FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly asked Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D.) today for details about how she plans to change the state’s practice of diverting 911 fees for other purposes. In a letter to the governor, Mr. O’Rielly noted that “Rhode Island has been a self-admitted diverter of the 9-1-1 fee it collects to fund its public safety call center since the Federal Communications Commission began requesting information from states in 2009. Ending such practices is more than necessary.”

He said that staff to the governor reached out to him during a recent visit to the state’s public safety answering point (PSAP).

“During this discussion, I was heartened to learn that you were supportive of changing Rhode Island state law to prevent fee diversion going forward. With your support, coupled with endorsements I have seen from the Democrat House Speaker [Nicholas A. Mattiello], as well as Republican State Representative Bob Lancia, there appears to be a unique opportunity to end the diversion of 9-1-1 fees in Rhode Island,” Mr. O’Rielly said. Continue reading →

The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau issued a public notice today reminding wireless carriers to file “their certifications of compliance with the three-year E911 location accuracy benchmark as required by Section 20.18(i)(2)(iii) of the Commission’s rules.

The three-year benchmark requires CMRS providers to provide, as of April 3, 2018, dispatchable location or x/y location (latitude and longitude) within 50 meters for 50 percent of all wireless 911 calls. CMRS providers must certify compliance with this benchmark no later than June 4, 2018. We also remind CMRS providers of additional E911 location accuracy deadlines in 2018.”

Courtesy TRDaily

In a wireless infrastructure order released today, the FCC rejects arguments advanced by tribes and localities, including arguments offered in the weeks before the item was adopted last week (TR Daily, March 22).

The order says that the deployment of small cells that the wireless industry says will be needed for 5G services doesn’t constitute a “federal undertaking” under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) or a “major federal action” under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and thus are not reviewable under those laws.

In opposing the second report and order in WT docket 17-79, which was adopted over the dissents of Democratic Commissioners Mignon L. Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, tribes, localities, state historic preservation officers, and others argued, among other things, that the item exceeds the FCC’s authority, fails to acknowledge the positive role that tribes and others play in the review of wireless infrastructure, and understates the potential impact of small cells. They also complained that the item fails to adequately define a small cell. States, tribes, and localities also complained that the FCC failed to adequately consult with them on the issues in the item.

In the order released today, the FCC said “the record does not support sufficiently appreciable countervailing environmental and historic preservation benefits associated with subjecting small wireless facility deployments off of Tribal lands to historic preservation and environmental reviews.” Continue reading →

Comments are due April 27 and replies May 14 in WC docket 11-42 on a petition for reconsideration and emergency relief filed by the Oglala Sioux Tribe asking the FCC to reinstate cellular and data service to more than 1,700 residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota (TR Daily, March 26). The residents’ Lifeline service was shut off by AT&T, Inc., after the residents failed to recertify their eligibility. Earlier this month, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau granted a prospective waiver of the recertification deadline, allowing an additional 150 days beyond the normal 60 days provided for recertification (TR Daily, March 14). In its petition filed last week, the Oglala Sioux Tribe asked the Commission to amend its partial waiver order so it is retroactive.

Courtesy TRDaily

Better network monitoring and information-sharing are needed to mitigate vulnerabilities in a communications protocol used in wireless networks and by Internet of things devices, an FCC advisory committee said today. The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) approved a report from its working group 3 (WG3), which has been looking at network vulnerabilities associated with the Diameter protocol.

WG3’s chairman, Travis Russell, director-cybersecurity at Oracle Communications, compared the group’s work to a similar CSRIC effort to enhance the security of Signaling System 7 (SS7), a 1970s-era technology widely used to connect wireline phone calls (TR Daily, Oct. 26, 2017).

Diameter contains similar vulnerabilities as SS7, Mr. Russell said, and is being used for wireless communications, although he noted that Diameter had not been widely adopted.  Globally, many wireless operators are still using SS7 to enable roaming, and Diameter has not been implicated in any cybersecurity incidents, he said. “Unlike SS7, we haven’t seen a whole lot of attacks in the wild,” Mr. Russell said at today’s CSRIC meeting.  “In fact, we have seen none. We have seen reports that some of the vendors have been putting out that they see suspect traffic. But suspect traffic can also be a misconfiguration of a node, which nine times out of 10, that’s what it is.”

Still, Diameter offers a variety of avenues for hackers to gain access to users’ accounts, intercept voice calls and data transmissions, and track user locations, he said.  Many of those attack vectors can be closed off by properly configuring networks using Diameter, he said. Continue reading →

The Oglala Sioux Tribe has filed a petition for reconsideration and emergency relief asking the FCC to reinstate cellular and data service to more than 1,700 residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The residents’ Lifeline service was shut off by AT&T, Inc., after the residents failed to recertify their eligibility.

Earlier this month, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau granted a prospective waiver of the recertification deadline, allowing an additional 150 days beyond the normal 60 days provided for recertification (TR Daily, March 14). In its petition filed last week in WC docket 11-42, the Oglala Sioux Tribe asked the Commission to amend its partial waiver order so it is retroactive.

Courtesy TRDaily

The Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority has asked the FCC to withdraw a petition for reconsideration it filed recently (TR Daily, March 2) of the Lifeline order adopted by the FCC last November (TR Daily, Nov. 16, 2017). The tribe sought to withdraw its petition in a filing in WC dockets 17-287, 11-42, and 09-197.

Courtesy TRDaily

The FCC today released a second report and order and second further notice of proposed rulemaking it adopted yesterday in its signal booster proceeding (TR Daily, March 22). Comments on the second FNPRM are due 30 days after “Federal Register” publication and replies are due 30 days after that in WT docket 10-4.

Courtesy TRDaily

The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau today announced plans to hold a workshop on April 13 “to identify communications information needs of government and consumers to improve preparation and response efforts during crises.”

The bureau added, “Informed by input to a Bureau Public Notice seeking comment on the response to the 2017 Hurricane Season [TR Daily, Dec. 7, 2017], this workshop is intended to ensure the Commission is collecting the critical information necessary to best support the preparedness and response activities of stakeholders to facilitate the availability and reliability of communications during emergencies, disasters, and significant events.” The event is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Commission’s meeting room.

Courtesy TRDaily