A week after Hurricane Katrina, tales of satellites’ role are mounting. It won’t be long before regulators and Congress are further assessing the sector’s place in emergency communications, industry officials said. One thing is clear: the satellite industry never has been so busy in the Gulf of Mexico. Satellite phones and fly-away VSAT earth stations are playing a greater role than usual in relief work because of Katrina’s wide path and subsequent floods, officials said. Demand for satellite capacity is high enough that Defense Dept. officials said this week they're making military satellite bandwidth available for civilian communication purposes in Miss.
NATOA said FCC rules must continue to enshrine local interests, as the commission seeks comment on whether to change 1993-1995 regulations. In a joint filing with the Mt. Hood (Ore.) Cable Regulatory Commission, NATOA said emergency alert systems and public access channels must be protected “in any revision of the Commission’s carriage rules.” The FCC, in its rules, shouldn’t change regulations on cable home wiring, a consortium of real estate groups said in a filing with the Commission. Retaining the rules won’t hurt small businesses, said the Building Owners & Managers Assn., the International Council of Shopping Centers, the National Assn. of Realtors and other organizations.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau delayed imposition of a rule requiring VoIP providers to disconnect subscribers who haven’t responded to alerts about 911 service limitations. The bureau said Fri. it would extend the Aug. 30 cutoff date 30 days, until Sept. 28. But VoIP providers must file 2 more reports on their progress educating customers and gaining their acknowledgments. Reports filed in early Aug. indicated some providers have replies from 90% or more of customers. Vonage claimed a 96% response rate. But tens of thousands of phones still could have been cut off next week without the extension.
Regulators are reviewing satellites’ relation to the Emergency Alert System and E-911 requirements. At the FCC, the International Bureau Satellite Division and the Enforcement Bureau Office of Homeland Security recently met with DBS and satellite radio firms to discuss the feasibility of satellite participating in the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Separately, the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) is reviewing long term issues for E-911 services, including whether E-911 requirements can be extended to satellite telephony. Both reviews are addressing satellite system design’s uniqueness relative to the terrestrial infrastructure, and difficulties involved in extending emergency requirements to the skies.
Public TV’s programming distribution system is set to get a $120 million facelift as its 350-plus stations shift to digital transmission. A new pact between PBS and the Corp. for Public Bcstg. will free $50 million Congress appropriated for public TV’s “Next Generation Interconnection System” (NGIS) to replace and upgrade the PBS programming delivery infrastructure.
The Homeland Security Dept. (DHS) has extended the Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS)-led digital emergency alert system (DEAS) pilot by 6 months after the “resounding success” of the first phase, APTS Pres. John Lawson said. DHS and APTS signed an agreement for a DEAS pilot in the D.C. area to show how public TV’s digital infrastructure could be used to send EAS messages to the public and TVs, radios, personal computers, phones and wireless networks (CD Sept 29/2004 p7).
XM’s acquisition of WCS Wireless last week for $200 million in a stock transaction added new bandwidth to old arguments between satellite radio and the NAB. The 2 sides have long been at odds over how much satellite can localize its service. The latest round of debate is over what XM should be able to do with its new WCS spectrum.
Lingo, a travel product maker, has developed a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather alert and emergency radio that automatically activates for emergency broadcast even when turned off. The AM/FM digital radio scans all 7 NOAA weather radio channels while monitoring the Emergency Alert System, the company said.
Congress should earmark $16-20 million to finish developing and testing uniform communication standards and a national directory of emergency contacts, said the National Emergency & Alerting Response Systems (NEARS). All emergency organizations could use those contacts to share data over the Internet and wireless, landline and broadcast networks, said NEARS, a private partnership of emergency service and telecom and IT organizations. To date, the technology has been developed by nonprofit industry groups.
Several public safety entities have launched an initiative to improve information sharing and interoperability among public safety agencies. The National Emergency Alerting & Response Systems (NEARS) initiative needs $18 million in funding to create standards, technology and a directory giving large and small agencies information about emergencies. Partners of the NEARS program include the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA), the Fraternal Order of Police, the Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and the ComCare Alliance, which advocates for communications technology for health and safety agencies. Officials at the launch said they would try to find federal funding for NEARS, probably cobbling together a funding package from different agencies or varying grant programs within an agency. The program’s centerpiece is ComCare’s Emergency Provider Access Directory (EPAD), which will be a comprehensive contact list for safety agencies. Officials ran a demonstration of EPAD on Tues. that included 24 states and several federal agencies. Officials said the NEARS system should help resolves some conflicts among safety agencies that have hobbled efforts at increased interoperability. “The project is not intended to resolve all local turf battles,” said Barry Luke, Orange County (Fla.) deputy chief-fire communication. “Those walls are eroding slowly, partly because of the need for information sharing.” Luke said 5% of agencies always will be reluctant to share information. Officials said the technology developed to support NEARS can be built atop legacy systems. Officials said once funding is in hand the system would take 12 months to become operational.