Congress can help new automatic auto crash notification (ACN) technology increase vehicle safety by encouraging research grants and by keeping effort free of regulation, ComCARE Alliance said Thurs. While Capitol Hill understands value of telematics -- application of voice and wireless technology to in-vehicle services -- “there is no government initiative to install telematics in automobiles,” ATX Technologies Pres. Steven Millstein said at media breakfast that started all-day “technology demonstration” in Rayburn Bldg. “Despite the lack of a mandate from Congress, safety is on the minds of the automakers, which are voluntarily rolling out automatic crash notification technology,” he said. Congress needs to understand importance of ACN and “allow it to flourish without any intervention,” he said. ComCARE is coalition of medical, 911, law enforcement and public safety groups; wireless carriers; automotive companies; telematics suppliers. Group said it seeks $5-10 million in federal grants to support R&D efforts for ACN technologies and protocols.
Mandating changes in Emergency Alert System (EAS) in midst of cable’s EAS rollout “may cause disruption, increase costs and result in less participation,” NCTA said in comments on EAS rulemaking (EB 01-66). NCTA said some changes proposed by Society of Bcst. Engineers (SBE) and National Weather Service might be good, but others were “redundant or bothersome.” If FCC decides to adopt changes, it said, they should apply only to new equipment, with retrofit on existing equipment optional. SBE, in its comments, defended its proposal to lengthen monthly test window, require maximum modulation of EAS codes, make mandatory retransmission of alerts by NOAA and state and local govts. Washington State Assn. of Bcstrs. said it supported efforts to improve EAS, but FCC shouldn’t support proposals that “may have the undesired effect of reducing EAS participation.”
Bush White House in recent months has focused on how to curb cybersecurity threats, issue that also had high priority in Clinton Administration but that has been shaped by keen interest of this White House in national security issues, sources said. Concerns are expected to be part of what is addressed this week in meeting of National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC), which includes CEOs of 30 telecom, network service provider companies and other high-tech companies. Closed -door NSTAC meeting that started Tues. night marks first time group, which meets about every 9 months, has convened under Bush Administration. National Communications System (NCS) has seen that agency’s mission “is growing,” with much of change centering on underlying communications backbones, said Brent Greene, NCS deputy dir., at TechNet 2001 International show this week. “We do a lot of information sharing,” he said. “We are beginning to accelerate how much information we're putting out into the private sector, to help them be aware of cyber challenges that we see that could potentially impact the telecommunications backbone or that could potentially impact financial processes within the vendor and finance community.”
FCC released latest edition of its Emergency Alert System handbook, it said. It said latest version included only minor changes from 1998 version.
IBlast said it would begin testing local emergency alert system in April for its broadcast datacasting system. IBlast is testing its overall service in 5 cities and will add emergency alert in several, it said. Service will deliver alert messages directly to PCs accessing service.