Paging leader USA Mobility sees paging, which received several mentions in the Independent Panel on Hurricane Katrina, as poised for a breakthrough as an aid in emergency communications, as the FCC contemplates an EAS order later this year. USA Mobility sees emergency use as a possible growth engine for what has been a shrinking market. “Paging is excellent for emergency alerting,” USA Mobility Gen. Counsel Scott Tollefsen said in an interview. “It’s an excellent technology for backup communications because it is so inexpensive and so easy to use.”
An FCC order on Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) may be off the table for the summer after President Bush signed an executive order last week instructing the Dept. of Homeland Security to submit a plan for reorganizing EAS to the White House within 90 days. Meanwhile, telecom and satellite interests continue outreach at the FCC on EAS, based on ex parte filings made at the Commission in recent days.
The FCC wants satellite broadcasters to take a stab at drafting rules for the “reverse DBS band” -- spectrum at 17 GHz typically allocated for satellite uplinking but which now may be used for downlinking. Reverse use of the band, long eyed by industry and regulators, could open much spectrum for DBS use, we're told. The Commission Wed. adopted an NPRM seeking comment on licensing and service rules for U.S. satellite broadcasting service in the 17 and 24 GHz bands.
Comments reaching beyond discussions by its blue ribbon panel on Hurricane Katrina are being sought by the FCC. The window opened in a notice of proposed rulemaking asking follow up questions on a report by the Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks (CD June 20 Special Report). While easy to miss, the sentence involved 8th floor negotiations and could be significant, sources said Tues. The sentence reads:
Public TV digital programs will get carriage on Verizon’s FiOS network under an agreement announced Fri. The deal is the 2nd of its kind. Last Jan., the Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS) and NCTA made a voluntary carriage pact under which MSOs will carry up to 4 multicast channels of public TV stations. The Verizon deal resembles the NCTA agreement, said APTS Pres. John Lawson.
The House Appropriations Committee Tues. restored $20 million of $115 million in public broadcasting funding cut last week by the Labor-HSS Subcommittee. While restoring CPB 2007 funding levels to $400 million, it didn’t provide advance CPB appropriation for FY 2009, or FY 2007 funding for public TV and radio digital conversion. It also eliminated funding for Ready to Learn. CPB Pres. Pat Harrison said public broadcasters’ funding request marks “both a strong commitment to fiscal restraint and a firm understanding of the value and service that public broadcasting offers.” Public broadcasters understand the “difficult choices” House appropriators face, but they are “nonetheless committed to funding levels in our original request,” she said. “It’s a shame that a majority of the House Appropriations Committee has decided to put Congress through another fight over funding for public broadcasting,” said APTS Pres. John Lawson. Many members decry indecency on TV but voted to kill funding for noncommercial educational kids’ programming, he said: “They call for improving education and teacher quality, but zero out funding that uses technology to bring professional development to teachers.” The appropriators voted against funding public TV’s satellite interconnection system while colleagues introduced a bill that would make it the backbone of a new national emergency alert system, he said. They also cut funds for digital broadcasting when Congress mandated an end to analog broadcasting, he said: “This action seems to be [in] willful disregard [of] what public broadcasting means to America.”
Public broadcasters braced for a new Capitol Hill funding fight as the House Labor-Hill Appropriations Committee Wed. voted to cut $115 million in federal funds. “It’s familiar but distressing territory,” NPR Vp-Govt. Relations Mike Riksen said. The cuts would especially hurt public radio because stations are in the midst of transitioning to digital, he said. Last year it took a massive grass-roots campaign that included stations using on- air appeals to get the House to reverse more than $100 million in funding cuts.
The Assn. of Public TV Stations -- which recently completed digital emergency alert system (DEAS) trials with the Dept. of Homeland Security -- urged Congress to pass the Warn Act to ensure a “reliable” system that would avoid communications bottlenecks from last year’s natural disasters. The trials demonstrated that public TV stations could act as a wireless network capable of datacasting public alert and warnings, it said. APTS is planning a national rollout of DEAS soon. The Warn Act, which passed the Senate Commerce Committee, helps deal with communications problems exposed during Hurricane Katrina by establishing a national alert system that can provide national, regional or local alerts, APTS said. The measure recognizes public TV’s digital transmitters as the backbone for the reception, relay and retransmission of national alert system messages, said APTS Pres. John Lawson. The APTS-DHS pilots showed that digital broadcasting to media and telecom service providers “improves and enhances” the ability of federal, state and local govts. to provide critical emergency messages, he said.
The Govt. Emergency Telecom Service (GETS) has gained barely more than 100,000 takers since going operational in Sept. 2001, Program Dir. John Graves said. That number isn’t “very much” for a population of 300 million, he said, and for “a population of emergency communities of well over one million it’s not very many either.” The numbers haven’t gone up despite a “great deal of time and money” spent promoting the service to police and fire departments and others involved in critical infrastructure maintenance and protection, Graves told us. GETS and the integrated Wireless Priority Service (WPS) are generally open to federal, state and local govt., but broadcasters and others involved in national security and emergency preparedness are also eligible. PBS and other broadcasters have sought GETS status, according to officials.
A House committee passed a bill that would create the position of emergency communications chief, responsible for making public safety networks interoperable. The measure, passed unanimously by the House Homeland Security Committee Wed., would “elevate the importance of emergency communications” in the Homeland Security Dept. and require DHS, through the new Asst. Secy. for Emergency Communications, to set up a plan to achieve “redundant, sustainable and interoperable emergency communications systems.”