.

This week, FirstNet is participating in the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) 8th Annual Law Enforcement and Public Safety Technology Forum in Washington, DC; the FEMA Regional Emergency Communication Coordination Working Group in Salt Lake City, UT; the Oregon Governance Body Consultation Meeting in Salem; a Portland, OR Metro Consultation Meeting; a Richmond, VA Fire Department FirstNet Meeting; the Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association Conference; the New Mexico APCO/NENA Training Conference in Albuquerque, NM; the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association Conference in Long Beach, CA; the IAFC Volunteer & Combination Officers Symposium in the West in Reno, NV.

News from the PSAC, States and Territories

The PSAC Identity, Credentials, and Access Management (ICAM) task team will meet on Tuesday May 10.

The PSAC Early Builders Working Group (EBWG) will meet on Wednesday May 11.

Media Watch

*The information provided is copied as-is from the media outlet source and is not edited by FirstNet.  Links to non-Federal Government websites do not constitute endorsement of any product, service, organization, company, information provider, or content.  Clicking on non-Department of Commerce hyperlinks will direct you to websites that are not under the Government’s control.

FedScoop 5/2: FirstNet Board: “We need federal participation”

FirstNet board: ‘We need federal participation’

FirstNet, a $7 billion government initiative to construct a nationwide broadband network for first responders, is on track to be financially self-sufficient by 2022 — so long as it can effectively coax federal agencies into embracing the program.

Web and Social Media

FirstNet’s social media presence continued to grow last week at a regular pace, with Twitter gaining more than 30 new followers, now at 3,594; LinkedIn now has 1,491 followers; and YouTube has 267 subscribers. This week, we posted new entries on the FirstNet blog to recognize Public Service Recognition Week 2016 and International Firefighters Day.  We have also posted a new video this week highlighting fire service personnel in Puerto Rico and how broadband technology is helping them with response operations and day-to-day activities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4V8fOvvsXY.

Do you have something you want to feature in the weekly update, such as a conference date, personnel announcement, or news article showcasing the work of your organization?  Please send it to Yancy Edwards at yancy.edwards.ctr@firstnet.gov for possible inclusion in an upcoming update