FCC

FCC Releases NOI to Explore Modifying 900 MHz Band Use

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The FCC today released a notice of inquiry that seeks comments on whether it should, among other things, take steps to facilitate use of the 900 megahertz band for broadband services. Specifically, it seeks comments on petitions for rulemaking filed jointly by pdvWireless, Inc., and the Enterprise Wireless Alliance and by M2M Spectrum Networks LLC.

“In this Notice of Inquiry (NOI), we begin a proceeding to examine whether any rule changes may be appropriate to increase access to spectrum, improve spectrum efficiency, and expand flexibility in the 896-901/935-940 MHz band (900 MHz band) for next generation technologies and services,” the FCC said in the item. “This band was designated in 1986 for narrowband private land mobile radio (PLMR) communications by Business/Industrial/Land Transportation (B/ILT) licensees and Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) providers, with systems in place today. Consistent with our recent efforts to promote flexibility, efficiency, and access in the use of other spectrum bands, we seek comment on the potential for modification to the operational rules and band configuration for the 900 MHz band, which has undergone few changes since 1986, in light of continuing evolutions in technology and the marketplace. In that context, we invite commenters to provide economic and technical data in order to better understand current and future uses and needs in the band.” Continue reading →

Pai Provides No Timeline on Ligado Action

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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today provided no timeline on when the agency might act in its Ligado Networks LLC proceeding. “We have no update to provide at this point. We are studying the issue,” he said in a response to a question at a news conference after today’s FCC meeting. Asked if the record in the proceeding is adequate to make a decision, he replied, “The interested parties are still filing in that proceeding, so we’re still taking input, I would say, from all stakeholders.”

Courtesy TRDaily

FCC Proposes $82.1M Robocall Spoofing Fine

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The FCC today proposed imposing a $82.106 million fine against Philip Roesel for allegedly placing more than 21 million robocalls that used spoofed caller ID information. FCC investigators confirmed 82,106 spoofed robocalls were placed between October 2016 and January of this year by Mr. Roesel’s Best Insurance in violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act.

The FCC launched the investigation following a complaint by medical paging service Sp?k to the commission that robocalls were disrupting its network, the FCC said in a statement.

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau then subpoenaed Mr. Roesel’s phone records and verified the health insurance company’s calls violated the law. “His apparently illegal robocalls were disruptive and dangerous” because they hindered the ability of staff using Sp?k’s service to communicate, Kimbarly Taylor, an attorney-adviser in the Telecommunications Consumers Division of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, said during the commission’s public meeting today.

“The evidence shows that Roesel intended the robocalls to cause harm and wrongfully obtain information of value,” Taylor said. “The evidence also shows that Roesel also apparently targeted vulnerable consumers and knew that the calls were illegal.” Continue reading →

FCC Adopts NOI to Explore Mid-Band Spectrum

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The FCC unanimously adopted a notice of inquiry today to explore mid-band spectrum between 3.7 gigahertz and 24 GHz for 5G services. The agency noted in a news release that it has already worked to make low-band spectrum below 3.7 GHz and high-band frequencies above 24 GHz available for wireless services.

“The NOI seeks comment on three specific mid-range bands (3.7-4.2 GHz, 5.925-6.425 GHz, and 6.425-7.125 GHz), and asks commenters to identify other non-federal mid-band frequencies that may be suitable for expanded flexible use,” the news release noted. The NOI suggests examining bands with exclusive non-federal allocations first, followed by bands with shared federal and non-federal allocations.

The release said that among the questions the item, which was adopted in GN docket 17-183, asks is (1) “[h]ow can the Commission best provide for flexible use of these bands to allow the introduction of additional fixed and mobile wireless services?” (2) “[h]ow can the Commission protect existing services against harmful interference?” (3) “[w]hat are the appropriate authorization mechanisms to maximize efficiency and promote flexible wireless use, including exclusive use, non-exclusive use, and unlicensed use?” (4) “[c]an service rules governing existing services be modified to make the bands more suitable for wireless use?” and (5) “[c]an existing rules be eliminated to reduce regulatory burdens and maximize efficient use?”

In particular, the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band, which is primarily used by fixed-satellite service operators, has been in the sights of the wireless industry in the U.S. and internationally. Continue reading →

Rosenworcel, Carr Confirmed to Fill Vacant FCC Seats

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The Senate today confirmed dozens of President Trump’s nominees for various executive branch and independent agency positions, including the nominations of FCC General Counsel Brendan Carr to fill the remainder of former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s term on the Commission, which expires June 30, 2018, and of former Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to the five-year term expiring June 30, 2020.

President Obama had nominated Commissioner Rosenworcel to the additional term, but the Senate never voted on the nomination.

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved President Trump’s nominations of Mr. Carr and Ms. Rosenworcel yesterday.  Over the objections of Democrats, the committee also approved on a party-line vote the president’s nomination of Mr. Carr to a second, full five-year term, beginning July 1, 2018.  Democrats argued that confirmation of the nomination of Mr. Carr to a second term should wait to be paired with the nomination of a Democrat to fill the seat currently occupied by Mignon L. Clyburn (TR Daily, Aug. 2)

Commissioner Clyburn’s term expired June 30 of this year, and the president has not renominated her or nominated a successor.  Under statute, if she is not renominated and confirmed, she may continue to serve until a successor is confirmed or until the 2018 congressional session concludes, whichever comes first.

The committee also yesterday approved the nomination of Chairman Pai to another term ending June 30, 2021.  As of TR Daily’s news deadline, the Senate had not acted on that nomination. Continue reading →

Pai: FCC Studying T-Band Transition

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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has told members of New York’s congressional delegation that the FCC is working on a framework for carrying out Congress’s dictate that public safety T-band spectrum be reallocated and auctioned by 2021 and incumbents be relocated by 2023.

“As you note, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 requires the Commission to reallocate T-Band spectrum, relocate public safety incumbents in the band, and work with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to use the proceeds of the T-Band auction to cover the relocation costs of public safety entities,” Mr. Pai said in a July 24 letter. “We are exploring how best to fulfill this statutory requirement while ensuring that first responders have the necessary resources to fulfill their important mission and maintain reliable communications throughout the transition. I can assure you that the Commission will do everything in its power to achieve this goal — and I look forward to working with you to make that happen.”

Mr. Pai was responding to a June 26 letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and 11 House members from the state that urged the FCC to include a provision in its rules on an auction of the T-band spectrum that requires “bidding to continue until the profits yield at least the $5.9 billion required to transfer public safety operations off of T-band, and there is a comparable network to which mission-critical systems can relocate. We also urge the Commission to consider a framework for how the funds will be distributed, especially for heavily populated states such as New York.”

The $5.9 billion relocation estimate came from a 2013 report released by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) (TR Daily, March 15, 2013). —Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily

FCC to Hold 911 Outages Workshop

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The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced that it plans to hold a Sept. 11 workshop that will focus on “best practices for improving situational awareness during 911 outages. Topics addressed in the workshop will include how to strengthen Public Safety Answering Point 911 service outage notifications and how to best communicate with consumers about alternative methods of accessing emergency services.” The event will be held in the Commission’s meeting room at its Washington headquarters.  The bureau plans to release additional details on the event later, including the time it will be held.

Courtesy TRDaily

 

From the FCC’s Daily Digest for July 27, 2017

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Released:  07/27/2017.  PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU ANNOUNCES WORKSHOP ON IMPROVING SITUATIONAL AWARENESS DURING 911 OUTAGES. (DA No.  17-719)  Public Notice Announcing September 11, 2017 Workshop on Best Practices and Recommendations for Improving Situational Awareness During 911 Outages.

On Monday, September 11th, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau will host a public workshop to discuss best practices for improving situational awareness during 911 outages.  Topics addressed in the workshop will include how to strengthen Public Safety Answering Point 911 service outage notifications and how to best communicate with consumers about alternative methods of accessing emergency services.  The workshop will be held in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC Headquarters, 445 12th Street, SW Washington, DC 20554.  Further details regarding the workshop participants, roundtable discussion topics, and times will be announced by a subsequent public notice.

Audio/video coverage of the meeting will be broadcast live with open captioning over the Internet from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live.  The FCC’s webcast is free to the public.

Contact:  James Wiley at (202) 418-1678, email: James.Wiley@fcc.gov https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-719A1.docx
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-719A1.pdf

FCC Plans to Move Quickly on FirstNet Interoperability Matrix

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The FCC plans to act quickly to decide the merits of an interoperability compliance matrix submitted by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), Roberto Mussenden, an attorney-adviser in the Policy and Licensing Division of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, told the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council today during a meeting held via teleconference. “We’re planning to move expeditiously on it,” said Mr. Mussenden, noting that comments were recently submitted on the matrix (TR Daily, July 18).

An order adopted last month setting procedures for Commission review of alternative state FirstNet plans instructed the Public Safety Bureau to seek comments on the matrix in an expedited fashion (TR Daily, June 22 and 23).

Also during today’s NPSTC meeting, FirstNet board member Kevin McGinnis said that the authority planned to soon release a tribal consultation plan. He noted that a report released last week by the Government Accountability Office said FirstNet should improve its tribal consultation process and assess the staffing needs of its Network Program Office before it takes over sole responsibility for managing its 25-year contract with AT&T, Inc., its network partner (TR Daily, July 20). Mr. McGinnis, who has been the board’s tribal liaison, noted that FirstNet has faced challenges consulting with tribes because the law that created FirstNet required consultation to take place through FirstNet state points of contact (SPOCs).

Mr. McGinnis said the relationship between FirstNet and AT&T is good, although he noted that there has been some confusion in the public safety community over AT&T’s “product offerings” for its current network compared to its products and services for FirstNet. “That gets quickly addressed,” he said.

Tom Sorley, chair of FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), said the PSAC is having discussions with AT&T on the PSAC’s previous reports and other work products “about what we meant by them when we created them.”

At today’s meeting, the NPSTC board also approved a radio interoperability best practice on channel assignments and assigned a new work item on a naming sequence for LTE talk groups to its common naming channel working group.

Also, Dereck Orr, chief of the Public Safety Communications Research Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said the PSCR is ready to start planning for a multi-year location-based services grant challenge program.

The next meeting of the NPSTC is scheduled for Sept. 6 in Washington. —Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, July 27, 2017

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FirstNet Coverage During the quest to obtain enough nationwide broadband spectrum for public safety, the Public Safety Alliance (PSA) and its member organizations worked industriously to convince members of the U.S. Congress and their staffs, the FCC, and the Executive Branch of the federal government that public safety needed more broadband spectrum than had been assigned to them (10 MHz, 5X5 MHz). The result of this multi-year effort was that Congress listened and in the legislation that created FirstNet, public safety was assigned 20 MHz (10X10 MHz) of spectrum (referred to as Band 14). This spectrum is in the 700-MHz band adjacent to the Public Safety Land Mobile Radio spectrum on one side and Verizon’s 700-MHz spectrum on the other side. It is ideal for longer range and better in-building penetration.

It was always assumed by the public safety community that the winning bidder of the FirstNet RFP would, of course, build out the FirstNet spectrum nationwide. Even with a full 20 MHz of spectrum to which public safety has pre-emptive access, there were still some concerns from a number of us that during an incident contained in a small area served by only one or two cell sectors, there would still be times when the network reached its maximum capacity. When AT&T won the contract and became the partner for FirstNet, it did not specify its build-out plans publicly. However, at the recent Senate Sub-committee, AT&T’s plans for the build-out were presented to those on the committee and picked up by the press. AT&T’s decision is to build out FirstNet spectrum where it is needed for capacity but nowhere else (See Urgent Communications ). Read the entire blog HERE The Discovery Patterns News Recap for the week is below: Continue reading →