The FCC’s Communications Reliability, Security, and Interoperability Council held its first meeting under its new two-year charter today and members were briefed on the tasks that the panel’s three working groups will tackle. Working group 1 will focus on the transition to next-generation 911 (NG-911), working group 2 will explore a comprehensive evaluation of emergency alerting, and working group 3 will tackle network reliability and security risk reduction.

The chairs of the three working groups are Mary Boyd, vice president-regulatory, policy, and government affairs for West Safety Services (WG1); Farrokh Khatibi, director-engineering for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (WG2); and Travis Russell, director-telecommunications cybersecurity for Oracle Communications (WG3). The chair of the CSRIC is Brian King, senior vice president-national technology service delivery and operations for T-Mobile US, Inc.

The FCC has asked WG1 to “review existing best practices and develop additional guidance regarding overall monitoring, reliability, notifications, and accountability in preventing 911 outages in transitional NG911 environments.” It also wants the working group to “study and develop recommendations for the CSRIC’s consideration on small carrier best practices for managing the transition to NG911.” WG1 is scheduled to deliver a report on the first task in March 2018 and on the second in June 2018. Continue reading →

The FCC unanimously adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking today proposing to amend its Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules to add the event code “BLU” for Blue Alerts. The new alert would enable the dissemination of information when law enforcement officers have been killed or seriously injured, are in imminent danger, or are missing. A fact sheet on the item, which was adopted in PS docket 15-94, noted that it would (1) “[s]eek comment on whether the EAS is an effective means of delivering Blue Alerts”; (2) “[s]eek comment on whether a dedicated Blue Alert EAS event code would facilitate the implementation of Blue Alerts in a compatible and uniform manner nationwide”; (3) “[s]eek comment on whether existing EAS event codes are sufficient to convey Blue Alert information”; (4) “[s]eek comment on whether, and if so how, adopting a Blue Alert EAS event code would impact Wireless Emergency Alerts”; and (5) “[s]eek comment on whether a dedicated Blue Alert EAS event code would increase public recognition of Blue Alerts.”

The text of the NPRM was released late this afternoon. Comments are due 30 days after “Federal Register” publication and replies are due 30 days after that. Last month, the Justice Department announced the launch of the National Blue Alert Network, which implements legislation signed into law in 2015 (TR Daily, May 19). Twenty-seven states currently have their own Blue Alert plans. Continue reading →

The FCC today unanimously proposed changes to its caller ID rules to enable called parties and law enforcement to obtain blocked caller ID information for calls that involve threats “of a serious and imminent nature.” The Common Carrier docket 91-281 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) would leave in place an emergency, temporary waiver granted earlier this year by the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to Jewish community centers (JCCs) and carriers that serve them from the Commission’s prohibition on terminating carriers’ 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 (TR Daily, March 3).

The NPRM says that the waivers will remain in place “until the Commission determines whether to amend its rules. … The record provides good cause to maintain that waiver because of the large number of recent threatening calls targeting these facilities, as well as the substantial disruption and fear caused as a result.” Comments on the NPRM will be due 30 days after publication in the “Federal Register.”  Reply comments will be due 30 days after initial comments. Continue reading →

CTIA has asked the FCC to launch a rulemaking “to make common sense changes to the Priority Access License (‘PAL’) framework in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (‘CBRS’) established in the 3550-3700 MHz (‘3.5 GHz’) band,” which the group said would encourage investment in the band.

Specifically, CTIA said in its petition dated June 16 the FCC should “[c]hange the PAL term from three years to a standard, ten-year license term with an expectation of renewal to promote investment in the band; [m]odify PAL areas to consist of Partial Economic Areas (‘PEAs’) instead of census tracts to simplify the licensing scheme and reduce interference risks; and [m]odify the requirements for Spectrum Access System (SAS) Administrators’ treatment of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (‘CBSD’) registration information in order to reduce security risks to user identify information and to protect sensitive deployment information from disclosure to competitors.”

CTIA noted that then-Commissioner Ajit Pai, now Chairman of the agency, had expressed concern when the PAL framework was adopted that the three-tier spectrum access framework would not be investment- and deployment-friendly. “The targeted changes CTIA seeks are designed specifically to improve the incentives for investment in the PAL framework,” it said. Continue reading →

A coalition of advocates for inmates has asked the FCC to deny the joint application of Securus Investment Holdings LLC and SCRS Acquisition Corp. for approval of the sale of prison payphone provider Securus Technologies from ABRY Partners to Platinum Equity, citing the failure of ABRY and Securus to abide by previous commitments not to change inmate calling rates. In their petition to deny filed in Wireline Competition docket 17-126, the inmate advocates called the proposed transaction “a microcosm for everything that is wrong with the prison-industrial complex and the growing trend of local, state and federal governments privatizing services they once provided, without any consideration of the impact on their citizens.”

They added, “In order to obtain monopoly control to provide inmate calling services at a correctional facility, private companies like Securus voluntarily agree to split the revenue they earn with the government agency. This revenue-sharing scheme has led to Securus and other companies voluntarily agreeing to remit to the correctional authority up to 98% of the revenue earned in order to be selected as the sole source of telephone, video visitation, email, education and commissary services for inmates and their families at that correctional institution.” Continue reading →

A group of inmate family members and others who communicate with inmates has asked the FCC to reconsider its recent contraband cellphone order that they say failed to consider the entire record in the proceeding and to acknowledge opposing legal or policy arguments. In its petition for reconsideration filed today in General docket 13-111, the group, known as the Wright Petitioners after the now deceased lead-petitioner on a request filed nearly 15 years ago for relief from excessive inmate calling charges, said that “the Report and Order included a cost-benefit analysis that stated the record in the proceeding did not contain any ‘detailed or concrete cost estimates.’ However, the Wright Petitioners had, in fact, supplied ‘detailed’ and ‘concrete cost data,’ and even took the additional step of reminding the Commission that this information existed, and was available for its review, when it met with Commission staff after the draft Report and Order was released.”

The FCC contraband cellphone order adopted earlier this year was aimed at assisting correctional facilities in deploying equipment that targets contraband wireless devices increasingly used by inmates for criminal activities, including operating drug operations and ordering the murders of people outside of prisons and jails (TR Daily, March 23). The order will make it easier for such facilities to obtain FCC authorization to operate contraband interdiction systems (CIS) and will require wireless carriers to cooperate with CIS operators and correctional facilities “in a timely manner.” Continue reading →