Working groups of the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council today offered early status reports on their initial research toward developing recommendations and reports due to be presented in 2018 and 2019. Speaking at CSRIC’s meeting at the FCC’s Washington headquarters this afternoon, Farrokh Khatibi, director-engineering at Qualcomm Technology, Inc., chair of Working Group 2, which is focused on Comprehensive Re-imagining of Emergency Alerting, said the group’s objective is to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of emergency alerting and emerging technologies that may result in new alerting capabilities.  The group plans to “evaluate existing techniques and propose potential improvements.”  It plans to deliver a report on reimagining alerting in June 2018 and another on authentication and validation in December 2018.

Mr. Khatibi said the working group is currently conducting a “landscaping” effort to better understand the various technologies and getting presentations from various groups.  The next steps for the group involve additional presentations and then developing a work plan to accomplish the group’s goals.

Budge Currier, branch manager of the California 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Branch of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, asked if the working group would be addressing the needs of the hard of hearing, noting that the Northern California wildfires had proven that alerting to the hard of hearing was an issue that needs more attention. Continue reading →

About 66% of the cell sites were down in Puerto Rico today because of Hurricane Maria, the FCC reported, although about 64% of the population was reported covered by wireless carriers due to roaming agreements. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 52.1% of cell sites remained out, including 88.9% of the sites in St. John. About 93% of the population was covered by wireless carriers. As for cable and wireline systems, seven major switches were reported being toll isolated in Puerto Rico.

Courtesy TRDaily

Sixty-five percent of the cell sites were down in Puerto Rico today because of Hurricane Maria, the FCC reported, although about 64% of the population was reported covered by wireless carriers due to roaming agreements. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 52.1% of cell sites were out, including 88.9% of the sites in St. John. About 93% of the population was covered by wireless carriers. As for cable and wireline systems, no major switches were out of service or toll isolated in Puerto Rico.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was asked at a news conference after today’s meeting how long FCC staffers will remain in Puerto Rico.  “There’s no particular end date to our presence in Puerto Rico,” he added. “We’re working collaboratively with FEMA.”

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The FCC today unanimously approved an order (Common Carrier docket 91-281) to enable law enforcement and private security personnel to obtain the calling party number (CPN) on calls sent with caller ID blocking so that they can investigate threatening calls. “This is a narrow, tailored exemption of privacy protections under the commission’s current rules, which recognize a caller may have a legitimate interest in blocking caller ID,” Nellie Foosaner, attorney advisor for the Consumer Policy Division of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said during an open commission meeting.

A threatening call is any call that “conveys an emergency involving danger of death or physical injury to any person requiring disclosure of information without delay related to the emergency,” she said.

To protect against use by “bad actors,” the rule requires that caller ID unblocking requests be made by law enforcement on behalf of the threatened party, Ms. Foosaner said. The order also limits the distribution of the caller ID information obtained to the investigating law enforcement and security personnel, she said.

The order, stemming from an NPRM the FCC adopted in June (TR Daily, June 22), changes FCC rules prohibiting terminating carriers from providing the called party with the number from which an interstate call originated if the caller has invoked caller ID blocking for the call or the line.

The NPRM left in place a temporary emergency waiver granted earlier this year to Jewish community centers (JCCs) after a flurry of threatening calls. But that waiver is no longer in place with the adoption of the broader rules, Foosaner said. Continue reading →

About 66% of the cell sites were down in Puerto Rico today because of Hurricane Maria, the FCC reported, although about 63% of the population was reported covered by wireless carriers due to roaming agreements. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 55.4% of cell sites were out, including 88.9% of the sites in St. John. About 91% of the population was covered by wireless carriers. As for cable and wireline systems, at least one switch was out in Puerto Rico due to SS7 or toll isolation. The FCC also said that 62 TV stations in Puerto Rico had special temporary authority (STA) to be offline.

Courtesy TRDaily

Released:  10/19/2017.  FCC ANNOUNCES THE SECOND MEETING OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY, RELIABILITY, AND INTEROPERABILITY COUNCIL SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 26, 2017 AT FCC HEADQUARTERS. (DA No.  17-1032).  PSHSB . Contact:  Jeffery Goldthorp at (202) 418-1096, email: Jeffery.Goldthorp@fcc.gov or Suzon Cameron at (202) 418-1916, email: Suzon.Cameron@fcc.gov https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-1032A1.doc, https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-1032A1.pdf

Released:  10/19/2017.  PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU ENCOURAGES VOLUNTARY ADOPTION OF NETWORK RELIABILITY BEST PRACTICES BY SMALL AND RURAL SERVICES PROVIDERS. (DA No.  17-1029)  PSHSB encourages small and rural communications service providers to review and consider implementing, where appropriate, best practices recommended by CSRIC to improve network reliability.  PSHSB . Contact:  Jennifer Holtz at (202) 418-2336, email: Jennifer.Holtz@fcc.gov or Steven McKinnon at (202) 418-0390, email: Steven.McKinnon@fcc.gov. News Media Contact: Rochelle Cohen at (202) 418-1162, email: Rochelle.Cohen@fcc.gov https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-1029A1.docx, https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-1029A1.pdf

In an op-ed article that ran in “Wired” today, FCC Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn and Federal Trade Commissioner Terrell McSweeny called for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to keep his public commitment of four months ago to address high inmate calling service (ICS) rates.  Blaming the new Republican majority at the FCC for declining to defend aspects of a 2015 FCC order on ICS rates, the two Democratic regulators said that “the current majority at the FCC remains silent, while one of the clearest cases of market failure continues to harm our nation’s most vulnerable.

After the FCC’s court loss, FCC chair Ajit Pai publicly committed … that he would act to address these issues. Four months later, and the only thing of note is the FCC’s refusal to enforce its rules regarding the collection of video visitation call data.”

Courtesy TRDaily

About 70% of the cell sites were down in Puerto Rico today because of Hurricane Maria, the FCC reported, although about 61% of the population was still reported covered by wireless carriers due to roaming agreements. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 52.1%, down from 55.4% yesterday, of cell sites were down, including all of the sites in St. John, up from 88.9% yesterday. But about 88% of the population was covered by wireless carriers.

As for cable and wireline systems, at least two switches were out in Puerto Rico due to SS7 or toll isolation. No changes were reported today in the operational status of broadcast stations in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Courtesy TRDaily

About 71% of the cell sites were down in Puerto Rico today because of Hurricane Maria, the FCC reported, although about 61% of the population was still reported covered by wireless carriers due to roaming agreements. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 55.4% of cell sites were down, including about 89% of the sites in St. John, but about 88% of the population was covered by wireless carriers. As for cable and wireline systems, at least two switches were out in Puerto Rico due to SS7 or toll isolation. Meanwhile, four TV stations were confirmed operational in Puerto Rico and two were suspected of being out of service. The FCC said that 54 stations have been issued special temporary authority (STA) to be off the air. In the Virgin Islands, eight such stations have been issued STAs. Forty-four AM radio stations were confirmed operational and 29 were confirmed down in Puerto Rico, while 36 FM stations were confirmed operational and 22 were confirmed out of service there.

Two FM radio stations were confirmed operational in the Virgin Islands and two were suspected of being out of service, while two AM radio stations were confirmed operational and two were suspected of being down there. “When broadcast stations are listed as ‘suspected to be out of service’, the statement is based on field scanning of relevant bands,” the FCC explained in its daily outages report. “Stations listed may be operating on reduced power or on a reduced schedule.”

Courtesy TRDaily