FCC

From Today’s FCC Daily Digest, August 29, 2018

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Modification of Rules to Codify New Procedure for Non-Federal Public Safety Entities to License Federal Interoperability Channels

FR Document: 2018-18691
Citation: 83 FR 43987		 PDF Pages 43987-43988 (2 pages)
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Abstract: In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collection associated with Order DA 18-282. This document is consistent with Order DA 18-282, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date of the information collection associated with that order.

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, August 23, 2018

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Radio Interference in the Public Safety World.  There are many different types of interference that may have an impact on existing radio communications systems whether they are Land Mobile Radio (LMR), broadband, marine band, aviation and satellite or, of course, Wi-Fi systems. Deliberately causing interference might be considered as “hacking” wireless systems. Then there is the issue of the noise floor and its level being higher than it has ever been, which can also have a negative impact on all types of wireless communications. Radio transmitters either by themselves or in conjunction with other transmitters can cause major interference issues as well. While there are other types of interference, I will limit the discussion for this week’s Public Safety Advocate (PSA) to those mentioned above.

Malicious Interference. Malicious interference is often attributable to how easy it is to purchase cheap handheld radios on the land mobile radio channels and then program them to work on almost any radio channel in use. Most of these radios are made in China. Although these units have been causing interference for many years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) only recently began to crack down on their use. Once a device is programmed to, for example, a fire radio channel, the “radio hacker” can make calls, disrupt incidents, and otherwise cripple communications. In one series of events a teenager with a radio tuned to a fire dispatch channel in California caused mass confusion by re-routing engines to different locations as they were being dispatched.

Public safety radios are sometimes taken out of service and sold or given to others, but most departments wipe them clean of their programming information before handing them over, or the radios are simply destroyed. A stolen or lost radio can normally be silenced and taken off the network much like your cell phone if it is lost or stolen. With mobile units, when the microphone button is pushed it sometimes inadvertently sticks and stays on the air. Many departments require all these radios to have time-out-timers in them to limit the time of the transmission and release the channel. It is difficult to identify open transmissions or catch radio hackers since they only transmit for a few minutes at a time and may move around. Some departments have enlisted the assistance of the local ham radio community as many hams practice “transmitter hunts” and have become very good at tracking down radios that should not be on the air.
Read the Entire Post Here.

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

Two FirstNet board members step down, leaving seven open seats

StateScoop Aug 21 17:30

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The agency’s sole vendor for the project, AT&T, received authorization to begin building out its dedicated public safety broadband wireless spectrum in …

Records Show FirstNet, AT&T Execs Pressured Colorado Officials After LTE Interoperability Filing

RadioResource Media Group Aug 21 16:30

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First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and AT&T executives criticized a July 6 Colorado Public Safety Broadband Governing Body (CPSBGB) …

Two longtime FirstNet board members retire

RCR Wireless News Aug 21 16:10

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It has been an honor and a privilege to serve public safety over the past six years. Having accomplished what Chief Johnson and I set out to do back …

A Senator Says U.S. Broadband Maps ‘Stink.’ Here’s Why Nobody Wants To Fix Them.

Techdirt Corporate Intelligence Aug 21 15:02

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Last week we noted how an FCC “oversight” hearing fell well short of anything actually resembling, well, actual oversight. Three FCC staffers had just been caught making up a DDOS attack and misleading Congress, the press and the FBI about it — yet the subject was was barely even broached by lawmakers on either side of the aisle. It was another embarrassing example of the absence of anything resembling genuine accountability at the agency. Fortunately…

Twenty-two states ask US appeals court to reinstate ‘net neutrality’ rules

CNBC Aug 21 09:13

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The states argue the FCC action could harm public safety, citing electrical grids as an example.Â

Ajit Pai Opposes Effort To Update The Definition Of Broadband

Techdirt Corporate Intelligence Aug 17 15:02

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The Telecom Act of 1996 mandates that the FCC routinely assess whether broadband is “being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion,” and do something about it if that’s not the case. As part of that mission, the FCC also periodically takes a look at the way it defines broadband to ensure the current definition meets modern consumer expectations and technical advancements. That’s why, much to the telecom industry’s chagrin , the…

The next steps for FirstNet: Defining indoor coverage specifications (Reader Forum)

FireEngineering.com Aug 17 13:55

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… FirstNet (First Responder Network Authority), a public safety network. FirstNet will be America’s first broadband network dedicated to emergency …

Samsung’s Exynos i S111 Delivers Efficiency and Reliability for NB-IoT Devices

Samsung Newsroom Aug 23 04:40

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Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced its new narrowband (NB) Internet of Things (IoT) …

CTIA Unveils Internet Of Things Cybersecurity Certification

Law360 Aug 22 15:00

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The program, CTIA said, builds on security recommendations for IoT put forward by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration …

Brazil plans network in 700 MHz band for security forces

Telecompaper Aug 18 04:00

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Brazil is planning to set up an integrated communication network for the public security forces. This mobile broadband network will occupy part of the …

FCC supports rural broadband deployments to enable telehealth

Health Data Management Aug 17 23:00

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The delivery of high-quality care is no longer limited to the confines of …

The US May Yet Catch Its Global Peers in 4G Speeds

Light Reading Aug 17 16:10

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Verizon and AT&T debuted their 4G services the 700 MHz band they’d won in 2008. Sprint took the 2.5 GHz route for LTE after several attempts to …

Verizon calls for greater interoperability with FirstNet, says public-sector business still growing

Urgent Communications Aug 17 13:55

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No public-safety agency should have to choose a network based on where an application sits or what applications they’ll have access to..

FCC Faces Senate Commerce Committee Panel In Oversight Hearing

All Access Music Group Aug 17 09:10

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… missteps in the Net Neutrality proceeding as well as rural broadband, the Lifeline program, telehealth services, robocalls, and other issues.

FCC supports rural broadband deployments to enable telehealth

Health Data Management Aug 17 08:13

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Commission envisions care delivered directly to patients via telemedicine, regardless of their location, says Commissioner Brendan Carr.

FCC Staff Hurricane Report Details Actions to Bolter Response

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The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released a report today that details a number of planned or recommended steps to improve emergency response and recovery efforts in the wake of last year’s historic Atlantic hurricane season, including promoting the value of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) and requesting more DIRS data from providers, encouraging backhaul providers to participate in the Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework and seeking more granular data, improving the ability to verify the availability of commercial wireless services, bolstering engagement with other critical infrastructure sectors, suggesting that industry entities partner with localities on training for emergencies, and recommending the implementation of various best practices.

“The storms of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season put considerable, and in some cases unprecedented, stress on numerous communications infrastructures — wireless, cable, wireline, and broadcasting. Consideration and implementation of the lessons learned from the 2017 season can help ensure that the communications ecosystem continues to harden and become ever more resilient,” the 36-page report said. “Although last year was an anomaly as far as the severity and number of named storms, all members of the communications community should take what steps they can, now, to lessen a storm’s impact. PSHSB looks forward to sharing lessons learned with its partners within the Commission, with its federal partners, with state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments, and with communication service provider[s]. … Even though following all recommendations cannot preclude an adverse communications event, diligent and early adoption will lessen the impact of that event.”

“The adverse effect of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season on communications increased in magnitude as the season went on,” the report stressed. “While the damage caused by the August 2017 landing of Hurricane Harvey in the Gulf Coast region, especially Houston, was quickly remedied (within a week, ninety-eight percent of cell towers were back to operational), recovery times for communications became more challenging as the intensity of destruction increased. The early September 2017 arrival of Hurricane Irma, first in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) and Puerto Rico, and then parts of Florida, followed in short order by Hurricane Maria, again in Puerto Rico and the USVI just two weeks after Irma, largely destroyed the communications infrastructures of both territories. Finally, the October 2017 arrival of Hurricane Nate caused damage primarily through flooding in the north Gulf Coast region (Mississippi to Florida).” Continue reading →

Bloggers: Fire Department Throttling Not Net Neutrality Issue

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The incident of data throttling by Verizon Communications, Inc., cited by the Santa Clara (Calif.) Fire Department in an addendum to a brief filed by government petitioners seeking to overturn the FCC’s December 2017 restoring Internet freedom (RIF) order “has nothing to do with net neutrality,” according to Roslyn Layton, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Similarly, Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Seth Cooper said in a blog posting today that the county “is trying to make hay over the matter by wrongly trying to tie it to ‘net neutrality.’”

In the addendum, Anthony Bowden, the fire chief for the Santa Clara County Central Fire Department, said that the department experienced throttling by Verizon that “had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services” during deployment to battle the Mendocino Complex Fire (TR Daily, Aug. 21).  He added, “Verizon representatives confirmed the throttling, but, rather than restoring us to an essential data transfer speed, they indicated that County Fire would have to switch to a new data plan at more than twice the cost, and they would only remove throttling after we contacted the Department that handles billing and switched to the new data plan.”

As reported previously (TR Daily, Aug. 21), Verizon said in a statement, ““This situation has nothing to do with net neutrality or the current proceeding in court. … This customer purchased a government contract plan for a high-speed wireless data allotment at a set monthly cost. Under this plan, users get an unlimited amount of data but speeds are reduced when they exceed their allotment until the next billing cycle. Regardless of the plan emergency responders choose, we have a practice to remove data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations. We have done that many times, including for emergency personnel responding to these tragic fires. In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us. This was a customer support mistake. We are reviewing the situation and will fix any issues going forward.” Continue reading →

Localities Object to Being Treated as Barriers to Deployment

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Local governments are pushing back in FCC filings against the idea that they create obstacles to the deployment of broadband and small cell infrastructure and that their decisions and agreements with providers should be overridden by the federal agency.

In an ex parte filing in WT docket 17-79 (wireless broadband deployment) and GN docket 17-83 (Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee), the city of San Jose, Calif., reported on the success of “collaborative efforts” with AT&T, Inc., Verizon Communications, Inc., and Mobilitie LLC for the installation of small cells on approximately 4,000 city-owned light poles (TR Daily, June 15).

“Of course, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution, but the approach of joint collaboration to agree upon mutual interest in accelerating broadband is a model that can [be] replicated nationwide.  San José has shown that investment in capacity of local government and collaboration is much more effective than legislation and litigation,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, who resigned from the BDAC early this year citing the “overwhelming” influence of industry on the BDAC that was leading to a “predetermined” outcome (TR Daily, Jan. 25), said in a letter to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who has been tasked by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai with being the point person in the agency’s wireless infrastructure streamlining efforts. Continue reading →

Colorado FirstNet Filing Upsets FirstNet, AT&T

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A filing last month by the Colorado Public Safety Broadband Governing Body (CPSBGB) that asked FCC to clarify guidelines and requirements concerning interoperability and roaming between the network being built by AT&T, Inc., for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and wireless carriers (TR Daily, July 9) upset FirstNet and AT&T officials, according to e-mails obtained by “MissionCritical Communications” through a Colorado Open Records Act request. An e-mail from Ed Parkinson, FirstNet’s director-government affairs, to a state official said that Colorado was “very unprofessional and years late” and suggested that the state was “[c]learly trying to do the work of a vendor.” Chris Sambar, AT&T’ senior vice president-FirstNet, said in an e-mail to state officials that the filing with the FCC “is an incredibly disappointing move on the part of CO after your governor chose to opt in.”

Another e-mail from Mr. Sambar to the same officials suggested that Verizon Communications, Inc.’s support for the Colorado request “seemingly” indicated collusion between a state official and Verizon. The Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology has asked to withdraw the request filed with the FCC (TR Daily, July 16).

Courtesy TRDaily

 

FCC Provides Guidance on Amending Regional 800 MHz Plans

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The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released guidance today on the filing of amended regional plans by eight 800 megahertz band regional planning committees (RPCs) along the U.S. border with Canada.

“We direct the eight RPCs for the NPSPAC regions bordering Canada to file amendments to their 800 MHz regional plans by October 22, 2018 to bring them into conformity with the new 800 MHz band plan as detailed below. Alternatively, RPCs may elect to file amended regional plans by December 19, 2018, that combine these conforming band reconfiguration-related changes with other modifications, provided that they notify the Bureau by October 22, 2018 of their intent to do so,” said a public notice, which was released in WT docket 02-55.

“Changes to regional plans that reflect only changes in frequency listings based on the new NPSPAC band plan (i.e., changes that are limited to shifting channel assignments in the former plan downward by fifteen megahertz) and do not propose any other amendments except for administrative updates (e.g., changes to RPC by-laws or membership) will be subject to streamlined processing. Under the streamlined procedure, RPCs may submit their amendments to the Bureau without first seeking concurrence from adjacent Public Safety Regions,” the bureau added. “The Bureau will waive normal public notice and comment procedures for processing these amendments.

“Changes to regional plans that reflect other modifications such as changes to technical parameters or procedures for assigning channels, will be processed under non-streamlined procedures,” the bureau said. “Thus, RPCs must obtain concurrence to their amendments from adjacent regions prior to filing, and the Bureau will place such amendments on public notice and seek comment prior to approval.”- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily

 

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, August 15, 2018

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FirstNet the Authority and More.  With AT&T beating every due date, dealing with its coverage issues head-on, and deploying Band 14 ahead of schedule, not to mention certifying new FirstNet-approved devices, sometimes we forget FirstNet is the most important public/private partnership this nation has ever seen. When Congress formed FirstNet in 2012, it became an independent authority under the auspices of the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA), which is a part of the Department of Commerce. FirstNet the Authority, as it has become known, was responsible for putting together the FirstNet request for proposal, distributing it, and making the award. Even with the delays caused by others, it shepherded the request through to a successful conclusion and awarded the FirstNet contract to AT&T.

Since then, the focus for public safety has been on FirstNet (Built by AT&T) and not so much on FirstNet the Authority although it continues to play many important roles going forward including being the final authority on how well AT&T is doing against the deliverables established both in the RFP and in the final contract. FirstNet the Authority still has a large staff of qualified people working with federal, state, and local agencies to ensure they fully understand the importance of joining FirstNet (Built by AT&T) and how to go about it. It is the checks and balances organization that, if AT&T strays from the goals set up in the contract (which to my knowledge it has not done) FirstNet the Authority has the clout to ensure AT&T gets back on track.

It is easy to see exactly how engaged both FirstNet the Authority and its board of directors have remained throughout the process. Its last meeting was held August 13, 2018, after the APCO show. Each committee reported to the board on activity that impacts FirstNet. Fiscal highlights for 2018 include that AT&T earned a sustainability payment of $5.5 billion, and the Authority was once again given a clean bill of health by the Inspector General (IG) in his report. This makes five years in a row the IG passed the Authority with high marks. Furthermore, the finance committee reported it met the financial requirements of FirstNet while staying under budget, perhaps one of a very few government-related agencies that does stick to its budget. During 2019, it appears as though funds will be made available for independent validation and verification of the public safety network coverage, which is an important task.  Read the Entire Post Here. Continue reading →

O’Rielly Commends CNMI on 911 Fee Commitment

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FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly commended Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres (R.) today for his “recognition and commitment that any consumer-collected 9-1-1 fees will not be diverted to other purposes and that the CNMI will comply with current law on the matter.” Mr. O’Rielly’s letter responded to a July 21 letter that Gov. Torres sent Mr. O’Rielly.  In his letter, which responded to an earlier letter from the Commissioner, Gov. Torres said that his territory “currently does not have a 9-1-1 System or … active Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in place. … Accordingly, the CNMI is currently not collecting fee or charges.”

But he said that legislation being drafted would create “an Enhanced Emergency 911/NextGen 911 Telephone Communications System within the CNMI. This legislation proposes to also establish a 911 Surcharge to be borne by Local Exchange Telephone and Commercial Mobile Radio Service Subscribers, among other elements critical to the operation and management of an effective and efficient 911 System.”

Courtesy TRDaily

FCC Seeks Comment on NTIA WPS Petition

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The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau sought comment today on a petition for rulemaking filed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration recently asking the agency to revise its wireless priority service (WPS) rules, including by permitting some WPS users to preempt non-911 calls and by expanding WPS availability to non-voice services (TR Daily, July 10). Comments are due Aug. 28 and replies Sept. 7 in WT docket 96-86.

Courtesy TRDaily