FCC ordered WWFE(AM) Miami to pay $21,000 fine for violations of rules involving Emergency Alert System, tower lights, enclosing antenna tower. Station didn’t respond to notice of apparent liability.

FCC Chmn. Powell told Senate Commerce Committee that it needed to expand scope of Sec. 214 of Communications Act for Commission to ensure continuity of variety of telecom services. Powell made comments in committee hearing Tues. on financial turmoil in telecom industry that also featured high-level officers of Global Crossing, Qwest and WorldCom. Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) agreed Congress should broaden scope of Act’s section that gave FCC power to prevent communications networks from cutting service as result of bankruptcy and said he would try to make legislative changes before Congress’s adjournment scheduled for first week of Oct. Hollings asked Powell to send recommendations to Committee. Powell wouldn’t elaborate on how broad Sec. 214 scope should be, although he did mention cable companies and Internet service providers. He said there often was conflict between bankruptcy law and Commission’s powers under Sec. 214. Although he said he could envision scenario where scope of Sec. 214 could hamper FCC efforts to prevent loss of service, there were no current bankruptcies where agency didn’t have power to act.

Members of Emergency Services Interconnection Forum (ESIF) on Fri. touted technical solution designed to stem increasing problem of crank or harassing 911 calls fielded by public safety answering points (PSAPs) from 911-only phones. FCC in April issued order requiring wireless carriers to use new code to alert PSAPs when 911 calls was made from handset that lacked callback capability, known as nonservice initialized phone. Typically, carriers assign dialable number to handset after customer signs service contract. Noninitialized phones, including 911-only units donated to domestic abuse programs, lack that number for PSAPs to call back for more information when 911 is dialed. Order requires carriers to program noninitialized phones with 123-456-7890 as “phone number” that will be used to notify PSAP that emergency call is coming from phone without callback capability. ESIF has been working on what it believes to be better solution than 123-456-7890 system set out by FCC, said Robert Gojanovich, manager of 911 service for Verizon and leader of ESIF study group on issue. Main strength of ESIF solution is ability to uniquely identify handset making call and help to pinpoint repeat callers, for isolating cases of harassment and highlighting legitimate calls that come in more than once, Gojanovich said in Fri. conference call sponsored by Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions. In areas where Enhanced 911 Phase 1 or 2 isn’t yet in place, 911 calls can be made anonymously, particularly on phones that don’t have callback capability, Gojanovich said. National Emergency Number Assn. and Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials have been tracking problem, he said. “We are hearing more and more stories where hundreds of calls are placed from a person or handset into a 911 center,” he said. For TDMA and CDMA networks, solution on which public safety and industry have been working would transmit “911” in place of area code and last 7 digits of electronic serial number (ESN) of handset to PSAP, Gojanovich said. Equivalent to ESN also could be used for GSM networks, he said. Among benefits of that system is that information on handsets making bogus 911 calls could be used to prosecute offenders, he said. Wireless carrier network will capture that number, for example, and it can be printed out at PSAP as it’s received, he said. Once Phase 2 of E911 is more widely in place to provide location information on wireless callers, that information could be used to locate caller.

FCC granted series of waivers to small cable operators on installation of Emergency Alert Systems (EAS). Commission rules require cable systems with fewer than 5,000 subscribers per headend to either provide national level EAS messages on all program channels or install EAS equipment and provide video interrupt and audio alert on all program channels and EAS audio and video messages on at least one program channel by Oct. 1. In 1992, Commission amended rules to provide financial relief for small systems, giving them waivers on case-by-case basis. Centre TV of Wheeling, W.Va., received temporary 1-year waiver; company, which has 1,478 subscribers, had asked for 3 years. Bayou Cable of Ark. and La. asked for and received 2-year waiver for its system in Sterlington, La. (603 subscribers), 3 years for systems in Huttig (284 subscribers), Strong (319), Ark., Marion (255) and Rocky Branch (201), La. Branch Cable of Miss. received 1-year reprieve for 2 systems and 3-year waivers for 7 systems. Company said systems had 89-869 subscribers. KRM Cablevision of Wis. received 1-year waivers for 5 systems and 2-year waiver for 5 systems that have 62-307 subscribers. Mattawamkeag Cablevision was granted 2-year waiver for system with 300 subscribers. Milestone Communications, with systems in W.Va., Pa. and N.Y., got 3-year waivers for each of its 17 systems, which serve 19-800 subscribers.

General Accounting Office (GAO) report that will help guide Sen. Burns (R-Mont.) in developing spectrum management reform legislation is expected next week, his spokesman told us. At Comcare Conference in Washington, Burns said he was looking toward end of year for introduction of bill. He acknowledged there wouldn’t be time to move bill through Congress this session, but said he wanted to get debate started. He said he was working with Sens. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Inouye (D-Hawaii) to develop effective bipartisan bill addressing many aspects of spectrum management. “We think it should be comprehensive,” Burns said. He requested GAO report on U.S. spectrum management system nearly a year ago and it’s expected to examine system comprehensively, spokesman told us. Spokesman for Hollings told us Senate Commerce Committee chmn. believed FCC’s policy on spectrum had “flipped the law,” allowing companies to act as if they owned spectrum, instead of renting it. Spokesman cited NextWave case, saying company was allowed to treat spectrum allocations as though they were company property instead of property that it rented from govt. “If a company fails to make a payment, the license should go back to the government,” Hollings spokesman said. If NextWave case creates precedent on spectrum policy, FCC wold become “moot” in regard to spectrum, spokesman said.

Some of country’s most prominent media executives, including Disney’s Michael Eisner, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp., and EchoStar CEO Charles Ergen, pledged Fri. to work with federal govt. to ensure that citizens will be able to get vital information during any future national crisis. First meeting of Medial Security & Reliability Council (MSRC) was prompted by Sept. 11, which knocked out several TV antenna towers atop World Trade Center, cutting off local TV broadcasts to hundreds of thousands of people in N.Y.C. metropolitan area who rely on over-the-air transmissions, rather than cable or satellite. MSRC, which was based on same idea as Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) for phone service providers, was created to study and report to FCC on security, robustness and reliability of broadcast TV and multichannel video systems. Separately, FCC created Homeland Security Policy Council, which may be beneficiary of knowledge gained by MSRC. At meeting, Richard Sheirer, who was dir. of emergency management for N.Y.C. on 9/11, and Thomas Van Essen, former fire commissioner for N.Y.C., outlined difficulties they experienced in communicating with public and other public safety agencies at time.

FCC ordered $22,000 fine against KTRY(FM) Bastrop, La., for failing to install Emergency Alert System equipment, failure to maintain public file, failure to respond to Commission correspondence. Decision confirms fine proposed by Enforcement Bureau in Nov.

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is seeking sources of high-speed communications hotline technology, which must provide incident notification simultaneously to hundreds of govt. personnel via landline, wireless and Web-based networks. For security reasons, alert system can’t have radiofrequency transmitters, but must allow for system access and activation through cellular and satellite phones “that terminate at telephone land lines and from the Internet via secure server.” DIA needs programmable system that at minimum can send messages to work, home and wireless phones and pagers of 600 personnel, with continuous transmissions until intended recipients acknowledge they have received emergency data. Potential sources must send information by April 5 -- 202-231-8458.

CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler said that as carriers voluntarily provided priority access service (PAS) capacity to emergency service and national security personnel, federal govt. had to “get on with the allocation of additional spectrum” for that and other users. At New America Foundation lunch on spectrum policy Fri., he said federal govt. asked carriers after Sept. 11 to set aside “a minority of their spectrum in case of emergency” to provide access to prioritized national security and emergency workers. Trade-off for consumers, he said, is that as one of 5 priority classes of govt. users is occupying given channel, “then somebody else isn’t.”

FCC approved series of new Emergency Alert System (EAS) codes, including Child Abduction Emergency code. New rules permit, but don’t require, use of new codes, although EAS equipment installed after Feb. 1, 2004, must be able to receive and transmit new codes. Order also increases time period within which monthly EAS tests must be transmitted to 60 min. from 15 min., and authorizes cable systems with fewer than 5,000 subscribers to install EAS system with only decoder, rather than both decoder and encoder. Commission also exempted low-power FM stations from EAS requirement until one year after agency certified LPFM decoder and exempted from EAS equipment installation rules repeater stations that rebroadcast 100% of hub station’s programming.