The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council approved a recommendation Thursday that new rules aimed at protecting the national security of networks be narrowly tailored to prevent disruptions. Commissioners approved an NPRM in April that would bar use of money in any USF program to buy equipment or services from companies that “pose a national security threat” to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain (see 1804170038). Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday those security concerns remain a commission focus (see 1812120043).
With all state resources dedicated to wildfire recovery, the California Office of Emergency Services is canceling a wireless emergency alert test for earthquake early warnings, Cal OES told the FCC, posted Thursday in docket 15-91. Cal OES withdrew its waiver request to let mobile carriers participate in the WEA test: It's "important that any test have adequate public outreach in advance, which is not feasible due to the essential functions public information officers and other members of the Cal OES provide during large scale recovery efforts.” The agency plans a December call “to assess future test options.” California's test had been scheduled for Dec. 11 (see 1811130062). The Virginia Department of Emergency Management sought a waiver, posted Friday, for WEA tests in Williamsburg, Newport News and several counties. The tests would occur Dec. 12 at 11:10 a.m. for Surry Nuclear Power Station and Feb. 20 at the same time for North Anna Nuclear Power Station. They would occur at the same time as regularly scheduled sirens and emergency alert system tests, saying: "THIS IS A TEST OF THE VIRGINIA EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM. NO ACTION IS REQUIRED."
Montgomery County, Texas, is seeking a waiver from the FCC Public Safety Bureau to allow it to test the wireless emergency alert system, said a letter posted Thursday in docket 15-91. The county Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management wants to do three tests in December to gauge the system as a whole and to test geolocation: “During Hurricane Harvey we noted a potential loss of messages, where some of our constituents informed us that they may not have received our alerts.”
Three West Coast House Democrats, including House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff, Calif., seek additional signatures on a coming letter to President Donald Trump's administration urging officials to include “robust” funding in its FY 2020 budget for the U.S. Geological Survey for development of the ShakeAlert Pacific earthquake early warning system. The system, set for full implementation by 2020, aims to communicate advance warnings of earthquakes to residents in California, Oregon and Washington via messages on mobile devices and computers. California's Office of Emergency Services wants an FCC waiver to test ShakeAlert using the wireless emergency alert system (see 1811130062). Congress has appropriated funding for ShakeAlert in every federal cycle since FY 2015, which helped the U.S. make “steady progress toward having an operational system,” said Schiff and Reps. Peter DeFazio, Ore., and Derek Kilmer, Wash., in a draft letter to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. “Congress has been steadfast in its support for the system, and we need the Administration to demonstrate its support for the system level.” ShakeAlert's efficacy “largely depends on modern cyber infrastructure, and the number and placement of ground motion sensors to ensure there is adequate coverage wherever an earthquake may hit -- and this requires additional resources,” the lawmakers said. “Congress recognizes the value of this system and continues to demonstrate its commitment by providing additional resources.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau seeks comment on communications service outages caused by Hurricane Michael and the FCC’s response, said a public notice Friday. With 36 questions on several areas of focus, comments are due Dec. 17. The PN seeks comment on how service providers, 911 call centers and broadcasters prepared for and responded to the hurricane, and how FCC actions affected matters. The PN specifies areas of Florida that were slower to have their service restored, an issue previously highlighted by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1810160056). “While the restoration of communications services in most areas affected by Michael proceeded at a normal speed, the recovery was much slower in Bay County and Gulf County,” the PN said. “One week after Michael made landfall, more than one-third of cell sites in those two counties were still out of service.” The PN asks if service providers implemented best practices, and for details about fiber cuts, and the wireless resiliency cooperative framework. The PN seeks comment on how the storm affected public safety answering points, and whether wireless and broadcast emergency alerts were effective. It asks about the agency’s use of the disaster information reporting system during the storm: “What DIRS information proved most useful to first responders? Are there extraneous or unnecessary data points contained in DIRS that detract from its overall usefulness?” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel previously sought hearings on the FCC’s hurricane response, and said in a statement that the PN is a good start, though not enough by itself. “Seeking comment is a correct first step,” Rosenworcel said. “We also need for the FCC to make a commitment to do a timely report. It took a year for this agency to issue a report on the 2017 hurricane season. That’s unacceptable,” she said. “We have to do better.” The FCC didn’t comment on that.
Communications resiliency, infrastructure, cybersecurity and the 2017 hurricane season are areas of concern in emergency preparedness, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported. “Challenges remain” in addressing infrastructure resilience, the report said, saying the failure of communications systems in Puerto Rico caused “limited situational awareness” after Maria and Irma. “Interdependencies between energy and other infrastructure systems present challenges in response and recovery; efforts to mitigate disruptions and to help communities learn from and plan for these challenges are growing.” Though the agency describes efforts to address those issues by the Department of Energy, Small Business Administration and FBI, it appears to contain no references to the FCC. It also doesn’t mention FCC-related actions on emergency preparedness such as the investigation into the false missile alert in Hawaii, efforts to restore communications in Puerto Rico or the nationwide emergency alert tests. FEMA focused on cybersecurity and IoT as areas of concern. “Insufficient information sharing between the public and private sectors has hindered the Nation’s effectiveness in defending against cyber threats,” the agency said.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services sought FCC waiver to test the wireless emergency alert system to transmit early earthquake warnings, scheduled for Dec. 11. The application was posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. “There is up to a 99 percent probability that a magnitude 6.7 or higher earthquake will occur within the state anytime within the next 30 years,” the state said. “Without this waiver, critical live testing cannot be conducted to evaluate the current capability and future feasibility of end-to-end earthquake early warning transmissions over WEA.” The state said the test's text will read: "TEST of the ShakeAlert CA Earthquake Warning System. No action required. THIS IS A TEST."
Comments are due Nov. 27, replies Dec. 7, on SiriusXM seeking clarification of emergency alert system rules or, alternately, waiver to transmit EAS header code tones in a compressed audio format over the four channels on the legacy XM platform that use audio compression, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 15-94. The requests responded to the FCC seeking comment on a 2005 then-XM Radio still-pending petition (see 0601040124).
ATIS said much work remains on more accurate geo-targeting of wireless emergency alerts by carriers. Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee members spoke with Lisa Fowlkes, FCC Public Safety Bureau chief, and an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. “The industry is advancing several standards required to implement new WEA capabilities,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. “One of the challenges … is the need to define the behavior of devices as they move from outside the polygon to inside the polygon during the WEA broadcast,” ATIS said. “This is a complex issue and a significant number of proposals have been contributed, each of which has different potential impacts to standards, networks, and devices, and require more time to develop a consensus with the alert originator community.”
Most commenters welcome moves to open the 3.4-4.2 GHz C-band for 5G, as some question the FCC’s proposed market-based approach to making licenses available. Questions remain how to create a smooth glide path there for satellite operators. Tuesday, some said the FCC appears to want to move quickly on the band, but final rules are unlikely until late 2019.