The FCC should rule that nonemergency, service-related phone calls and text messages to customers who have provided a phone number don't violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, said the Alarm Industry Communications Committee in comments posted Friday in docket 02-278. AICC supported a petition for expedited declaratory ruling sought by Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association (see 1503270020). Calling the proposed exemption a “common sense approach to customer relations,” AICC acknowledged TCPA exempts communications made for emergency purposes, but “alarm companies may also benefit by being able to use the contact number provided by their customer … to contact that customer about their account and alarm system status and to verify installation/maintenance appointments.” Other notifications “can best be quickly distributed to alarm subscribers by auto-dialer and/or text message," the group said, citing alerts about the need for an equipment upgrade, an equipment recall, alerts regarding a system security risk, suspicious activity like someone is knocking on doors, or about home invasions in the area. Customers who give a vendor or creditor a phone number expect “to be contacted on that number in connection with its relationship with that vendor,” AICC said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a request for waiver by ACR Electronics for the ACR SARLink Combined 2-Way Communicator Personal Locator Beacon, used to locate people in remote areas. ACR needs a waiver because the device doesn't conform to FCC rules, the bureau said Tuesday. Rules require that emergency radio beacons transmit a distress signal on 406.0-406.1 MHz, to communicate with the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system and a lower-powered signal on frequency 121.5 MHz, used by search-and-rescue (SAR) personnel as a homing beacon. The SARLink doesn’t include the latter capability, the bureau said. Instead, the SARLink “incorporates two-way text messaging capability through the Iridium satellite system,” the bureau said. “ACR asserts that this capability will provide better distress alerting and locating assistance than a 121.5 MHz homing beacon because SARLink users will be able to text SAR personnel directly and provide location information in addition to the Global Positioning System data encoded in the COSPAS-SARSAT message, such as physical landmarks and obstacles.” Comments are due May 7, replies May 22.
The Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) unanimously voted Wednesday to approve Working Group 4’s report on recommendations on communications sector cybersecurity risk management, which was meant to adapt the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. Working Group 4 released its report almost a year after CSRIC formed the working group as part of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s push for the agency to increase its focus on cybersecurity as a public safety issue (see report in the March 21, 2014, issue). Wheeler said Wednesday, at what he called CSRIC IV’s “graduation ceremony,” that Working Group 4’s report would be “crucial to where we as an agency and we as industries and government have got to go” on addressing cybersecurity risk management. Wheeler continued to emphasize what he sees as the importance of the private sector leading on cybersecurity but noted that the FCC will continue to coordinate and play an oversight role. CSRIC also adopted Working Group 3’s report on expanded security best practices for Emergency Alert System stakeholders and Working Group 7’s report on updates to the prioritization of earlier CSRIC best practices.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert & Warning System will send a common alerting protocol message containing the national periodic test event code along with geocodes for four participating states March 18 at 2:30 p.m. EDT, said Al Kenyon, FEMA’s IPAWS national test technical lead. He spoke on an IPAWS north central regional emergency alert system (EAS) participant webinar Thursday. The test will be done for about 2,000 EAS participants in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, he said. “This is above and beyond the day-to-day requirements of EAS,” Kenyon said. “We’re doing what we can to make it better.” Representatives from Digital Alert Systems, Monroe Electronics, Sage Alerting Systems and Trilithic Emergency Alert Systems discussed how to configure their devices for the upcoming test. In a Sept. 17 IPAWS test, about 90 percent of the participating stations successfully transmitted the test message, Kenyon said. “A 90 percent success rate where you don’t have the opportunity to pretest the test is very good.”
The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council meets March 18 for the last time under its current charter, the FCC said Monday. Three working groups are to offer reports: Working Group 3 on Emergency Alerting Systems, Working Group 4 on Cybersecurity Risk Management and Best Practices and Working Group 7 on Legacy System Best Practices, the agency said. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. EDT in the commission meeting room.
The repacking process for the FCC incentive auction will potentially affect stations in every designated market area, since the commission expects to repurpose channels 51 and below, said Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake in a low-power TV LEARN webinar Tuesday. The commission is on schedule to hold the auction in early 2016, he said. Other officials have said similar in recent days (see 1502240035). "The reorganization of the broadcast band will have a significant impact on translators and LPTV stations, especially in urban areas," said Lake. Replacement translators aren't protected in the repacking, but will have a priority in the post-auction displacement window, he said. Class A stations and full-power stations are entitled to protection under the Spectrum Act, he said. The pre-auction licensing deadline is May 29, relevant only to Class A and full-power TV stations, he said. A proposal to extend the Sept. 1 deadline for LPTV and TV translator stations to transition to digital avoids requiring stations to double-build, he said. Channel sharing will add more broadcast hours and broaden a user base, Lake said. Commenters urged the commission to allow more than two partners to share a single channel, like some full power stations, he said. Another proposal is to have full-power stations replace digital service areas that will be lost after the repacking, a digital-to-digital replacement translator, he said. The commission wants to preserve one channel in the UHF band in all areas of the U.S. that aren't assigned to a TV station in the repacking process for shared use by white space devices and wireless mics, based on consumer need, Lake said. An alternative delivery method LPTV might consider is multicasting on digital stations, he said. LPTVs that are primary emergency alert system facilities are subjects of petitions for reconsideration and comments, which the commission will decide on, he said. A window for new stations might be opened after the repacking process and the displacement window, he said. “We hope very much that viewers in the heartland and elsewhere continue to receive the programming they need and want, and we will work with the low-power community to try to ensure that that happens."
Localized public safety answering points (PSAPs) have “an obvious leading part” in making the FCC’s 911 wireless location accuracy order and the industry-public safety road map work, FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth said on Tuesday. PSAPs “are in the best position” to monitor the on-the-ground accuracy of 911 location technologies the carriers are testing as part of the order and road map, he said during a National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference. The 911 indoor location accuracy order the FCC adopted Jan. 29 was seen to have been influenced by the voluntary commitments included in the road map (see 1501290066).
Public TV has the opportunity to provide trusted communication during emergencies, said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, at a session Monday at the Association of Public Television Stations Summit. Public TV needs to work with FEMA to provide emergency coverage, said APTS CEO Patrick Butler at the session. Stations have to “market” their ability to provide coverage during emergencies, even when cable and The Weather Channel goes out, Fugate said.
Debate about the scope of the FCC’s Downloadable Security Technological Advisory Committee's effort to recommend a replacement technology for CableCARD dominated its first meeting Monday. While committee members representing Google, Public Knowledge and others discussed replacement technology that could include a user interface and other outputs, cable company officials such as Cablevision Senior Vice President-Engineering and New Technologies Bob Clyne said the committee's recommendation should focus on downloadable security.
A draft FCC emergency alert system order would implement lessons learned from the first national EAS test, following a June 26 NPRM in docket 04-296, said an agency official. The item was circulated Feb. 2, said the commission's list of circulates. A subsequent national EAS test hasn’t been announced.