Under a “speakeasy” theme, Pepcom’s Digital Experience news-media event last week in New York featured IoT technologies from a range of companies. Among those was EchoStar's Hughes, showing its first connected home product. The Sage by Hughes security and smart home system, launched at CES 2015, hit stores in early March. Sage is in a “slow rollout,” a company spokeswoman told us. It was designed to be do it yourself and is available from www.sagebyhughes.com, she said. The hub communicates with ZigBee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices to give the product a “long road map,” said the spokeswoman. It has a 911 feature that directly links customers upon alert to their home's emergency call center regardless of the homeowner's location. Other companies at Thursday's event were Savant and Uber.
The FCC must address the needs of 6 million disabled Americans who don’t have broadband, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the FCC Disability Advisory Committee Thursday. Separately, the DAC approved recommendations on emergency alerts to wireless devices, after what a DAC member said was a vigorous debate.
The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will meet at 1 p.m. June 22 in the Commission Meeting Room at commission HQ, the agency said in a notice Monday. It said the CSRIC is to vote on reports on the emergency alert system, submarine cable resiliency, network timing, cybersecurity information sharing and the priority services framework.
The winners of the FCC chairman's fifth annual Awards for Advancement in Accessibility were announced Monday by Tom Wheeler. The awards honor innovations in communications technology that benefit persons with disabilities, said a commission release. “We can use today’s technologies to address so many of the communications barriers facing Americans with disabilities,” said Wheeler. “These innovative efforts help us move forward as a nation toward more accessible technologies.” The release said the six honorees were: SOS QR, an emergency record and alert notification app for people with cognitive disabilities; UnusTactus, an app for people with cognitive disabilities meant to simplify smartphone access; a Texas A&M wearable sign-language recognition system prototype; a Disney Movies Anywhere app for iOS devices that includes a sync function allowing users to access audio descriptions for a movie in progress; a Sesame Enable project that provides smartphones with modified Android OS installations for users who can't control smartphones with their hands; and an eSight Eyewear headset with a videocam to help people with low vision. The six winners and three recipients of honorable mention citations were being recognized Monday at a ceremony at the M-Enabling Summit in Arlington, Virginia.
An FCC-proposed rule change to lower skywave protections for Class A AM stations could limit the reach of presidential emergency alerts, the Federal Emergency Management Agency Integrated Public Alert Warning System Program Management Office commented in a filing posted Thursday in docket 15-91. Presidential messages are intended for use during massive, nationwide disasters. The proposal to lower skywave protections is part of the FCC's AM revitalization rulemaking. It would create “extended areas where stations with which FEMA does not have direct communications pathways may cause interference” to currently protected radio broadcasts, that agency said. The protected stations are usually larger, and the FCC proposal is seen as making it easier for smaller AM stations to sustain their business model. The smaller stations “most likely depend on a relay of the Presidential message” from other stations, FEMA IPAWS PMO said. The FCC proposal would lower the number of stations that receive presidential alerts directly from FEMA, the filing said. “Due to this newly proposed interference, the reach of a Presidential message at a critical time would be diminished. FEMA urges the FCC not to authorize reduced protection to Class A AM skywave service.” The comments came in an emergency alert system proceeding where industry urged the FCC to go slow with EAS changes (see 1606090070).
FCC attempts to improve the emergency alert system shouldn't lead to additional burdens for EAS participants, said pay-TV carriers and broadcasters in comments posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 15-94. The American Cable Association, AT&T, NCTA and several state broadcasting associations asked the FCC not to impose increased reporting and certification rules on EAS participants. Other comments focused on wireless alerts, and America's Public Television Stations advocated increased datacasting capabilities. NAB said it's open to improving the EAS system but the FCC should take a hands-off approach to requirements. The “wiser course” is to allow broadcasters to police their own compliance, NAB said.
The FCC plans at its June 24 meeting to consider an NPRM aimed at streamlining and increasing the transparency of executive branch reviews involving commission license/permit applicants with foreign ownership interests. The FCC also plans to vote at the meeting on an order to require undersea cable operator licensees to report communications network outages, said a tentative agenda issued Friday. Also on tap is an order on hurricane alerts.
Google Fiber supports FCC efforts to make state emergency alert system plans more electronically accessible, company executives said in a phone meeting Tuesday with Public Safety Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-91. "Greater accessibility and uniformity of State EAS Plan information would ease participation by new entrants."
Seismic Warning Systems (SWS) representatives told FCC officials they developed technology that provides quick alerts when earthquakes strike. SWS reported on a meeting with FCC officials as the agency develops a report to Congress on warning systems. CTIA and AT&T told the FCC the wireless emergency alert (WEA) system used by carriers wasn't set up to send almost-immediate warnings (see 1605100054). “SWS has developed and deployed technology that provides users with alerts of pending seismic activity,” the company said in a filing in docket 16-32. “Our offerings have been in commercial use for the past 15 years -- primarily in California -- and during that time, the SWS technology has developed an exceptional track record in terms of maximizing alert times and eliminating false positives.”
CTIA warned the FCC that the use of the wireless emergency alert (WEA) system to send earthquake warnings to people in less than three seconds is likely a nonstarter. Congress asked the FCC to file a report on deployment of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems by Sept. 18 (see 1604080057) and comments were due at the FCC Monday in docket 16-32.