Transition to a Next Generation 911 system, technical solutions like call prioritization and rerouting, procedure and policy changes are answers to 911 overloading issues, speakers said during the 911 Industry Alliance’s 911 workshop Wednesday. But many solutions have issues like funding that need to be addressed, they said.
The FCC proposed fining a small cable operator $25,000 for violating emergency alert system rules, said an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability to St. George Cable in Florida (http://xrl.us/bme8fp). It said the company didn’t install EAS gear, ran with “excessive signal leakage” and didn’t register the system with the agency. An executive at the cable company had no comment.
New Jersey is getting a new emergency alert system, as broadcasters and pay-TV providers in all states prepare for a simultaneous EAS test Nov. 9 (CD Sept 23 p8). New Jersey’s statewide communications system EMnet will be part of a national network and should be installed by Nov. 1, the state’s broadcaster association said in a weekly newsletter to members on Friday. “With the installation of this equipment, we took a giant step forward in insuring [sic] that critical EAS messaging will not fail,” as it has before for EAS tests and for AMBER alerts, New Jersey Broadcasters Association President Paul Rotella wrote. “Our interoperability will reach beyond our borders to include Pennsylvania, Delaware, DC and Maryland, as well as the future prospect of having NYC included in our network through their [Office of Emergency Management], which has indicated that they will be following New Jersey’s lead."
All emergency alert system participants should prepare now for a new EAS format to send messages using the Internet, said FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials. They said that’s true even though the FCC Friday delayed the compliance deadline for all public and private radio and TV stations, DBS and satellite radio providers and multichannel video programming distributors. Those EAS participants must now be ready by June 30 to get and send alerts in Common Alerting Protocol, which FEMA developed, the FCC Public Safety Bureau has said. Government officials said at an FCBA lunch Thursday that they're working with PBS, NPR and state emergency managers on matters including a Nov. 9 nationwide test of EAS using the current alerting standard.
A fresh House bill to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety has the support of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., who serves on the Appropriations Committees, on Tuesday introduced the Help Emergency Responders Operate Emergency Systems (HEROES) Act. Using proceeds from spectrum auctions, the bill would provide $5.5 billion for construction, maintenance and operation of the national public safety network and $400 million to set up a grant program to help first responders upgrade their radios to comply with the FCC’s 2004 narrowband mandate.
The FCC delayed for a second time emergency alert system rules for traditional media to get and pass on to viewers and listeners EAS warnings that the government distributes online. The commission Friday delayed by nine months to June 30 the date when all multichannel video programming distributors and radio and TV stations must be ready for the Common Alerting Protocol format. That’s longer than the four-month compliance delay sought (CD Aug 8 p3) by CAP’s developer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It released the new standard in September 2010, and CAP is part of the integrated public alert and warning system (IPAWS).
The FCC proposed fining a cable operator $39,000 for not installing emergency alert system equipment, not disclosing to the agency the removal of the EAS gear and not filing annual basic signal leakage reports. SCI Cable received three Enforcement Bureau notices of apparent liability Wednesday for various systems in Kansas (http://xrl.us/bmdefe, http://xrl.us/bmdefg and http://xrl.us/bmdefi). A company executive had no comment.
"The status quo in cybersecurity is not acceptable,” a senior Homeland Security Department official said at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., agreed cybersecurity is an urgent national defense issue. Meanwhile, committee Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, pushed for modernization of the country’s emergency alert system.
The National Public Safety Telecom Council’s Broadband Working Group took a stab at clarifying definitions of “mission critical voice” for broadband emergency alerts. “The effort to establish an accepted definition for mission critical voice was undertaken by NPSTC because as public safety transitions to the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Wireless Network, voice communications may transition from today’s Land Mobile Radio (LMR) channelized narrowband voice systems to voice over the broadband network. If this transition is to be accomplished, it is imperative that those companies who will be developing the technology to provide voice over broadband fully understand all of the requirements that make up public safety mission critical voice,” the working group said in a news release Friday with its report (http://xrl.us/bmcbj7). The group said its effort “is not designed to provide a road map for those who desire to build mission critical voice into wireless broadband technologies, but has been written to provide a basis for a common understanding of the meaning of and the multiple requirements of mission critical voice."
William Burgess, president of the Nebraska Sheriff’s Association, urged Congress to approve spectrum bill S-911 by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Rep. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. A nationwide interoperable public safety wireless broadband data and voice network is critical to enable communications with other states, the federal government, tribal and local authorities, he said. It’s important that the system start out as an interoperable data system, he said. Work can then be done as the technology develops, to move and integrate voice communications to that system on a voluntary basis, he said. Wireless broadband enables features that would help first responders address all types of emergencies quickly, such as database searches, real-time video links, public alert broadcasts and more, he said. With broadband video, first responders will be able to view the accident scene before arriving and know better what to expect, he said. Quick action from Congress is needed, he said, noting Nebraska is subject to a wide range of severe weather.