FCC

LMCC Praises FCC Enforcement Advisory on VHF/UHF Radios

Posted by

The Land Mobile Communications Council today welcomed an enforcement advisory released by the FCC this week related to VHF/UHF radios that fail to comply with the FCC’s rules (TR Daily, Sept. 24). LMCC noted that it has worked to raise awareness of the distribution of illegal devices that can cause interference to federal, public safety, and business/industrial licensees.  “The members of the LMCC, which all have a stake in protecting the authorized use of spectrum, applaud the action taken by the FCC in this matter,” said LMCC President David Smith. “As the Advisory makes clear, violating these rules can result in substantial monetary fines. Anyone importing, advertising or selling noncompliant devices should cease doing so. Anyone owning such devices should stop using them. The LMCC encourages the Enforcement Bureau to follow this Advisory with swift enforcement of those who continue to violate these established rules.”

Courtesy TRDaily

FCC WTB Will Host Environmental Compliance and Historic Preservation Review Procedures

Posted by

The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau will host its annual training workshop on the environmental compliance and historic preservation review process required for the construction of wireless communications facilities.  The workshop will be held on Thursday, October 11, 2018 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EDT, and Friday, October 12, 2018 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 p.m. EDT in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC Headquarters, 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC. It will be webcast with open captioning at www.fcc.gov/live.

At the workshop, FCC experts on the environmental review process and other speakers will provide information to FCC licensees, those who construct or manage communications facilities for FCC licensees, and their consultants on a range of topics related to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and the FCC’s implementing regulations and related agreements.  The second day of the workshop will address public safety-related issues, including compliance, FirstNet, and siting in floodplains, and other matters.  For additional information, please see the attached public notice.

FCC to Host Real Time Text Educations Days for PSAPS

Posted by

The Bureau will co-host a workshop to inform public safety answering points (PSAPs) on real-time text (RTT). The PSAP RTT Education Day will take place on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT, at the FCC’s headquarters, Room TW-C305 (Commission Meeting Room), 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20554.  The PSAP RTT Education Day will provide information to PSAPs and other emergency communications systems about RTT features and benefits for emergency response personnel and consumers (including consumers with disabilities); best practices for processing RTT requests from service providers; and ways to implement the RTT service feature. Among other things, panels will address regulatory policy, PSAPs’ experiences with RTT testing, and RTT infrastructure issues. There will be a live demonstration of the use of RTT and opportunities for interaction by and with the audience.  The event will be webcast with open captioning at www.fcc.gov/live.  For additional information, please see the attached public notice.

From FCC’s Daily Digest, September 24, 2018

Posted by

TWO-WAY VHF/UHF RADIOS MAY NOT BE IMPORTED, ADVERTISED, OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES UNLESS THEY COMPLY WITH THE COMMISSION’S RULES.

Advises retailers and operators that VHF/UHF two-way radios must comply with FCC technical requirements before they may be marketed, imported or operated . by Advisory. (DA No. 18-980). News Media Contact: Will Wiquist at (202) 418-0509, email: Will.Wiquist@fcc.gov. EB. Contact: Jonathan Garvin at (202) 418-1130, email: Jonathan.Garvin@fcc.gov. DA-18-980A1.doc DA-18-980A1.pdf DA-18-980A1.txt

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, September 20, 2018

Posted by

FirstNet’s First Hurricane. Last week’s Public Safety Advocate discussed storms, wildfires, and other reasons it is so important for as many public safety agencies as possible to be a part of the FirstNet network and ecosystem. This week, weather hit the Carolinas hard with the arrival of hurricane Florence and FirstNet (Built by AT&T) sprang into action. So far, reports coming out of the area via reporters, tweets, and other social media indicate that FirstNet moved in and met the challenges it faced.

According to the FCC storm reports and verified elsewhere, 14 percent of the existing cell sites were out of service while more than 164,000 customers were out of cable, broadband services, and phones. Putting this another way, according to Tower Daily News and as reported by WWAY-TV, 86.4 percent of the cell towers remained in operation serving the public and the public safety community. As of last Sunday, the number of cell sites still down was reduced to 787, as compared to the 1,063 sites that were out of service a few days earlier.

In South Carolina, 98.3 percent of the 4,107 cell sites were operational going into last weekend, and by Sunday the number of sites down in the state had been reduced to 68 or 1.7 percent. On other communications services, the FCC’s latest report shows that 47 TV stations were on the air with only four being down, and 100 FM stations were broadcasting with only 20 off the air. On the AM side of things, 28 AM stations were broadcasting, leaving only three off the air. It is important to realize information about the number of cell sites and other communications facilities are generally furnished by the site owners, station owners, or others with knowledge of the current situation rather than numbers that are generated by the FCC directly.Read the Entire Post Here

Here are the articles I have selected with the help of Discovery Patterns artificial intelligence

NTIA’s Redl Says Spectrum Sharing Is The Future Of 5G

Law360 Sep 19 21:25

Read More

Law360 (September 19, 2018, 7:29 PM EDT) — For National Telecommunications and Information Administration head David Redl, the government’s … Continue reading →

2.1% of Cell Sites Not Working in Florence-Affected N.C. Areas

Posted by

In the 48 areas in North Carolina covered by the FCC’s activation of its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for Hurricane Florence, 2.1% of cell sites were out of service as of 11 a.m. today, down from 3.7% yesterday, the FCC reported. It said that all public safety answering points in North Carolina are fully operational.

As for cable and wireline service, the report said that 176,388 subscribers did not have service in North Carolina, down from 270,688 yesterday. Two TV stations reported being out of service. Two FM radio stations reported being down but programming was being sent to another station, while 20 FM radio stations said they were out of service. Two AM radio stations said they were out of service.

Courtesy TRDaily

 

National EAS/WEA Test Expected to Reach Most Mobile Phones

Posted by

The nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System and wireless emergency alerts that was rescheduled from yesterday to Oct. 3 in light of response efforts to Hurricane Florence (TR Daily, Sept. 17) is expected to deliver the test message to “almost all” of the mobile phones in the country, a senior Federal Emergency Management Agency official told reporters during a conference call today.

The test, which will be the first nationwide test of WEA utilizing the presidential level code, which enables a message to be sent to all points in the U.S. simultaneously, is required by law every three years and is not being conducted in response to the false ballistic missile alert mistakenly sent in Hawaii in January over the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and by wireless emergency alert (WEA), the FEMA official said.  WEA was launched in 2012 and FEMA believes the system has developed to the point that a national test is appropriate, the official added. Continue reading →

Iridium Offers Options for ESIMs’ Use of 29.25–29.3 GHz Band

Posted by

The FCC could permit land and marine ESIMs (earth stations in motion) in the 29.25–29.3 gigahertz band “at this time, but defer consideration of aeronautical ESIMs to a further stage of the proceeding,” representatives of Iridium Communications, Inc., told Rachel Bender, a legal adviser to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, during a Sept. 19 ex parte meeting regarding the IB docket 17-95 proceeding on facilitating the use of ESIMs in fixed satellite service frequency bands.

The FCC is scheduled to consider a report and order and further notice of proposed rulemaking in the proceeding at its Sept. 26 meeting.

“[A]eronautical ESIMs can be situated directly in-line with the Iridium feeder-link main beam, and thus produce even greater levels of interference into Iridium satellites,” the company’s representatives said during the meeting, according to an ex parte notice filed yesterday.  Continue reading →

3.7% of Cell Sites Not Working in Florence-Affected N.C. Areas

Posted by

In the 48 areas in North Carolina covered by the FCC’s activation of its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for Hurricane Florence, 3.7% of cell sites were out of service as of 11 a.m. today, down from 4.3% yesterday, the FCC reported. It said that 911 calls to two public safety answering points in North Carolina were being routed without location information to other PSAPs. As for cable and wireline service, the report said that 270,688 subscribers did not have service in North Carolina. One TV station reported being out of service. Two FM radio stations reported being down but programming was being sent to another station, while 21 FM radio stations said they were out of service. Two AM radio stations said they were out of service.

Courtesy TRDaily

FCC Urged to Name Panel to Probe Hurricane Maria Outages

Posted by

Eighteen advocates for Puerto Rico and racial and social justice and media and telecom experts urged the FCC today to appoint an independent commission to probe the reasons for widespread communications failures in Puerto Rico after it was struck by Hurricane Maria last year.

“As a group of Puerto Rican advocates, racial- and social-justice organizations, and media and telecommunications experts, we call on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to appoint an independent commission to examine the causes for the communications failures in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria last year, and to develop recommendations to avoid such failures in the future,” said a letter filed in PS docket 17-344 and WC docket 18-143. “The ability to communicate is a life and death issue, especially during and after a disaster. But there is still much we do not know about the response of telecom companies and our government. And we also need to know more about the policies and investment decisions made through the years that resulted in a communications network that lacked the resiliency to withstand a major hurricane.

“The 36-page hurricane season report released by the FCC last month attempted to inform the public about the Commission’s actions following the hurricanes that struck the United States last year. But the report failed to provide the kind of comprehensive examination that is needed following such a historic tragedy in Puerto Rico,” the letter added. “We agree with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who said ‘this slim and long-overdue review fails to capture the gravity of these storms.’” Continue reading →