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The Wireless Messaging News

There is not much excitement in a small country town. We can watch the grass grow or go shopping at Walmart and hope to run into someone we know.

But next weekend is different. No, it's not the fourth of July that I am talking about. This little town, like the rest of the state of Illinois, is so broke it cancelled the fireworks show this year.

The excitement next weekend is the “big load” coming through town.

Main Street will be shut down for it to pass through town. Here is an article I found with more details:

Road closures expected for July load movement

Posted: Jun 29, 2017 5:15 PM CDT Updated: Jun 29, 2017 5:15 PM CDT

ILLINOIS (WAND) — State police say roads will be closed next week so a large load can be moved.

A truck carrying an oversized load will move from U.S. 45 south of Flora to Robinson. Its path will cross U.S. 50 eastbound, the Dieterich Blacktop and Illinois Route 33. Illinois State Police say parts of that route will be closed between July 6 and July 8.

The load itself will weigh 898,000 pounds, spread out across 26 axles. It’s 26 feet wide, 306 feet long and 20 feet tall. The Illinois Department of Transportation says it will post messages for drivers explaining the road closure schedule. ISP leaders say traffic in Clay, Effingham, Jasper and Crawford counties will be affected. [source] [Wayne County too.]

The big feature article again this week is from Rick McMichael of Preferred Wireless, announcing that he will be closing his business by July 31st.

This is very important since Rick has one of the largest stocks of paging equipment in the world. This may be the last chance to obtain replacement or spare paging systems infrastructure.

Remember: “One is none — two is one.”

Repeat: A friend of mine who was a Navy Seal told me that they are taught a rule about critical equipment on important missions: “One is none — two is one.” This is saying that one of whatever you have is bound to to fail, so you should always have two. This military practice should definitely be applied to Paging Systems Infrastructure. We called this redundancy and it was always an important consideration when we designed paging systems.

My mentor taught me to design a paging system as if my mother was in the hospital and it was going to be used to urgently page her doctor.

Now on to more news and views.

Wayne County, Illinois

Emergency Radio Communications Wireless Messaging Critical Messaging Two-way Radio Technology Telemetry Science Paging Wi-Fi

Wireless Messaging

This doesn't mean that nothing is ever published here that mentions a US political party—it just means that the editorial policy of this newsletter is to remain neutral on all political issues. We don't take sides.

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There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world’s major Paging and Wireless Messaging companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers — so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It’s all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology.

I regularly get readers’ comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the Paging, and Wireless Messaging communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my web site. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it.

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Back To Paging

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THE BEAUTIFUL, IMPOSSIBLE DREAM OF A SIMPLER SMARTPHONE

AUTHOR: DAVID PIERCE
06.30.1707:00 AM

GETTY IMAGES

SMARTPHONES ARE AMAZING. And smartphones are terrible. It's a central paradox of modern life: The devices that help us find rides and friends and food and sex and adorable puppies are the same ones that disconnect us from the life in front of our eyes, kill our attention span, give us FOMO, and turn the world into a series of torrential feeds we can't stop trying and failing to keep up with. You've probably had grand visions of hurling your smartphone into a lake and living life as your ancestors did, gloriously tech- and stress-free. I know I have. And yet, my smartphone stays in my pocket.

This tension between a smartphone's fantastic usefulness and its frustrating side-effects is well documented. "Why I ditched my smartphone" has entered the blog-cliché canon, alongside "Why I left New York" and "Why I quit Twitter." The "digital detox" was invented so people could ditch their gadgets, if only for a few hours. Some Airbnb listings now proudly announce their lack of cell service and Wi-Fi, a feature right up there with the hot tub and gas grill.

Meanwhile, the smartphone emotional complex has given rise to a whole new class of products: gadgets that save you from your gadgets. The Apple Watch's purpose, at least at first, was to quiet the constant buzzing and nagging from your phone. You can drop $295 on a Punkt MP01, a phone capable only of calls and texts (just like the Pilgrims had). Or take things even further with the Light Phone, a $150 gizmo about the size of a credit card that can store nine numbers, make and receive phone calls, and nada else. These devices aren't trying to replace your smartphone so much as free you from it.

That idea led Kaiwei Tang to start working on the Light Phone a couple of years ago. Tang, a Brooklyn-based designer, started user research by asking people to swap their smartphones for an old-school Nokia or Motorola flip phone. Just for six hours, maybe the entire day. Everyone reported the same thing: After a miserable first hour, they felt more aware, relaxed, and free. That told Tang and Hollier they were on to something. "The value is not the phone," Tang says. "It’s being away from internet, social media, and smartphones from time to time."

When the Light Phone made its debut in the world, though, a funny thing happened. People loved it, and the idea of "going light" without their smartphone. But they all said the Light Phone would be perfect, if only it had this one thing. Tang has a long and growing list of one things: Some people want GPS to order an Uber or track their loved one. Some want a camera to capture the moments they're finally experiencing, as if for the first time. Music. Text messages. NFC for buying stuff. On and on the list goes.

Let's say you were in Tang's shoes. You wanted to build the Minimum Viable Smartphone, a handset with all essentials and nothing else. Call it the MVS 1. The MVS 1 needs a microphone and speaker, obviously, plus some sort of full keyboard—texting is too important and T9 won't do. You'll definitely need WhatsApp, though, since that basically subsumed SMS. You can do without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and email, which are what everyone who hates their smartphone hates about it. You'll need a camera, though, and probably two; nobody's going to buy a phone they can't use for selfies. GPS and NFC, too. Built-in storage for music and podcasts, plus Apple Music and Spotify and Pandora. YouTube. A few games. And a web browser, even though that's an open window back into the social media morass. Pretty quickly the MVS 1 sounds like a regular smartphone, minus a bunch of really popular apps.

Ultimately, the problem with your iPhone isn't the camera being too close to the GPS chip. It's that you unlock your phone to check the weather, and suddenly a notification comes in so you check your email and then you blink and eight hours have passed and now you're 700 photos deep in your ex's Instagram feed. Tristan Harris, Google's former design ethicist and a longtime thinker about how technology affects humanity, calls these "leaky interactions." Harris wrote a blog post in 2016 urging people to "reboot your phone with mindfulness" by turning off most notifications, moving apps off your primary home screen, and putting as many barriers between you and the attention-sucks as possible.

Right now, if you're an Android user, you can do that by installing any of a handful of "minimalist" launchers, apps that replace your phone's homescreen with something a little simpler. Sure, they're mostly meant for old people with failing eyes, but they work just as well for smartphone burnouts. Or you can dump all your apps into a single folder, making each one just hard enough to find that you'll stop mindlessly opening them. One company, called Siempo, is working on a launcher to replace your entire screen with a text box that asks, "What's your intention?"

Siempo's initial plan was to build a minimalist smartphone, an e-paper device called Minium that resembled the candy-bar Nokia phones of the early aughts. Eventually, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign for a more traditional smartphone, this time called Siempo. When that campaign badly missed its funding goal, Siempo's founders redirected their focus to building software for existing smartphones. "Turns out people are more attached to their phones than we thought," the founders wrote in a Medium post after the campaign ended. "With our new approach you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of Siempo without leaving the comforts of your current device." The takeaway? People want their smartphones to be cleaner and simpler—as long as they're still smartphones.

People might say they want to ditch their smartphone, but hardly anyone actually does. Billions of users now have in their pocket a device that can do everything. Are some of those things bad? Of course! But that's the tradeoff for the peace of mind and spectacular value that comes with having every capability in your pockets at all times. It's nice to imagine leaving it all behind for a little while, but you wouldn't throw it away forever. The question, then, doesn't concern whether our phones are too powerful or feature-rich. It's about how to flip the relationship between user and phone, letting you control it rather than the other way around. That's a lot harder than building a phone without Facebook.

Virtual assistants, like Alexa and Siri, may offer a smartphone's superpowers in a more palatable package. Tang says he actually considered including Alexa in the Light Phone, maybe making Amazon's assistant the number 9 speed dial. Alexa just wasn't good enough when the company started, and a crummy assistant hardly alleviates the pain of using a smartphone.

That virtual-assistant tech is improving, and it'll be near-perfect sooner than you think. With these AI helpers, checking the weather won't require dodging attention-sucking, FOMO-inducing land mines. You'll just ask the question, get the answer, and move on with your life. You'll only pull out your smartphone when you're ready to get lost in its many splendors. Because there's nothing wrong with doing that now and then.

Kansas City

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Repair and Refurbishment Services

Product Support Services, Inc.

511 South Royal Lane
Coppell, Texas 75019
(972) 462-3970 Ext. 261
sales@pssirl.com
www.pssirl.com

PSSI is the industry leader in reverse logistics, our services include depot repair, product returns management, RMA and RTV management, product audit, test, refurbishment, re-kitting and value recovery.

BEFORE THE
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20554

To: The Secretary, Federal Communications Commission

Attn: Managing Director

COMMENTS OF CRITICAL MESSAGING ASSOCIATION

THE CRITICAL MESSAGING ASSOCIATION (CMA), by its attorney, respectfully submits its comments to the Federal Communications Commission in the captioned proceeding, in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “NPRM”), FCC 17-62, adopted May 22, 2017, released May 23, 2017, and published at 82 Fed. Reg. 26019 (June 6, 2017). In summary, CMA urges the Commission to eliminate entirely the CMRS Messaging fee, as suggested in ¶33 of the NPRM, due to the effective absence of regulatory activity warranting collection of the messaging fee and the alternative fee revenues derived from the critical messaging industry. CMA also urges the Commission to increase the de minimis exemption from regulatory fees from $500 to $1,000, as suggested in ¶31 of the NPRM.

As its comments in response to the NPRM, CMA respectfully states:

In this proceeding, the Commission seeks to establish the schedule of regulatory fees for FY 2017 to collect $356,710,992, in order to offset the Congressional appropriation for the Commission. (NPRM at ¶¶1-2). Continuing the Commission’s review of the regulatory fee framework initiated in 2008,¹ the NPRM proposes in relevant part to maintain the CMRS Messaging fee at $0.08 per unit for FY 2017. (NPRM at Appendix A). However, the NPRM goes on to request comment on eliminating the CMRS Messaging fee category (NPRM at ¶33), although the fee presumably would not be eliminated until FY 2018 due to the statutory requirement to provide 90-day advance notice to Congress. (NPRM at ¶34). Otherwise, the Commission requests comment on increasing the de minimis exemption from regulatory fees from $500 to $1,000. (NPRM at ¶31).

CMA is the national trade association representing the interests of the critical messaging industry (historically known as the paging industry) throughout the United States. As wireless services have evolved over approximately the last two decades, the critical messaging industry has increasingly concentrated on serving the specialized, emergency alerting needs of health care providers, first and second responders, and other customers employing critical, time-sensitive messages using a point-to-point protocol that cannot be duplicated by broadband networks. CMA members include a representative cross-section of carriers operating messaging networks licensed by the Commission under Parts 22, 24 and 90 of its rules, as well as equipment suppliers and other vendors to the carrier industry. The services provided by CMA’s carrier members are classified as CMRS Messaging services for purposes of the Commission’s regulatory fees.

CMA strongly urges the Commission to eliminate the CMRS Messaging fee at the earliest possible time. As the NPRM itself points out, regulatory fees are supposed to be collected “to recover the costs of . . . enforcement activities, policy and rulemaking activities, user information services, and international activities.”²

However, the fact is that the Commission no longer engages in any significant fee-recoverable activity with respect to the critical messaging industry. This is due to several factors, including (1) the Commission’s effective deregulation of the critical messaging industry; (2) the absence of policy or rulemaking activity targeting the industry in recent years;³ (3) at most de minimis enforcement actions involving members of the industry; and (4) the change in the character of critical messaging subscribers from the consumer market to sophisticated corporations that negotiate detailed service contracts with service providers, and thus do not require or get user information services from the Commission. As a result, continued collection of the CMRS Messaging fee under Section 9 of the Communications Act is no longer warranted.

CMA also points out that the Commission does generate significant application fee revenues from the industry independent of the CMRS Messaging fee. These fees include, e.g., revenues from applications for license assignments and transfers of control, for construction notifications and for Part 90 site-by-site new station and modification applications; as well as fees for renewal of licenses. Since the licensing process is the primary interface of the industry with the Commission, it is fair to conclude that those revenues already compensate the Commission for its limited regulation of the industry, and therefore that it is unnecessary to also impose a CMRS Messaging regulatory fee on top of the application fees.

Additionally, critical messaging service providers commonly also employ communications facilities in their networks, such as domestic satellite control stations, for which regulatory fees are assessed. When carriers do so, those network facilities also generate regulatory fees independent of CMRS Messaging fees.

In short, continued collection of the CMRS Messaging fee is unwarranted based upon the underlying purposes for which regulatory fees are collected, and in the light of the Commission’s collection of application fees as part of the licensing process. Accordingly, CMA respectfully requests that the CMRS Messaging fee be eliminated as soon as practicable.

Finally, CMA supports increasing the de minimis exemption from regulatory fees for FY 2017 from $500 to $1,000. All of the reasons supporting elimination of the CMRS Messaging fee altogether also support increasing the exemption; and increasing the exemption would provide the critical messaging industry a measure of relief this year, for FY 2017, without waiting for FY 2018. Therefore, as an appropriate immediate measure, CMA also requests that the de minimis exemption applicable to regulatory fees be increased for FY 2017 from $500 to $1,000.

5151 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 312
Washington, DC 20016-4124
Telephone: (202) 223-3772
Facsimile: (202) 840-6499
kenhardman.law@gmail.com

June 22, 2017

¹ Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal 2008 (Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), MD Docket No. 08-65, FCC 08-182, released August 8, 2008 and published at 73 Fed. Reg. 50285 (August 26, 2008).

² NPRM at ¶2, citing 47 U.S.C. §159(a).

³ The last significant policy and rulemaking activity targeting the critical messaging industry was during the 1996- 1999 time frame when the Commission adopted auctioning for paging licenses. Revision of Part 22 and Part 90 of the Commission’s Rules to Facilitate Future Development of Paging Systems, WT Docket No. 96-18; Implementation of Section 309(j) of the Communications Act – Competitive Bidding, PR Docket No.. 93-253, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 11 FCC Rcd 3108 (FCC 1996); First Report and Order, 11 FCC Rcd 16570 (FCC 1996); Second Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 12 FCC Rcd 2732 (FCC 1997), Memorandum Opinion and Order on Reconsideration and Third Report and Order, 14 FCC Rcd 10030 (FCC 1999) (subsequent history omitted).

Specialists in sales and service of equipment from these leading manufacturers, as well as other two-way radio and paging products:

	Motorola SOLUTIONS
	Motorola MOBILITY

Disaster-Proven Paging for Public Safety

Paging system designs in the United States typically use a voice radio-style infrastructure. These systems are primarily designed for outdoor mobile coverage with modest indoor coverage. Before Narrowbanding, coverage wasn’t good, but what they have now is not acceptable! The high power, high tower approach also makes the system vulnerable. If one base station fails, a large area loses their paging service immediately!

Almost every technology went from analog to digital except fire paging. So it’s time to think about digital paging! The Disaster-Proven Paging Solution (DiCal) from Swissphone offers improved coverage, higher reliability and flexibility beyond anything that traditional analog or digital paging systems can provide. 

Swissphone is the No. 1 supplier for digital paging solutions worldwide. The Swiss company has built paging networks for public safety organizations all over the world. Swissphone has more than 1 million pagers in the field running for years and years due to their renowned high quality.

DiCal is the digital paging system developed and manufactured by Swissphone. It is designed to meet the specific needs of public safety organizations. Fire and EMS rely on these types of networks to improve incident response time. DiCal systems are designed and engineered to provide maximum indoor paging coverage across an entire county. In a disaster situation, when one or several connections in a simulcast solution are disrupted or interrupted, the radio network automatically switches to fall back operating mode. Full functionality is preserved at all times. This new system is the next level of what we know as “Simulcast Paging” here in the U.S.

Swissphone offers high-quality pagers, very robust and waterproof. Swissphone offers the best sensitivity in the industry, and battery autonomy of up to three months. First responder may choose between a smart s.QUAD pager, which is able to connect with a smartphone and the Hurricane DUO pager, the only digital pager who offers text-to-voice functionality.

Bluetooth technology makes it possible to connect the s.QUAD with a compatible smartphone, and ultimately with various s.ONE software solutions from Swissphone. Thanks to Bluetooth pairing, the s.QUAD combines the reliability of an independent paging system with the benefits of commercial cellular network. Dispatched team members can respond back to the call, directly from the pager. The alert message is sent to the pager via paging and cellular at the same time. This hybrid solution makes the alert faster and more secure. Paging ensures alerting even if the commercial network fails or is overloaded.

Swissphone sets new standards in paging:

Paging Network

• It’s much faster to send individual and stacked pages digitally than with analog voice.
• If you want better indoor coverage, you put sites closer together at lower heights.
• A self-healing system that also remains reliable in various disaster situations.
• Place base station where you need them, without the usage of an expensive backhaul network.
• Protect victim confidentiality and prevent unauthorized use of public safety communications, with integrated encryption service.

Pager

• Reliable message reception, thanks to the best sensitivity in the industry.
• Ruggedized and waterproof, IP67 and 6 1/2-feet drop test-certified products.
• Battery autonomy of up to three months, with a standard AA battery.
• Bluetooth enables the new s.QUAD pager to respond back to the dispatch center or fire chief.

Dispatching:

• Two-way CAD interfaces will make dispatching much easier.
• The new s.ONE solution enables the dispatcher or fire chiefs to view the availability of relief forces.
• A graphical screen shows how many of the dispatched team members have responded to the call.

Swissphone provides a proven solution at an affordable cost. Do you want to learn more?
Visit: www.swissphone.com or call 800-596-1914.

Important Notice

June 22, 2017

Dear Fellow Paging System Owners, Operators, Managers, and Friends,

If someone would have told me back in 1982 when I was fresh out of technician school, and hired by Quintron as a Final Test Technician — that I would be working to sell their equipment until 2017 — I would have thought, “who is Quintron?” Well, I found out and have not been disappointed.

I have worked, in one aspect or another, in the paging industry for a total of 35 years. First I was hired as a technician at Quintron, then I moved into the training department and finally into the sales department, as an assistant, then as a sales representative. I have gotten to meet and work with some great people along the way. Many of them have retired a long time ago and many are still working in the business.

This equipment reselling business was started in response to a program Glenayre ran 18 years ago. They took a trade-in of some Motorola equipment to offset the cost of new Glenayre equipment. Instead of scrapping it, they elected to have my partner and me (at the time, Bill McManus) refurbish it and then sell it. The program ended after a few years but we continued to purchase as much as we could to supply parts and used equipment worldwide.

My reason for this letter is to tell you that I have decided to close the business and pursue some other interests outside of paging. But I still have quite a bit of equipment left that I need to move, and all of it is priced at “garage sale” prices. So, if anyone needs something on my list please contact me. I prefer to see it go to someone who can use it rather than the alternative.

I Thank all my customers and friends for the success of this business, and will miss working with you all. My scheduled date to close up is July 31st.

Thank you.

Rick McMichael
Preferred Wireless, Inc.
rickm@preferredwireless.com
(314) 575-8425

Rick McMichael, President

Skydata equipment

Repair Center

Warehouse

Tech work bench

Lots of inventory

Nucleus 900 MHz C-NET Equipment

PURC 5000 Parts

New indoor cabinets

Receivers, receivers, receivers & more

Lots of Nucleus 900 MHz Transmitters

Dummy loads and watt meters

Glenayre Midband & UHF receivers

900 MHz DSP Exciters

GLT 8500/8600 PAs

Skydata equipment

About Us:

Preferred Wireless, Inc. is a Missouri corporation in good standing since 1995. Personally I have been in the wireless industry since 1982. Originally working at Quintron and then with regional and national paging carriers until I made the leap into entrepreneurship in 1995. We began as a pager repair facility but quickly grew to a paging provider and equipment reseller.

Thank you, Rick McMichael rickm@preferredwireless.com www.preferredwireless.com/equipment Telephone: 888-429-4171 (If you are calling from outside of the USA, please use: 314-575-8425)

People Who Care Service That Shows

Friday, June 30, 2017	Volume 5 | Issue 128

Congress Considers In-Flight Cell Call Ban

Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a bill this week to ban passengers from using their cell phones for voice calls on commercial flights. Texting would be allowed under the Commercial Flight Courtesy Act, should it pass.

“Passengers chatting on their mobile devices in the small confines of an airplane could make flying even less comfortable,” said Sen. Markey in the announcement. “Passengers should not have to suffer through the conversations of others, and flight crews should not be disrupted while performing their important safety and security duties.”

“Stop and think about what we hear now in airport lobbies from those who wander around shouting personal details into their phones: babbling about next week’s schedule, orders to an assistant, or arguments with spouses,” said Sen. Alexander. “Now imagine nearly two million passengers, hurtling through space yapping their innermost thoughts while you travel restrained by your seatbelt and unable to escape. Keeping phone conversations off commercial flights may not be enshrined in the Constitution, but surely it is enshrined in common sense.”

In April, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai terminated a proposal stemming from 2013, to allow cell phone calls on flights. The legislation would prevent future chairmen from reopening the issue. Flight crews would be exempt from the ban as would law enforcement officers. The bill does not cover mobile phones already installed on aircraft.

The Association of Flight Attendants and Global Business Travel Association support the measure, calling it a common sense and safety issue; the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) — which represents electronics manufacturers like Qualcomm and Samsung and several tower engineering consultants — does not. In a letter to the House Transportation Committee about similar legislation introduced in that chamber, TIA wrote: “A cell phone voice communications ban aboard aircraft would defy historical practice, interfere in the free market, restrict the rights of airlines and passengers, harm the ability of technology companies to innovate, and make the United States an outlier in the global community,” Politco reported.

Wireless Communication Solutions

USB Paging Encoder

• Single channel up to eight zones
• Connects to Linux computer via USB
• Programmable timeouts and batch sizes
• Supports 2-tone, 5/6-tone, POCSAG 512/1200/2400, GOLAY
• Supports Tone Only, Voice, Numeric, and Alphanumeric
• PURC or direct connect
• Pictured version mounts in 5.25" drive bay
• Other mounting options available
• Available as a daughter board for our embedded Internet Paging Terminal (IPT)

Paging Data Receiver (PDR)

• Frequency agile—only one receiver to stock
• USB or RS-232 interface
• Two contact closures
• End-user programmable w/o requiring special hardware
• 16 capcodes
• POCSAG
• Eight contact closure version also available
• Product customization available

Other products

Please see our web site for other products including Internet Messaging Gateways, Unified Messaging Servers, test equipment, and Paging Terminals.

Contact

Hark Technologies 717 Old Trolley Rd Ste 6 #163 Summerville, SC 29485

Tel: 843-821-6888

Fax: 843-821-6894

E-mail: sales@harktech.com CLICK

Web: http://www.harktech.com CLICK

A Problem

The Motorola Nucleus II Paging Base Station is a great paging transmitter. The Nucleus I, however, had some problems.

One of the best features of this product was its modular construction. Most of the Nucleus' component parts were in plug-in modules that were field replaceable making maintenance much easier.

One issue was (and still is) that two of the modules had to always be kept together. They are called the “matched pair.”

Motorola used some tricks to keep people in the field from trying to match unmatched pairs, and force them to send SCM and Exciter modules back to the factory for calibrating them with precision laboratory equipment.

The serial numbers have to match in the Nucleus programing software or you can't transmit [in simulcast mode] . Specifically the 4-level alignment ID parameter contained in the SCM has to match the Exciter ID parameter.

Even if someone could modify the programing software to “fudge” these parameters, that would not let them use unmatched modules effectively without recalibrating them to exact factory specifications.

So now that there is no longer a Motorola factory laboratory to send them to, what do we do?

I hope someone can help us resolve this serious problem for users of the Nucleus paging transmitter.

Please let me know if you can help. [click here]

[Thanks to Tom Harger Chief Engineer at Contact Wireless for the correction above in red.]

Selected portions [sometimes more — sometimes less] of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update and/or the BloostonLaw Private Users Update — newsletters from the Law Offices of Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast, LLP — are reproduced in this section of The Wireless Messaging News with the firm’s permission. Contact information is included at the end of the newsletter.

ISPs Must Electronically (Re)designate Agent to Preserve Copyright Act Safe-Harbor Eligibility

In December 2016, the U.S. Copyright Office introduced an online registration system and electronically generated directory to replace its paper-based system and directory. Accordingly, the Copyright Office no longer accepts paper designations. Moreover, any agent designated prior to December 2016 must be re-designated electronically by December 2017 to preserve their status as designated agents.

Registering an agent with the Copyright Office allows an ISP to be eligible for safe-harbor protection from monetary damages for unknowingly storing infringing material on its network. ISPs that do not have an agent are strongly encouraged to register as soon as possible. BloostonLaw is available to act as agent. Please contact us by return email if you would like us to register as your service agent.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast, Gerry Duffy and Sal Taillefer

FCC Cracks Down on Unlicensed Operation

In what appears to be a continuing trend, the FCC’s Enforcement Division issued eight Notices of Unlicensed Operation (“NOUO”) during the month of June. With the exception of one notice, all of the unlicensed radio operations involved pirate FM stations, which have the potential for causing harmful interference to other licensed radio operations, including broadcast FM and other licensed services.

The remaining notice involved a complaint from the Federal Aviation Administration concerning interference to its Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TACS) on the frequencies 1030 and 1090 MHz. As a result of this complaint, the FCC was able to determine that Greenpoint Aerospace was periodically testing TACS for the commercial airline industry, using equipment for which it was not authorized.

It is important to note that unlicensed operation — no matter how innocent or well meaning — can result in significant enforcement action by the FCC. While it appears that Greenpoint Aerospace may not have had bad intent, its operations nonetheless caused harmful interference to the FAA’s TACS system. It is only because Greenpoint Aerospace did not hold an FCC radio license that the FCC was required to issue a warning letter as opposed to a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture for the first violation.

The issuance of a NOUO is the first enforcement step where an individual or entity is not already an FCC licensee and therefore under the FCC’s jurisdiction. In those circumstances, the FCC is required to notify the violator of the nature of the violation. Only then, can the FCC demonstrate that the violation was willful and repeated if committed again.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

FCC Affirms $25K Fine for Pirate Station Operation

In a related matter, the FCC affirmed a $25,000 fine against Conroy Dawson for operating an FM Pirate Station in Paterson, New Jersey. In May, 2016, the FCC’s New York field office investigated an unauthorized FM broadcast station in Paterson which identified itself as “WBLR — Big Link Radio 97.5 FM.” Mr. Dawson contacted the FCC after receiving a Notice of Unlicensed Operation and agreed to remove the transmitter equipment.

In July of 2016, the FCC received another complaint of a pirate station operating on the frequency 97.5 MHz. Upon investigation, the FCC determined it was being operated by Mr. Dawson at a new site under the “Big Link Radio” banner. After posting a warning to cease operation, the FCC’s field agents found that Mr. Dawson was operating the pirate station on 97.5 MHz at yet another location.

Interestingly enough, Mr. Dawson challenged the fine, claiming that “although he operates an internet-based streaming radio station, his operation does not have a broadcast component and, as a result, he is the victim of pirate broadcasts rather than the perpetrator.” Despite Mr. Dawson’s claims, the FCC was able to independently conclude that Mr. Dawson was responsible for the transmissions. At the original site, the FCC found that the coaxial from the antenna led to an apartment occupied by Mr. Dawson and a relative. And, with respect to the second and third locations, the FCC noted that the branding, frequency and call sign all remained the same. Finally, the phone number for the studio call-in number was likewise unchanged at all three locations.

This enforcement action, taken together with the 8 notices issued earlier this month, make it clear that unauthorized operation is a high priority item for the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. In the event that you become aware of an issue such as the inadvertent lapse of one of your licenses, we recommend that it be corrected promptly in order to minimize the potential for a finding of either unlicensed operation or improper operation. Please contact our office if you need any assistance.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

FCC and OSHA Release Tower Best Practices Guide

The FCC and OSHA recently released a Communications Tower Best Practices Guide. This guide is focused on ensuring the safety to tower workers. FCC Chairman Pai announced “In the spirit of good government and cooperation, our agencies have hosted workshops with input from industry stakeholders to identify and establish accepted practices for performing communication tower work safely. The guide is an important step to reduce the tragic number of fatalities involved in communications tower work.” Those clients who are interested in receiving a copy of the guide should contact our office.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

FCC Wireless Buildout “Reminder” May Signal Tougher Enforcement Ahead

The FCC’s Wireless Bureau issued a Public Notice (DA 17-573) reminding licensees of their construction and coverage obligations and of the high hurdle they face when seeking to extend their construction deadlines. The PN goes to great lengths in explaining the policies that underlie the Commission’s buildout rules, and may signal more of a “get tough” attitude by the Bureau towards its review of station construction compliance going forward, especially those involving rural and underserved areas.

As a matter of policy, the FCC’s construction obligations ensure that scarce spectrum resources are put to use and developed in a manner that serves all communities. Service-specific rules and a licensee’s FCC authorization describe when and how wireless licensees must construct, commence service, and, as applicable, meet coverage and substantial service benchmarks. With that said, this week’s “reminder” highlights the wording of Rule Section 1.946, which specifies that a licensee’s authorization terminates automatically (in whole or in part as set forth in the service rules) without specific Commission Action if a licensee fails to commence service or operations by the expiration of its construction period. With respect to extensions, the FCC has always expected that licensees conduct due diligence to assure they can timely construct their systems and adequately meet their service requirements. The Commission does not look favorably upon extension requests that cite miscalculations or erroneous predictions about factors such as costs, demand, developments in the market, or timing and success in obtaining permissions that may be needed for construction.

Section 1.946 (e) of the Commission’s Rules specifies just two situations that permit an extension — either “involuntary loss of site” or “other causes beyond [a licensee’s] control.” This rule also cautions that extension requests will not be granted for failure to meet a deadline due to delays caused by a failure to obtain financing, to obtain an antenna site, or to order equipment in a timely manner.

Our clients should expect the Commission to carefully examine their claims that failures to meet construction requirements were due to causes beyond their control. This stricter scrutiny means that the market’s failure to accommodate a licensee’s specific business plan, such as in the event of a severe economic downturn or delays given the type of technology that a licensee has chosen, will no longer be seen as an excuse for not constructing within the required construction period. Moreover, a licensee’s own choice regarding which technology to support or whether any equipment is even worth deploying will generally not suffice to warrant an extension.

Our clients therefore will not want to rely on the possibility of a waiver or extension of their construction/service requirements, to begin their system planning and construction well before the applicable deadlines, and to maintain detailed records of their efforts. These records will be important to establishing that a buildout failure is truly due to circumstances beyond your control. If it proves necessary to request an extension despite diligent efforts, we can help document the justification needed to have a chance of success.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

FCC Establishes Procedures to Review State Opt-Out Requests from FirstNet

Last week, the FCC adopted standards and procedures that it will use to review any state’s plan to deploy a radio access network (RAN) where it has opted out of the FirstNet nationwide public safety broadband system. In particular, the FCC’s decision will address the following:

• The timeline for states to provide notification of their opt-out decisions and file plans with the FCC;
• Information states should include in their plans to demonstrate compliance with the statutory criteria for interoperability with FirstNet’s network;
• Some of the technical criteria and standards that the FCC will use in evaluating state plans;
• The FCC’s review process, including participation by interested parties, treatment of confidential information, and the timing of FCC action; and
• The FCC’s process for documenting its decisions to approve or disapprove state plans.

The FCC has stated that these procedures are designed to “provide states with a fair and meaningful opportunity to pursue their own network plans without causing undue delay and while still ensuring the integrity of the nationwide network.”

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

FCC Extends Waiver of Push Notification Requirement for Fixed and Mode II Devices through September 30, 2017

The FCC has extended its waiver of the “push” notification requirements of Rule Sections 15.37(j) and 15.711(i) for fixed and Mode II personal/portable white space devices and white space databases.

In August 2015, the FCC adopted rules to regulate both unlicensed microphones that operate in the 600 MHz and TV bands and white space devices that operate on TV Channel 37. Under the FCC’s Rules, white space devices are required to check a database at least once each day in order to obtain a list of available channels at their operating location. In maintaining this requirement, the Commission also required database administrators to “push” information about changes in channel availability to white space devices in the area where the licensed microphones would be used. More specifically, database administrators were required to share licensed wireless microphone channel registration information among themselves within 10 minutes, as well as push information changes in channel availability for fixed and Mode II personal/portable white space devices within 20 minutes. Further, white space devices that did not incorporate a push notification capability were to cease operation no later than December 23, 2016, which is the same date that administrators were required to update their systems to implement push notification capabilities.

Because various petitions for reconsideration of the push notification requirements had been filed, which argued that the push notification requirement was unwieldy, the Commission determined that there was good cause to waive the requirements of Rule Section 15.37(j) and 15.711(i) until final action is taken on the pending petitions for reconsideration. Inasmuch as the petitions are still pending, the Commission determined that the reasons justifying the original waiver remain valid.

It is important to note that the FCC’s waiver is for a short period of time, until September 30, 2017. As a result, we believe that a formal order resolving these petitions could be released late summer or early fall.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

FCC Proposes $120 Million Fine for Robocall Spoofing

The FCC has proposed to fine an individual $120 million for allegedly making almost 100 million spoofed robocalls in violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009. This law prohibits callers from deliberately falsifying caller ID information in order to disguise their identity with either the intent to cause harm or defraud consumers.

The FCC asserted that Adrian Abramovich made 96 million spoofed robocalls during a three-month period — of which it has been able to verify 80,000 calls. These calls, which caused local numbers to be displayed on Caller ID, were designed to trick consumers into answering phone calls and listening to advertising. In particular, consumers reported receiving calls that appeared to be local calls (because in many cases the area code and NXX exchange may have matched the area code and NXX exchange of the called number), and instructed the called party to press “1” to hear about vacations and similar deals from well-known travel and hospitality companies such as Marriott, Expedia, Hilton and TripAdvisor. Any caller that pressed “1” was transferred to a foreign call center that was not affiliated with any of these companies.

TripAdvisor contacted the FCC after receiving complaints from callers claiming that the Company had subjected them to robocalls. In conducting its own independent investigation, TripAdvisor was able to identify Mr. Abramovich as the source of the calls. Likewise, the FCC received further complaints from other companies concerning similar robocalls and was able to trace those calls to Mr. Abramovich as well.

In order to make these illegal calls, Mr. Abramovich used a “neighbor spoofing” technique, which was designed to make it more likely that the call would be answered, since the recipient would think that the call was from his or her local area. This sort of spoofing occurs when the caller alters the caller ID to match the area code and first three digits of the recipient’s phone number instead of the caller’s actual number.

These sorts of calls have resulted in numerous consumer complaints with the FCC — many of which are from consumers who receive multiple calls in one day from what appear to be the same caller. As we previously reported, some of these calls are designed to make the called party say “Yes”, which would then be recorded and used to add charges to the called party’s account.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

Democratic Senators Call for Ringless Voicemail Protection for Consumers

Senators Ed market (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and others have sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urging him to act on a Public Notice issued back in April regarding a petition to exempt ringless voicemails from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Ringless voicemails allow the calling party to leave automated voice messages directly in voicemail without the phone ever ringing, effectively bypassing a customer’s call blocking measures.

According to the senators, “Exempting ringless voicemails from the TCPA’s autodialer protections would allow callers to overwhelm consumers with ringless voice messages without first receiving express consumer consent. Further, consumers would have no way to stop callers from sending ringless voice messages, and callers would not have limits on the quantity or duration of these messages.”

Political news source, the Hill, reports that Republicans have voiced support for ringless voicemail companies. The Republican National Committee filed a comment to the FCC in May arguing that restrictions on such types of calls could “burden” freedom of speech.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy and Mary Sisak

FCC Proposes Modification of 900 MHz License Held by Jamul Indian Village Development Corporation

The FCC has issued an order proposing modification of the license held by Jamul Indian Village Development Corporation (JIVD) for 900 MHz Trunked Business Pool Service station WQXU512 at Jamul, California. The order is based upon a Petition for Reconsideration and/or Request for License Modification filed by Mark Abrams, asserting that the frequency pairs 898/937.2250, 898/937.2375 and 898/937.2500 MHz were improperly coordinated by the frequency coordinator and licensed to JIVD by the FCC.

The basis for Mr. Abrams’s claim is that on June 8, 2016, the FCC granted his application for authority to construct and operate co-channel facilities at Poway, California — which is approximately 22 miles from JIVD’s proposed site. That same day, JIVD’s application was erroneously frequency coordinated and filed with the FCC. The application was ultimately granted on June 13, 2016. Mr. Abrams learned of the JIVD application approximately six weeks later on August 8, 2016. Under the FCC’s rules, JIVD was required to obtain Mr. Abram’s written consent, since its proposed co-channel facilities were located less than 55 miles from Mr. Abrams’s Poway facilities. Because JIVD never obtain Mr. Abrams consent, the FCC concluded that the frequency coordination and ultimate grant of these frequencies at the Jamul site were in error. As a result, the FCC is now proposing to modify the license for station JIVD’s license to delete these channels.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino

LAST CALL: FCC Form 481 Due July 3

In just five days, all eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) receiving high cost support and/or lifeline support must report the information required by Form 481. ETCs that receive high cost support must report information in Section 54.313, which includes outage, unfulfilled service request, and complaint data, broken out separately for voice and broadband services; information on the ETC’s holding company, operating companies, ETC affiliates and any branding in response to section 54.313(a)(8); its CAF-ICC certification, if applicable; its financial information, if a privately held rate-of-return carrier; and its satellite backhaul certification, if applicable.

Form 481 must not only be filed with USAC, but also with the FCC and the relevant state commission and tribal authority, as appropriate. Although USAC indicates that it treats the filing as confidential, filers must seek confidential treatment separately with the FCC and the relevant state commission and tribal authority if confidential treatment is desired.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Sal Taillefer.

Headlines

FCC Issues Tentative Agenda for July Open Meeting (With Item Summaries)

On June 22, the FCC released the tentative agenda for its next Open Commission Meeting, scheduled for July 13. At the Meeting, the FCC will tentatively consider:

• Call Authentication Trust Anchor: a Notice of Inquiry that seeks comment on methods to authenticate telephone calls to further secure our telephone networks against illegal robocallers. The Notice seeks comment on implementing authentication standards for telephone calls, as well as the Commission's role in this process and other public policy considerations.
• Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls: a Notice of Inquiry that explores methods by which reassigned telephone number data could be made available to callers to avoid making unwanted calls to consumers.
• Protecting Consumers from Unauthorized Carrier Changes and Related Unauthorized Charges: a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking outlining steps to further curtail slamming and cramming.
• Rural Call Completion: a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes rule changes to better address ongoing problems in the completion of long-distance telephone calls to rural areas.
• Video Description: a Report and Order which increases the required hours of video described programming that covered broadcast stations and MVPDs must provide to consumers.
• Updating the Part 2 Equipment Authorization Program: a First Report and Order that would update and amend its equipment authorization program by replacing two certification procedures with a new Supplier's Declaration of Conformity process, codifying procedures for the electronic labeling of devices, modernizing the requirements related to the importation of electronic equipment, and incorporating up-to-date methods for equipment compliance measurements into the rules.
• Radar Services in the 76-81 GHz Band: a Report and Order that would address use of the 76-81 GHz band under the Part 95 rules to support a broad range of vehicular radar uses, such as collision avoidance and adaptive cruise control systems, as well as to expand the types of fixed and mobile radar operations permitted within airport environments.
• Wireless Microphone Operations: an Order on Reconsideration and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would address licensed and unlicensed wireless microphone operations in the TV bands and various other frequency bands.

Continuing the Chairman’s pilot program, the FCC has publicly released the draft text of each item, including a one-page cover sheet to help summarize each item. A link to each item is included in the paragraphs above.

The Open Commission Meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. EDT, and will be streamed live at www.fcc.gov/live and can be followed on social media with #OpenMtgFCC.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

Comments Filed in Wireless Broadband Infrastructure Proceedings

As we reported in last week’s edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, initial comments in the FCC’s wireline (WC Docket No. 17-84) and wireless (WT Docket No. 17-79) broadband infrastructure proceedings were filed on June 15. Reply comments in both proceedings are due July 17.

Highlights from the wireless proceeding comments included:

• Verizon argued that the FCC should clarify that the Communications Act bars state or local actions that erect substantial barriers to wireless facilities deployment; adopt rules barring certain state or local actions as per se unlawful; deem applications granted when the applicable shot clock expires without action; adopt a 60-day shot clock for certain small cell applications; exclude certain small cells from tribal reviews, provide guidance on when tribal fees are appropriate, and adopt a 30-day shot clock for tribal reviews; modify existing exclusions from historic preservation reviews and adopt a new exclusion for “twilight towers” (towers built between 2001 and 2005); and exclude certain facilities constructed in flood plains from redundant environmental reviews.
• AT&T argued that the FCC should declare that state and local action that materially inhibits or limits the ability of a competitor to provide wireless service has the effect of prohibiting the provision of telecommunications service; declare that cost-based, rather than market-based, rates to access the right-of-way (ROW) and municipally-owned ROW structures are “fair and reasonable;” declare that siting applications not acted upon within the shot clock are deemed granted; and establish a streamlined complaint process to resolve disputes between municipalities and providers arising under Section 253 of the Act.
• T-Mobile argued that the FCC should strengthen and expedite shot clocks applicable to wireless siting applications; limit ROW charges and application fees; clarify when state/local requirements “prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting” service; clarify when state/local actions become discriminatory; clarify that mixed-use facilities are covered by the Act; eliminate or streamline unnecessary environmental reviews; eliminate or streamline unnecessary historic preservation reviews; improve the tribal review process; and facilitate collocation on twilight towers.

Please see last week’s edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update for highlights from the wireline proceeding.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Cary Mitchell.

FCC Approves Broadband Satellite Constellation

On June 22, the FCC approved a request by WorldVu Satellites Limited, which does business as OneWeb, to access the United States satellite market. Specifically, OneWeb proposed to access the U.S. market for its global network of 720 low-Earth orbit satellites using the Ka (20/30 GHz) and Ku (11/14 GHz) frequency bands to provide global Internet connectivity. The satellite system will be authorized by the United Kingdom, but needs FCC approval to provide service in the U.S.

According to an FCC Press Release, this approval is the first of its kind for a new generation of large, non-geostationary-satellite orbit (NGSO), fixed-satellite service (FSS) systems. OneWeb was the first of several entities to file a request seeking FCC authority to deploy a large constellation of NGSO FSS satellites to provide ubiquitous broadband services — the FCC is currently examining additional applications for the operation of NGSO FSS constellations, most of which include large numbers of satellites.

The FCC noted that it expects that the OneWeb Order and Declaratory Ruling will provide a blueprint for the earth station licenses that OneWeb, or its partners, will need to obtain before providing OneWeb’s proposed service in the United States.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino.

FCC Provides Instructions on Registering for the 2017 EAS Test Reporting System

On June 26, the FCC’s the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau notified all Emergency Alert System (EAS) Participants that they must create an FCC Username within the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES) to access the 2017 EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS). The Bureau will release a Public Notice in July announcing the availability of Form One of the ETRS, and the date by which EAS Participants will be required to have updated their Form One information in the ETRS.

Filers that have already created a Username for use with another FCC system (e.g., the Network Outage Reporting System or NORS) can use that same Username to access CORES. EAS Participants that are silent pursuant to a grant of Special Temporary Authority are required to file in the ETRS, and therefore should create a Username.

A copy of the full instructions can be found here.

FCC Announces Updated Lifeline Minimum Service Standards and Indexed Budget Amount

On June 26, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau announced the updated standard levels for speed and usage allowances for Lifeline-supported services as required by the 2016 Lifeline Modernization Order. These standards will take effect on December 1, 2017. The Bureau also announced that the budget for federal universal service support for the Lifeline program for calendar year 2018 will be $2,279,250,000.

With regard to the standard levels:

• the Lifeline minimum service standard for fixed broadband speed will be 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream, as calculated from FCC Form 477 data.
• the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile broadband data usage will increase to 1 GB per month.
• the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile voice service will increase to 750 minutes per month.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Mary Sisak and Sal Taillefer.

Law & Regulation

Gigabit Opportunity Act Introduced in House of Representatives

Earlier this month, Representative Doug Collins (R-GA) introduced the Gigabit Opportunity Act (GOA) in the House of Representatives. The bill, which was previously introduced in the Senate back in May by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax benefits for investments in so-called “gigabit opportunity zones.”

Under the GOA, a “gigabit opportunity zone” is a population census tract that is a low-income community which is located in a jurisdiction (a) that has been certified as having adopted the Uniform Model Broadband Deployment Act (which the GOA requires the FCC to prescribe), or (b) which has been determined by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to have adopted laws which are comparable to such Model Broadband Development Act. Once deemed an opportunity zone, gains from sales of investments in the area may be excluded or deferred from capital gains tax, based upon how long the investment was held.

In a statement, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, “Closing the digital divide is a top national priority. Gigabit Opportunity Zones would go a long way toward meeting that priority. By streamlining regulations to encourage broadband deployment and establishing targeted tax incentives for entrepreneurs to build those networks, we can empower millions of Americans, rural and urban alike. This is a common sense idea, and I’m excited to see it gaining bipartisan support.”

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak.

Senate Holds Hearing on USF and Rural Broadband Investment

On June 20, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, convened a hearing titled “The Universal Service Fund and Rural Broadband Investment.” At the hearing, the subcommittee heard testimony on the FCC’s Universal Service Fund and its capabilities for the deployment of broadband in rural America.

Witnesses at the hearing were: Mr. Michael Balhoff, CFA, Senior Partner at Charlesmead Advisors, LLC; Ms. Shirley Bloomfield, Chief Executive Officer of NTCA — The Rural Broadband Association; Mr. Eric Graham, Senior Vice President of Strategic Relations at C-Spire; and Dr. Karen Rheuban, Medical Director for the Office of Telemedicine and Director for the Center for Telehealth at the University of Virginia.

Mr. Balhoff testified that small rate-of-return carriers are “insufficiently funded, possibly by $260 million annually,” and that the issue with fund-targeting concerns rural areas within the large-carrier footprints. Ms. Bloomfield testified that, “small rural network operators and the customers they serve will need to come up somehow with $173 million to pay for broadband investments that the USF program would have supported just a year ago — and that the rules would still have permitted for recovery today via USF had it not been for “haircuts” made to enforce an artificial budget target adopted six years ago back when the program supported voice services only.” Mr. Graham testified that there are two flaws with USF: first, “landline companies never lost USF support despite losing almost half of their lines over the past 10-15 years [to wireless competitors],” and second, “contributions are based on a percentage of interstate and international telecommunications (long distance) revenues.” Finally, Dr. Rheuban testified that the Rural Healthcare Program requires more funding, and supported an expansion of the current $400 million cap.

A recording of the hearing, as well as full written testimony, is available here.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, Mary Sisak, and Sal Taillefer.

Effective Deadlines Established for Communications Disruptions Reconsideration Order

On June 22, the FCC published in the Federal Register notice of approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of the revisions adopted in the FCC’s Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration’s revisions to Part 4 of the FCC’s rules. Part 4 governs the submission of information regarding disruptions to telecommunications to facilitate FCC monitoring, analysis, and investigation of the reliability and security of voice, paging, and interconnected VoIP communications services.

Specifically, the effective dates are:

• For reporting of critical communications outages potentially affecting airports, July 24, 2017.
• For use of OC3-based metric for reporting major transport facility outages, with a corresponding threshold of 667 OC3 minutes for 30 minutes, February 1, 2018.
• For reporting of simplex outages that persist for at least 96 hours, December 22, 2017.
• For use of revised methodology to calculate the number of potentially affected users for wireless network outages, and use of adopted methodology to estimate the number of potentially affected wireless users for wireless outages affecting a PSAP, May 1, 2018.
• For adherence to the clarified standard for outages that significantly degrade communications to PSAPs, June 22, 2018.
• For reporting of events impacting special offices and facilities enrolled in the TSP Program as Level 1 or Level 2, and disruptions impacting airports listed as current primary (PR) airports in the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airports Systems, December 22, 2018.

Carriers interested in obtaining more information about these requirements should feel free to contact the firm for more information.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

FCC Proposes $120 Million Fine for “Massive” Spoofing Operation

On June 23, the FCC proposed a $120 million fine against an individual who apparently made almost 100 million spoofed robocalls in violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act, which law prohibits callers from deliberately falsifying caller ID information to disguise their identity with the intent to harm or defraud consumers.

According to a Press Release, Mr. Adrian Abramovich of Miami, Florida apparently made 96 million spoofed robocalls during a three-month period. Mr. Abramovich’s operation apparently made the spoofed calls in order to trick unsuspecting consumers into answering and listening to his advertising messages. The proposed fine is based on 80,000 spoofed calls that the FCC has verified.

Consumers reported receiving calls that appeared to come from local numbers but, if they answered, they heard an automated message prompting them to “Press 1” to hear about “exclusive” vacation deals from well-known travel and hospitality companies such as Marriott, Expedia, Hilton and TripAdvisor. Consumers who did press the button were then transferred to foreign call centers where live operators attempted to sell vacation packages often involving timeshares. The call centers were not affiliated with the well-known travel and hospitality companies mentioned in the recorded message.

TripAdvisor contacted the FCC in 2016 after receiving complaints from consumers claiming the company had been robocalling them. TripAdvisor independently investigated these complaints and identified Abramovich as the source. In addition, Spōk, a medical paging provider that serves hospitals, emergency rooms, and physicians, complained to FCC staff that an illegal robocalling campaign was disrupting its network. From the information provided by Spōk, the FCC traced the calls to Adrian Abramovich. The FCC also received numerous consumer complaints that appeared to be in response to calls made by Mr. Abramovich.

Mr. Abramovich apparently used what has been called “neighbor spoofing” in hopes of gaining the trust of those receiving the call and increasing the likelihood of their answering. Neighbor spoofing takes place when the caller falsifies the caller ID to match the area code and first three digits of the recipient’s phone number, instead of the caller’s number or the number where the call was actually originating. The FCC received numerous consumer complaints about this practice. For example, one consumer stated: “I have daily — sometimes multiple times [a] day — inbound spoofed calls (same area code and prefix as my own phone number) purporting to be from [Marriott]…”

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

Industry

AT&T Deploys Fixed Wireless to Meet CAF Commitment

AT&T announced this week that it had launched fixed wireless internet services for rural and underserved locations in eight new states, including Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Louisiana. The expansion of AT&T’s service is part of the company’s commitment under the Connect America Fund (CAF) to serve over 400,000 locations by the end of 2017 and over 1.1 million locations by 2020.

“We’re committed to connect hard-to-reach locations to the internet. This changes lives and creates economic growth for these areas,” said Cheryl Choy, vice president, wired voice and internet products at AT&T. “We’re excited to bring this service to even more underserved locations.”

The fixed wireless service provided by AT&T offers a home internet connection with download speeds of at least 10 Mbps. The service is priced at $60 per month (with contract) and imposes a cap of 160GB data with additional data is available at a rate of $10/50GB up to a max of $200/mo. AT&T will be using its licensed 2.3GHz WCS spectrum (Band 30) to deploy this rural fixed wireless service, which will be provided using standard LTE base stations, but runs over a largely separate network from AT&T’s current Mobility infrastructure. AT&T acquired WCS spectrum from NextWave and Sprint in a series of transactions beginning in 2012. The service will use the same AT&T Wi-Fi Gateways used for DSL service with an outdoor antenna that is professionally installed on the chimney or roof. AT&T will reportedly charge a $99 installation fee for the service when purchased either standalone or with a wireless plan, and this installation fee will be waived if bundled with DirecTV.

AT&T plans to launch its fixed wireless service in 18 states by the end of 2017. The additional states are Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. In August of 2015, the company accepted nearly $428 million in annual, ongoing support from the CAF to expand and support broadband for over 2.2 million rural customers. Carriers receiving CAF support must build out broadband to 40 percent of funded locations by the end 2017, 60 percent by the end of 2018, 80 percent by the end of 2019, and 100 percent by the end of 2020.

A state-by-state breakdown of annual support provided to AT&T and number of homes and businesses served is provided below.

AT&T’s commitment under the CAF is separate from the company’s promise to expand broadband deployment in exchange for the FCC’s 2015 approval of its $48.5 billion purchase of DirecTV. As part of that merger, AT&T-DirecTV is required to expand its deployment of fiber optic broadband internet service to 12.5 million customer locations, as well as to E-rate eligible schools and libraries, by 2019.

Deadlines

JULY 3: FCC FORM 481 (CARRIER ANNUAL REPORTING DATA COLLECTION FORM). All eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) receiving high cost support and/or lifeline support must report the information required by Section 54.313, which includes outage, unfulfilled service request, and complaint data, broken out separately for voice and broadband services, information on the ETC’s holding company, operating companies, ETC affiliates and any branding in response to section 54.313(a)(8); its CAF-ICC certification, if applicable; its financial information, if a privately held rate-of-return carrier; and its satellite backhaul certification, if applicable. Form 481 must not only be filed with USAC, but also with the FCC and the relevant state commission and tribal authority, as appropriate. Although USAC treats the filing as confidential, filers must seek confidential treatment separately with the FCC and the relevant state commission and tribal authority if confidential treatment is desired.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Sal Taillefer.

JULY 3: MOBILITY FUND PHASE I ANNUAL REPORT. Winning bidders in Auction 901 that are authorized to receive Mobility Fund Phase I support are required to submit to the FCC an annual report each year on July 1 for the five years following authorization. This year, July 1 falls on a Saturday; therefore, the report is due July 3. Each annual report must be submitted to the Office of the Secretary of the FCC, clearly referencing WT Docket No. 10-208; the Universal Service Administrator; and the relevant state commissions, relevant authority in a U.S. Territory, or Tribal governments, as appropriate. The information and certifications required to be included in the annual report are described in Section 54.1009 of the FCC’s rules.

BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Sal Taillefer.

JULY 31: FCC FORM 507, UNIVERSAL SERVICE QUARTERLY LINE COUNT UPDATE. Line count updates are required to recalculate a carrier's per line universal service support, and is filed with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). This information must be submitted on July 31 each year by all rate-of-return incumbent carriers, and on a quarterly basis if a competitive eligible telecommunications carrier (CETC) has initiated service in the rate-of-return incumbent carrier’s service area and reported line count data to USAC in the rate-of-return incumbent carrier’s service area, in order for the incumbent carrier to be eligible to receive Interstate Common Line Support (ICLS). This quarterly filing is due July 31 and covers lines served as of December 31, 2013. Incumbent carriers filing on a quarterly basis must also file on September 30 (for lines served as of March 31, 2014); December 30 (for lines served as of June 30, 2014), and March 31, 2015, for lines served as of September 30, 2014).

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens and Gerry Duffy.

JULY 31: CARRIER IDENTIFICATION CODE (CIC) REPORTS. Carrier Identification Code (CIC) Reports must be filed by the last business day of July (this year, July 31). These reports are required of all carriers who have been assigned a CIC code by NANPA. Failure to file could result in an effort by NANPA to reclaim it, although according to the Guidelines this process is initiated with a letter from NANPA regarding the apparent non-use of the CIC code. The assignee can then respond with an explanation. (Guidelines Section 6.2). The CIC Reporting Requirement is included in the CIC Assignment Guidelines, produced by ATIS. According to section 1.4 of that document: At the direction of the NANPA, the access providers and the entities who are assigned CICs will be requested to provide access and usage information to the NANPA, on a semi-annual basis to ensure effective management of the CIC resource. (Holders of codes may respond to the request at their own election). Access provider and entity reports shall be submitted to NANPA no later than January 31 for the period ending December 31, and no later than July 31 for the period ending June 30. It is also referenced in the NANPA Technical Requirements Document, which states at 7.18.6: CIC holders shall provide a usage report to the NANPA per the industry CIC guidelines. . . The NAS shall be capable of accepting CIC usage reports per guideline requirements on January 31 for the period ending December 31 and no later than July 31 for the period ending June 30. These reports may also be mailed and accepted by the NANPA in paper form. Finally, according to the NANPA website, if no local exchange carrier reports access or usage for a given CIC, NANPA is obliged to reclaim it. The semi-annual utilization and access reporting mechanism is described at length in the guidelines.

BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens and Gerry Duffy.

AUGUST 1: LIVE 911 CALL DATA REPORTS FOR NON-NATIONWIDE PROVIDERS. Non-Nationwide Providers that do not provide coverage in any of the Test Cities must collect and report aggregate data based on the largest county within its footprint to APCO, NENA, and NASNA on the location technologies used for live 911 calls in those areas. Carriers should obtain spreadsheets with their company’s compliance data from their E911 service provider (e.g., Intrado / West). This is a recurring report due every six months — on first business day of second month after the six month period for which data is reported.

BloostonLaw Contact: Cary Mitchell.

AUGUST 3: E911 Indoor Location Accuracy - Initial Implementation Plan and First Progress Report. All CMRS service providers must prepare and submit to the FCC an Initial Implementation Plan which describes their company’s plans for meeting the FCC’s improved indoor location accuracy requirements, as well as a related First Progress Report which describes their efforts to date toward meeting the plan. The FCC has not specified a particular format for these filings, so we are preparing a template that will combine both into a single report. Please contact us if you want us to prepare these filings on your company’s behalf.

BloostonLaw Contact: Cary Mitchell.

Calendar At-A-Glance

June
Jun. 29 – Petitions regarding 7-Day Tariff Filings are due (NOON EST).
Jun. 30 – Replies to Petitions regarding 7-Day Tariff Filings are due (NOON EST).
Jun. 30 – Study Area Boundary Recertifications are due.

July
Jul. 3 – FCC Form 481 is due.
Jul. 3 – Mobility Fund Phase I Recipient Reports are due.
Jul 3. – Comments are due on Robocall Blocking proceeding.
Jul 3. – Reply comments are due on Speed Disclosure Petition for Declaratory Ruling.
Jul. 6 – Comments are due on BDS for Model Based RoR Carrier Petition for Rulemaking.
Jul. 7 – Comments are due on CAF Phase II Census Block List.
Jul. 7 – Reply comments are due on FY2017 Regulatory Fee NPRM.
Jul. 10 – Comments are due on Local Service Rate Floor NPRM.
Jul. 10 – Deadline for MVPDs to Pass Through Emergency Information.
Jul. 11 – Reply comments are due on VRS User Equipment Profile FNPRM.
Jul. 17 – Reply comments are due on Wireless Broadband Infrastructure proceeding.
Jul. 17 – Reply comments are due on Wireline Broadband Infrastructure proceeding.
Jul. 17 – Comments are due on Broadband Title I Reclassification NPRM.
Jul. 21 – Reply comments are due on BDS for Model Based RoR Carrier Petition for Rulemaking.
Jul. 24 – Reply comments are due on Local Service Rate Floor NPRM.
Jul. 31 – FCC Form 507 (Universal Service Quarterly Line Count Update) is due.
Jul. 31 – Carrier Identification Code (CIC) Report is due.
Jul. 31 – International Traffic Data Report is due.
Jul. 31 – Reply comments are due on Robocall Blocking proceeding.

August
Aug. 1 - Live 911 Call Data Reports for Non-Nationwide Providers due.
Aug. 3 – E911 Indoor Location Accuracy Initial implementation plan / first progress reports due.
Aug. 7 – Deadline to file for 3.65-3.7 GHz Grandfathered Protection Zone.
Aug. 16 – Reply comments are due on Broadband Title I Reclassification NPRM.

Strong Ties Bind Amateurs and Broadcasters

For many in our business, ham radio remains close to their hearts

June 13, 2017 By James Careless

Many people who work in broadcast radio got their start as amateur radio operators — hams — and remain active in the hobby.

At iHeartMedia alone, “we have 157 people on our ham radio list,” said Charles Wooten, director of engineering and IT at iHeartMedia Panama City, Fla. An amateur radio operator himself since the age of 12 (call sign NF4A), Wooten maintains that list. “Ninety percent of them are engineers, but we also have DJs, program directors and operations directors.” At least four of the company’s regional engineering VPs are hams.

When emergencies strike, hams such as these from the Richmond Amateur Radio Club in British Columbia, Canada, volunteer their services.

The fact that so many of iHeart’s hams are engineers makes sense. Many of the skills that a ham learns to get on air are the same needed by a technical broadcast professional.

“Ohm’s Law is Ohm’s Law, whether you are using it to work on a home-built amateur radio transmitter or to keep a major-market radio station on air,” said Walter Palmer, W4ALT and director of broadcast operations, engineering and programming at Newsradio WGMD 92.7 FM in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

“So it makes sense that someone who loved ham as a teenager would be drawn to radio engineering as a career. It was certainly true for me.”

ONE LOVE DROVE ANOTHER

There’s a good reason so many professional radio engineers started as ham radio operators: They were exposed to the hobby long before needing to find a job. This was the case for Wooten.

“When I was 11, I was curious as to what was causing the TV interference to my Saturday morning cartoons,” he recalled. “Once I figured out that it was a neighbor’s ham radio rig and got to see his shack for myself, I caught the bug right there and studied to get my ham license.”

In turn, the RF propagation and electrical knowledge Wooten gained as a teenaged ham — often building his own equipment for very little money — gave him the insight and interest to seek out radio engineering as a career.

The same is true for Brad Humphries, AE4VJ and market director of engineering for the Beasley Media Group in Charlotte, N.C.

“I’ve been an electronic nerd most of my life, and a ham since I was 14,” said Humphries. “A summer job at a local amusement park led me into fixing up their handheld radio system using my ham knowledge, which eventually led me into broadcasting.”

Steve Dove. “I got my license as soon as it was legally possible at 14.”

Steve Dove, W3EEE and minister of algorithms for Wheatstone, said via email, “I got my license, G3YDV, as soon as it was legally possible at 14; for a brief while, I think I was the youngest ham in the [UK].” His entry into broadcasting? “I was a young, restless and somewhat rebellious anti-establishment teenager. The ’60s ship-borne pirate radio station era (Radio London, Radio Caroline) was drawing to a close, and hordes of little land-based pirates filled the gap; including me.”

As part of that merry band, Dove and his fellow pirates built home-brew tube transmitters up to 100 watts, and then the consoles to produce programming.

“In order to pay the subsequent fine when we were caught, we started a mobile disco using the studio gear and an equally home-brew PA, and the console drew the attention of a ‘proper’ console manufacturer, Alice,” Dove said. “Commercial broadcasting started late in the UK [early ’70s] and the timing was perfect; of the first 40 stations, we had consoles in 19 of them.” He subsequently did console work while touring with AC/DC, Jethro Tull and Yes in his pre-Wheatstone days.

On the flip side, Nautel Regional Sales Manager Asia/Pacific Chuck Kelly, VE1MDO, got into amateur radio while working as a radio engineer.

“My father and grandfather were hams, so you could say that I grew up with the hobby,” Kelly said. “But it wasn’t until I was working in radio that I saw how having an amateur radio license and equipment could help my job; especially during emergencies where regular communications were down.”

In the 1970s, Scott Westerman, W9WSW, was working in broadcast radio at Michigan State University, where he is now associate vice president for alumni relations. That was when he learned how useful ham radio operators could be during emergencies, providing lifeline communications for first responders and the public alike.

“Today, I am a licensed ham who belongs to the SKYWARN tornado spotter’s network,” Westerman said. “We keep an eye out for signs of pre-tornado swirling clouds from various locations, and radio that information into the National Weather Service during severe weather.”

MACGYVERISH GIFT TO RADIO ENGINEERS

There is no doubt that ham radio has inspired many of its youngest practitioners with a love of radio transmission and technology, a love that guided them to professional careers in radio broadcasting. The industry is better off for it.

But amateur radio has done more for radio than provide it with a pool of talented, motivated employees. It has also given these people an intellectual grounding in the basics of radio engineering, combined with a MacGyverish ability to make things work; no matter what.

Wooten’s engineering vehicle in Biloxi, Miss., the day after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. Photo courtesy Charles Wooten

“I don’t think that there is anyone who understands radio science and technology at such as profound a level as hams,” said Chuck Kelly. “They’ve got such a deep grasp of radio that they can dive into and fix equipment problems at the most basic level; down to individual resistors, capacitors and diodes.”

This profound knowledge and know-how is a function of equipment-buying poverty; particularly among older hams when they were teenagers.

“When I was starting out as a kid in amateur radio, I didn’t have a lot of money, so I learned to make do with what I had at hand,” said Wooten. “This teaches you creative engineering and trouble-shooting skills that really pay off at a radio station when things go wrong; especially during an emergency when spare parts aren’t readily available.”

A case in point: During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Wooten used his ham radio skills to keep the Clear Channel cluster of five radio stations in Biloxi, Miss., on the air.

“Without the ability to improvise and work with what we had, we would have gone dark when people most needed us,” he said. Using his ham skills, Wooten and his team nursed a generator with a water leak along for a few days, keeping the five stations on air until a new one could be brought it. They also used a portable satellite dish to create a two-way satellite link.

“We were the only stations in the Biloxi area with telephone service,” Wooten recalled. “The satellite channel provided T-1 [1.544 Mpbs] bandwidth, part of which was used for a couple of Cisco IP phones connected back to the corporate offices in Texas. The staff could call anywhere on these phones.”

All told, it was a fix MacGyver would have been proud of.

“Ham radio is all about using what you’ve got laying around, when you have to do something,” said Brad Humphries. “That is a good skill to have, because in the middle of the night when you have a problem at the radio station, you’re just going to have what you’ve got at hand to do something with.”

A SOURCE OF NEW BLOOD FOR RADIO?

iHeartMedia’s Charles Wooten, NF4A, left, and Tad Williamson Jr., WF4W, are shown at C82DX, a 2013 amateur radio event in Xai Xai, Mozambique. Photo courtesy Charles Wooten

It is widely held in the radio industry that engineering talent is scarce and becoming scarcer as engineers retire. At the same time, the upcoming generation of technically-minded youth is attracted to information technology rather than RF transmission and radio broadcasting. This begs a question: Could young people who are signing up as hams serve as an engineering talent pool for the radio broadcasting industry?

After all, “A repeater used for AM broadcasting is identical to one used by amateur radio operators,” said Dana Puopolo, a licensed ham (K1PUW) for 43 years and chief engineer of WGLS(FM)/Rowan University Radio in Glassboro, N.J.

“My ham walkie-talkie was type-accepted to work both for amateur and commercial radio usage, while the antennas used by AM radio and the 160 meter ham band are basically identical, except for their configurations. So yes, there is enough crossover between ham radio and commercial radio to justify training hams as professional engineers.”

This said, attracting young hams to radio broadcasting would require some changes in the radio industry.

“iHeartMedia pays our engineers well and treats them fairly, but there are many stations that don’t,” said Wooten. “Without better working conditions, talented young hams are likely to go into other fields of engineering; even though they love radio and we could use them here.”

Whatever happens, one thing is clear: The strong bonds between amateur radio and commercial radio continue to benefit the broadcasting industry, and inspire a love of the medium not found in many technical industries.

Brad Dye, Ron Mercer, Allan Angus, Vic Jackson, and Ira Wiesenfeld are friends and colleagues who work both together and independently, on wireline and wireless communications projects.

Click here for a summary of their qualifications and experience. Each one has unique abilities. We would be happy to help you with a project, and maybe save you some time and money.

Note: We do not like Patent Trolls, i.e. “a person or company who enforces patent rights against accused infringers in an attempt to collect licensing fees, but does not manufacture products or supply services based upon the patents in question.” We have helped some prominent law firms defend their clients against this annoyance, and would be happy to do some more of this same kind of work.

Some people use the title “consultant” when they don't have a real job. We actually do consulting work, and help others based on our many years of experience.

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“If you would know the road ahead, ask someone who has traveled it.”
— Chinese Proverb

Wireless Network Planners
Wireless Specialists

R.H. (Ron) Mercer Consultant 217 First Street East Northport, NY 11731
Telephone: 631-786-9359
www.wirelessplanners.com
wirelessplannerron@gmail.com

Music

“If music be the food of love . . . play on.”

— William Shakespeare

El Choclo • Playing For Change • Live Outside

Published on Oct 27, 2016
We're excited to share this video filmed live outside in sunny Los Angeles, CA. This performance of the song “El Choclo” features violinist Pablo Hopenhayn from Buenos Aires, Argentina and guitarist Federico Ferrandina from Matera, Italy. The song “El Choclo” (meaning: “The corn cob”) is a popular Argentine tango that was written by tango pioneer, Ángel Villoldo. Feel the passion and carry this love in your heart wherever you go.

Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music. The idea for this project came from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.