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This Week's Wireless News HeadlinesWho invented the cellphone? Dr. Martin Cooper gets the well-deserved credit, but it was actually AT&T and Bell Labs that invented cellular technology. There were cellular “car telephones” before Marty Cooper and Motorola produced the first modern portable cellular handset. More on this follows below. |
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This Week's Wireless News Headlines
— THIS WEEK'S MUSIC VIDEO — The music video of the week is from Gary Pudles, President and CEO of AnswerNet. He is the drummer in the band. I am happy to see someone having fun outside of their office work. The good life is all about balance. Thanks Gary.
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NO POLITICS HERE
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.
A new issue of the Wireless Messaging Newsletter is posted on the web each week. A notification goes out by e-mail to subscribers on most Fridays around noon central US time. The notification message has a link to the actual newsletter on the web. That way it doesn’t fill up your incoming e-mail account. 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. I spend the whole week searching the INTERNET for news that I think may be of interest to you — so you won’t have to. This newsletter is an aggregator — a service that aggregates news from other news sources. You can help our community by sharing any interesting news that you find.
Editorial Opinion pieces present only the opinions of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any of advertisers or supporters. This newsletter is independent of any trade association. I don't intend to hurt anyone's feelings, but I do freely express my own opinions. |
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How the cell phone changed lives... by its inventor By Martin Cooper The first mobile call ever was made on April 3, 1973
Martin Cooper is an American Engineer who is credited with inventing the first handheld cellular mobile phone back in 1973 while working at Motorola. In addition to being the “father of the cell phone”, Cooper is also the first person in history to make a call from a mobile phone in public. What follows is an extract from Chapter 13 of his new book Cutting the Cord titled “How the Cell Phone Changes Lives” which is now available at bookstores as well as online. In 2001, roughly 45 percent of the US population had a cell phone. Ownership had doubled in the previous four years and quadrupled over the prior six. On September 11 of that year, terrorists hijacked airplanes and launched attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. On at least one of the hijacked planes, passengers used cell phones to communicate with family members on the ground. In many locations, however, cell sites had not yet been installed or existing sites didn’t have the capacity to carry the sudden increase in cellular telephone calls. Many first responders and government officials could not be reached, even on the wired network. On that awful day, radio pagers — what many called beepers — were a principal means of how information about the attacks spread. Even though there were three times as many cell phones as pagers, pagers were still widely used for contacting and alerting people, including at the highest levels of the US government. Among White House staff traveling with President George W. Bush, “everyone’s pager started going off” as word spread of the attacks. There were no phones on Air Force One, which carried the president around the country as they tried to figure out what action to take. The White House press secretary had a two-way pager, not a cell phone, that could send and receive only a few predetermined responses. The presidential entourage was only able to get updates on the attacks by picking up local television signals as the plane flew around. In the North Tower of the World Trade Center, pagers were the principal source of news for those trying to get out. Long lines formed at pay phones around Manhattan. These pagers were descendants of the first nationwide devices Motorola introduced thirty years earlier. People want and need to be in touch with each other — conveniently, affordably, often immediately, and, during emergencies, urgently. In the late 1960s, when pagers were teaching us about constant connectivity and the portable cell phone was still a distant dream, I had a science fiction prediction. I told anyone who would listen that, someday, every person would be issued a phone number at birth. If someone called and you didn’t answer, that would mean you had died. On September 11, we experienced the dark obverse of this prediction—if you tried to get in touch with someone and couldn’t get through, you feared they had died.
I expected, even in the early 1970s, that everyone — everyone — would want and need a cell phone. Others at Motorola shared this expectation of ubiquity because our two-way radio business had shown us firsthand how many businesses functioned magnitudes better when people were connected. The Mount Sinai providers, airport workers, and Chicago police officers taught us how being connected made organizations work. We remembered the physicians who refused to give up their pagers so we could fix them. Portable devices like the pager and cell phone, through both mundane use and tragedies like September 11, became anytime, anywhere companions, integral to identity itself. These experiences demonstrated a principle of technology that has shaped my outlook for decades. Proof of a product’s usefulness comes when users become so dependent upon and attached to it that they will not give it up, regardless of defects or negative impact. The cell phone has proved this many times over. In a 2014 Supreme Court decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that cell phones “are now such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.” What surprised even me was the speed and scope of adoption. I did not imagine that more people in the world would eventually have access to cell phones than flush toilets.
We tend to overestimate technology’s impact in the short run but underestimate its long-term impact. This is known as Amara’s Law, after Roy Amara, a Stanford scientist who ran the Institute for the Future think tank for twenty years. Cell phones are a classic example. In Motorola’s fact sheet about the DynaTAC produced for the media in April 1973, we said that “the portable phone is designed for use ‘on the go,’ when one is away from the office or home, where conventional telephones are not available.” We believed that most people were “on the go” most of the time. And that is even more true now than it was then. After cellular phones became a functioning business, the spark that my team and I ignited didn’t light much of a fire within the financial community at Motorola. When we prepared the budget for cell phone development, Jim Caile, my marketing manager, showed me a forecast for sales of portable cell phones. We agreed that the first phones would go to market by the mid- to late 1970s. The predicted quantities of product shipments, however, struck me as totally unacceptable. I knew what it would cost for the engineering and other talents needed to develop a manufacturable cell phone. I had done it enough times, and underestimated those costs enough times, to be pretty confident in my estimates. And I also knew that we would never get our leaders to buy into a plan that would sell too few cell phones to recover that investment. On the other hand, the naysayers, especially the financial managers, would laugh us out of the room if we were as optimistic as we wanted to be. I looked at the forecast again. “Double all the sales forecasts,” I told Caile, “and let’s see if we can sell the plan.” He dutifully did that, and management approved. We weren’t that far off on the sales forecast, but only because most of the early cell phones were car phones. The portable was too expensive, and there were not enough cell sites to support reliable portable communications. By 1990, portable performance and size became more practical, and sales grew rapidly. By 2000 it was difficult to buy a car phone; the handheld had taken over. By the 2000s, the collapse of wired telephone subscribers had started. People didn’t believe me when I predicted, in the 1970s, that the wired phone would, in the distant future, be made obsolete. Yet none of us at Motorola envisioned features like cameras on phones. After all, there weren’t digital cameras in 1973, so it wasn’t even on our radar of technological possibility. Throughout the 1960s, Motorola had been a leader in transistors and incorporated them into consumer electronics. This included the DynaTAC, so we had some notion that, to improve performance, cell phones would include more and more transistors. But we certainly didn’t imagine that the cell phone would become a smartphone, a computer in its own right. The personal computer was still in development at the time, and the Internet was just being conceived. Almost universally, predictions about the use and popularity of cell phones were comically wrong. In 1984, Fortune magazine predicted there would be one million cell phone users in the United States by 1989. The actual figure was 3.5 million. In 1994, consultants estimated that by 2004, there would be between sixty and ninety million cell phone users globally. Even the generous margin of error they gave themselves was insufficient: the actual number in 2004 was 182 million. This is an excerpt from, Cutting the Cord, by Martin Cooper, the inventor of the first cell phone. (You can purchase the book from Amazon in hardcover for $22.99 or read it digitally on Kindle for just $2.99). [Editor's note: I have ordered my copy of the book.] |
| Source: | Tech Radar |
Paging Transmitters 150/900 MHz The RFI High Performance Paging Transmitter is designed for use in campus, city, state and country-wide paging systems. Designed for use where reliable simulcast systems where RF signal overlap coverage is critical.
Built-in custom interface for Prism-IPX ipBSC Base Controller for remote control, management and alarm reporting.
Prism-IPX Systems LLC. 11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022
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The Wireless Messaging News
The Board of Advisor members are people with whom I have developed a special rapport, and have met personally. They are not obligated to support the newsletter in any way, except with advice, and maybe an occasional letter to the editor.
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The History of Cellular Phones
By Mary Bellis In 1947, researchers looked at crude mobile (car) phones and realized that by using small cells (a range of service area) and found that with frequency reuse they could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially. However, the technology to do so at the time was nonexistent. RegulationThen there’s the issue of regulation. A cell phone is a type of two-way radio and anything to do with broadcasting and sending a radio or television message out over the airwaves is under the authority of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation. In 1947, AT&T proposed that the FCC allocate a large number of radio-spectrum frequencies so that widespread mobile telephone service would become feasible, which would also give AT&T an incentive to research the new technology. The agency’s response? The FCC decided to limit the number of frequencies available in 1947. The limits made only twenty-three phone conversations possible simultaneously in the same service area and gone was the market incentive for research. In a way, we can partially blame the FCC for the gap between the initial concept of cellular service and its availability to the public. It wasn’t until 1968 that the FCC reconsidered its position, stating that "if the technology to build a better mobile service works, we will increase the frequencies allocation, freeing the airwaves for more mobile phones." With that, AT&T and Bell Labs proposed a cellular system to the FCC of many small, low-powered, broadcast towers, each covering a “cell” a few miles in radius and collectively covering a larger area. Each tower would use only a few of the total frequencies allocated to the system. And as the phones traveled across the area, calls would be passed from tower to tower. Dr. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, is considered the inventor of the first modern portable handset. In fact, Cooper made the first call on a portable cell phone in April 1973 to his rival, Joel Engel, who served as Bell Labs head of research. The phone was a prototype called the DynaTAC and weighed 28 ounces. Bell Laboratories had introduced the idea of cellular communications in 1947 with the police car technology, but it was Motorola that first incorporated the technology into a portable device designed for use outside of automobiles. [emphasis added] By 1977, AT&T and Bell Labs had constructed a prototype cellular system. A year later, public trials of the new system were held in Chicago with over 2,000 customers. In 1979, in a separate venture, the first commercial cellular telephone system began operation in Tokyo. In 1981, Motorola and American Radio telephone started a second U.S. cellular radiotelephone system test in the Washington/Baltimore area. And by 1982, the slow-moving FCC finally authorized commercial cellular service for the USA. So despite the incredible demand, it took cellular phone service many years to become commercially available in the United States. Consumer demand would soon outstrip the 1982 system standards and by 1987, cellular telephone subscribers exceeded one million with the airways becoming more and more crowded. There are basically three ways of improving services. Regulators can increase frequencies allocation, existing cells can be split and the technology can be improved. The FCC did not want to hand out any more bandwidth and building or splitting cells would have been expensive as well as add bulk to the network. So to stimulate the growth of new technology, the FCC declared in 1987 that cellular licensees could employ alternative cellular technologies in the 800 MHz band. With that, the cellular industry began to research new transmission technology as an alternative.
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| Source: | ThoughtCo. |
| PRISM IPX Systems |
With PRISM IPX Systems, Your message is delivered Secure & Encrypted
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| Easy Solutions |
Providing Expert Support and Service Contracts for all Glenayre Paging Systems. The GL3000 is the most prolific paging system in the world and Easy Solutions gladly welcomes you to join us in providing reliable support to the paging industry for many more decades in the future. Easy Solutions provides cost effective computer and wireless solutions at affordable prices. We can help in most any situation with your communications systems. We have many years of experience and a vast network of resources to support the industry, your system and an ever changing completive landscape.
Please see our web site for exciting solutions designed specifically for the Wireless Industry. We also maintain a diagnostic lab and provide important repair and replacement parts services for Motorola and Glenayre equipment. Call or Easy Solutions |
GLENAYRE INFRASTRUCTUREI would like to recommend Easy Solutions for Support of all Glenayre Paging Equipment. This Texas company is owned and operated by Vaughan Bowden. I have known Vaughan for over 35 years. Without going into a long list of his experience and qualifications, let me just say that he was the V.P. of Engineering at PageNet which was—at that time—the largest paging company in the world. So Vaughan knows Paging. GTES is no longer offering support contracts. GTES was the original group from Vancouver that was setup to offer support to customers that wanted to continue with the legacy Glenayre support. Many U.S. customers chose not to use this service because of the price and the original requirement to upgrade to version 8.0 software (which required expensive hardware upgrades, etc.). Most contracts ended as of February 2018. If you are at all concerned about future support of Glenayre products, especially the “king of the hill” the GL3000 paging control terminal, I encourage you to talk to Vaughan about a service contract and please tell him about my recommendation. Click on the image above for more info about advertising here. |
INTERNET Protocol Terminal
The IPT accepts INTERNET or serial messaging using various protocols and can easily convert them to different protocols, or send them out as paging messages. An ideal platform for hospitals, on-site paging applications, or converting legacy systems to modern protocols.
Additional/Optional Features
Prism-IPX Systems LLC. 11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
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Apr 7, 2021, 07:08 pm EDT Serious Warning Issued For Millions Of iPad, iPhone UsersGordon Kelly — Senior Contributor Apple is having a great year, but it has just taken a turn for the worse as a serious new warning has been issued for every iPad and iPhone user.
In a series of tweets (via MacRumors), developer Kosta Elefherious has exposed a shocking flaw in the Apple App Store which enables scammers to defraud iPad and iPhone owners of millions of dollars using Apple’s own in-app purchasing system. Moreover, Apple is actually profiting from these apps. In his tweets, Elefherious highlights the example of ‘Privacy Assistant: StringVPN’ which MacRumors notes was ranked as highly as #32 in the App Store's Utilities category today. Despite the developer registering their address as a blank website, using hundreds of obviously fake reviews and numerous real users leaving comments trying to warn others that it is a scam, Elefherious states the app is pulling in over $1M/month — of which Apple is taking a cut. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Replying to Elefherious, another user reveals he reported a scam app called ‘TOR Browser Evil Onion’ to Apple “over a month ago” and again, despite hundreds of clearly fake reviews and user warnings it is trying to extort money, it remains live. As Elefherious commented “Wake up, @Apple” It gets worse. Back in February, Elefherious warned he found clones of his own app, FlickType (an Apple Watch keyboard), which were tricking users with subscriptions of up to $8/week for non-functional apps. He even wrote a thread at the time “How to spot a $5M/year scam on the @AppStore, in 5 minutes flat” and highlighted app ‘Star Gazer+’ as a clear example of this. Despite numerous warnings in the review section that Star Gazer+ is a scam, two months on the app is also still live. How are these scam apps bypassing Apple’s App Store algorithms? According to Eleftheriou, it’s not hard: copy a successful app and pay for hundreds of fake five-star reviews, that's it. Eleftheriou even points out that enough fake five-star reviews can earn these apps “Recommended by Apple” popups in Safari. If there is a silver lining, it is that Elefherious’ fight is finding allies. Ruby on Rails and Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson retweeted Elefherious’ warning today writing: “Kosta keeps finding these disgraceful scams in Apple's App Store. They're all running on Apple's billing platform. So clearly simply taking a cut of the business is not enough for Apple to ensure things are safe. Almost like it's just a talking point not an action point!” For Apple, this now has to become an action point. The company markets heavily based on its commitment to user security and began publicising the App Store late last year under the slogan “The apps you love. From a place you can trust.” I have contacted Apple and will update this post if I receive a response. ___ Follow Gordon on Facebook |
| Source: | Forbes |
Paging Data Receiver PDR-4 The PDR-4 is a multi-function paging data receiver that decodes paging messages and outputs them via the serial port, USB or Ethernet connectors. Designed for use with Prism-IPX ECHO software Message Logging Software to receive messages and log the information for proof of transmission over the air, and if the data was error free.
Prism-IPX Systems LLC. 11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
Wireless Network Planners
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Press Release from Critical Messaging Association
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| Source: | Critical Messaging Association |
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 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. “If you would know the road ahead, ask someone who has traveled it.” — Chinese Proverb
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Remote AB Switches ABX-1 switches are often used at remote transmitter sites to convert from old, outdated and unsupported controllers to the new modern Prism-IPX ipBSC base station controllers. Remotely switch to new controllers with GUI commands. ABX-1
ABX-3 switches are widely used for enabling or disabling remote equipment and switching I/O connections between redundant messaging systems. ABX-3
Common Features:
Prism-IPX Systems LLC. 11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
| Leavitt Communications |
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| Inside Towers Newsletter |
15 Senators Urge White House to Fund Secure 5G Networks
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) led a bipartisan group of Senators in urging President Joe Biden with a 5G security recommendation: The administration should include at least $3 billion to help fund the development of software-based alternatives to the 5G hardware sold by China’s Huawei and ZTE. Specifically, lawmakers urged Biden to request at least $1.5 billion each for two funds established by Congress to encourage the adoption of Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) equipment. They say Open RAN technology would allow additional vendors to enter the 5G market and compete with manufacturers like Huawei, which is heavily subsidized by the Chinese government. “Current RAN infrastructure relies on closed, end-to-end hardware solutions that are expensive to operate and dominated by foreign companies. For example, Huawei, a company with inextricable links to the Chinese government and a history of disregard for the intellectual property rights of U.S. companies, offers end-to-end RAN hardware, which poses significant counterintelligence concerns,” the Senators wrote in a letter this week. “For years, we have called on telecommunications providers in the U.S., as well as our allies and partners, to reject Huawei 5G technology, but we have not provided competitively priced, innovative alternatives that would address their needs,” added lawmakers. They told the president that, as wireless networks adapt to the growing demands for 5G connectivity, a new Open RAN architecture will allow telecommunications providers to migrate from the current hardware-centric approach into a software-centric model that relies heavily on cloud-based services. “This architecture will break down the current end-to-end proprietary stack of hardware; lower barriers to entry and prompt innovation; diversify the supply chain and decrease dependence on foreign suppliers; and spur Open RAN deployments throughout the United States,” they explained. They said these changes would be especially vital to rural America. “Providing resources for these Funds in your budget request presents an opportunity to realize this vision.” In addition to Warner, 14 other bipartisan members of the Senate Intelligence Committee signed the letter. They include: Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Burr (R-NC), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Susan Collins (R-ME), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Angus King (I-ME), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Michael Bennet (D-CO), John Cornyn (R-TX), Bob Casey (D-PA), Ben Sasse (R-NE), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Commerce Department Still Assessing Huawei RiskApril 9, 2021 5:57 am
UPDATE Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday she intends to aggressively push back against China. However, she explained, reviews are ongoing about how the Biden administration will address Huawei, reported The Hill. “We have to level the playing field, no one can outcompete the American worker if the playing field is level,” Raimondo said during a White House press briefing. “The fact is China’s actions are uncompetitive, coercive, [and] underhanded. [T]hey have proven they will do whatever it takes, and so I plan to use all the tools in my toolbox as aggressively as possible to protect American workers and businesses from unfair Chinese practices.” Telecommunications company Huawei became a major focus of the former Trump administration’s efforts to take a stance against China. Huawei was placed on the Commerce Department’s “entity list,” effectively blacklisting the company due to national security concerns, Inside Towers reported. While Raimondo did not directly commit to how the Commerce Department or the Biden administration will approach either company, she noted that national security advisor Jake Sullivan is leading a review of the company and other China-related topics. “A lot of people have asked, ‘Will Huawei stay on the entity list?’ I have no reason to believe that they won’t, but we are in the middle of an overall review of China policy,” Raimondo said. “We are in the thick of it right now, we are working as aggressively as we can. We’re not wasting time on it.” The White House did not have an immediate response to The Hill’s request for comment on the ongoing China review. Huawei has repeatedly denied posing a national security threat. Biden in February called for creating “rules of the road” on cybersecurity as part of efforts to push back against China and Russia. He also called for Chinese companies to be more transparent in the wake of concerns around links of Chinese tech groups to the government. “U.S. and European companies are required to publicly disclose corporate governance structures, and abide by rules to deter corruption and monopolistic practices,” Biden said as part of remarks at the virtual Munich Security Conference. “Chinese companies must be held to the same standards.” |
| Source: | Inside Towers newsletter | Courtesy of the editor of Inside Towers Jim Fryer. Inside Towers is a daily newsletter by subscription. |
| BloostonLaw Newsletter |
USDA Accepting Distance Learning / Telemedicine Grant Program Applications Until June 4On April 5, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it is accepting applications for Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program grants to help provide educational and medical services in rural areas. Applications must be submitted no later than June 4, 2021. The DLT program helps fund distance learning and telemedicine services in rural areas to increase access to education, training and health care resources that are otherwise limited or unavailable. USDA plans to make $44.5 million available in fiscal year 2021. Of this amount, $10.2 million is intended for projects that provide substance use disorder treatment services in rural areas. Eligible applicants include most state and local governmental entities, federally recognized tribes, nonprofits, and for-profit businesses. BloostonLaw Contact: Sal Taillefer. HeadlinesFCC Announces Tentative Agenda for April Open MeetingOn April 1, the FCC announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the March Open Commission Meeting scheduled for April 22, 2021:
Each summary above contains a link to the draft text of each item expected to be considered at this Open Commission Meeting. However, it is possible that changes will be made before the Meeting. One-page cover sheets prepared by the FCC are included in the public drafts to help provide an additional summary. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast. FCC Announces Inquiry Into 911 Location Accuracy Rule Compliance by Nationwide CarriersOn April 2, Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau is conducting an inquiry into several wireless providers’ compliance with FCC rules that require them to start delivering 911 callers’ vertical location (a.k.a. z-axis) information by April 3, 2021. According to a Press Release, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon sought an eighteen-month extension of this deadline, based in part on challenges with testing z-axis solutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of its inquiry, the Enforcement Bureau will review carriers’ past efforts to come into compliance with the FCC’s deadlines as well as the current capabilities of z-axis solutions. The Enforcement Bureau can take a range of actions for any violations of FCC rules, as appropriate. “Today we are taking action to ensure that wireless providers deliver on their public safety obligations,” said Rosenworcel. “The FCC adopted comprehensive rules to improve location information for 911 wireless calls back in 2015. But there has been too little progress since then, and I have consistently called on this agency to do more to ensure that our rules are delivering actionable information. It’s time for the FCC, public safety, and wireless carriers to work together to ensure that life-saving 911 location information is being delivered to first responders without further delay.” BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Cary Mitchell. Auction 109 AM/FM Broadcast to Begin July 27; FM Minor Change Applications FrozenOn April 1, the FCC issued a Public Notice announcing the procedures and minimum opening bid amounts for the upcoming auction of certain AM and FM broadcast construction permits. Bidding is scheduled to being on July 27. In order to avoid conflicts with auction, the FCC will not accept FM commercial and noncommercial educational (NCE) minor change applications during the Auction 109 Form 175 application filing window. This window will open on April 28, 2021, and close on May 11, 2021. Auction 109 will offer four construction permits in the AM broadcast service:
Auction 109 will also offer 136 construction permits in the FM broadcast service. The construction permits to be auctioned include all of the 130 FM permits that had previously been listed in the inventory for Auction 106, as well as six additional permits. The FM construction permits offered in Auction 109 include 34 construction permits that were offered but not sold or were defaulted upon in prior auctions. A list of the available permits can be found here. The following dates and deadlines apply:
Carriers interested in the Auction may contact the firm for more information. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino Law and RegulationComments on Wireless Service Provider Safety Measures during Disasters Due April 26On April 5, the FCC published in the Federal Register its Public Notice seeking comment on specific measures mobile wireless service providers have taken in recent years to improve network resilience during natural disasters, in order to inform a report to Congress, as contemplated by the Explanatory Statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Comments are due April 26. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on steps wireless mobile providers have taken to ensure network resiliency, including but not limited to: Back up power in areas prone to planned power outages to mitigate wildfires; pre-storm staging processes; roaming agreements that can be activated quickly following a natural disaster; effective coordination with power companies, municipalities, and backhaul providers; diversification of backhaul options in disaster prone areas; availability of deployable network assets; network infrastructure sharing among operators during natural disasters; and communicating disaster-related information with customers. The FCC also seeks comment on cost and benefit issues associated with implementing measures to maintain and improve resiliency of mobile wireless networks. Associated with maintaining and improving resiliency. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Sal Taillefer. TRACED Act Requirements Effective May 6On April 6, the FCC published in the Federal Register its Fourth Report and Order implementing the TRACED Act. Those requirements, with a few specific exceptions, will therefore become effective on May 6, 2021. § 64.1200(k)(9), which requires the transmission of an appropriate response code to the origination point of the call for blocked calls, is effective January 1, 2022; § 64.1200(k)(10), which requires carriers that block calls to provide a list of blocked calls to the subscriber, and (n)(2), which require voice service providers to take steps to mitigate illegal traffic when it receives written notice from the FCC, are delayed indefinitely. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, the Fourth Report and Order requires all voice service providers to take steps to stop illegal traffic on their networks and assist the FCC, law enforcement, and the industry traceback consortium (Consortium) in tracking down callers that make such calls. It also expands the FCC’s safe harbor to include network-based blocking based on reasonable analytics that incorporate caller ID authentication information designed to identify calls that are highly likely to be illegal, if this blocking is managed with human oversight and network monitoring sufficient to ensure that blocking is working as intended. It also requires that voice service providers that block calls disclose such blocking, establish a dispute resolution process to correct erroneous blocking, and promptly resolve disputes. Finally, the Fourth Report and Order addresses several other pending issues from the Call Blocking Further Notice of July 31, 2020, including whether to adopt a further safe harbor for the misidentification of the level of trust for calls and additional methods to protect consumers from unwanted calls and text messages from unauthenticated numbers. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens and Sal Taillefer. Digital Opportunity Data Collection Rules Effective May 7On April 7, the FCC published in the Federal Register its Third Report and Order establishing measures for collecting accurate and reliable broadband data. As a result, these rules are effective May 7 – but the data collection will not begin for some time yet. Specifically, the Third Report and Order requires facilities-based fixed service providers to report broadband Internet access service coverage in the Digital Opportunity Data Collection and to identify where such services are offered to residential locations as well as where they are offered to business locations; requiring the collection of speed and latency information from fixed service providers; requiring terrestrial fixed wireless services providers to report on the coordinates of their base stations; and requiring mobile providers to provide additional information reporting concerning provider networks and propagation, which will allow the FCC to verify provider data more effectively. The Third Report and Order also establishes the requirements for challenges to fixed and mobile service coverage reporting, and establishes standards for enforcement of the requirements associated with the Digital Opportunity Data Collection. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast. 3.45 GHz Band Sharing Rules Effective May 7On April 7, the FCC published in the Federal Register its Second Report and Order establishing licensing and operating rules for the 3.45 GHz Band service, and resolving technical issues so as to minimize potential interference to the adjacent CBRS band. As a result, these rules are effective May 7. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, the Second Report and Order adopts a primary non-federal fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) allocation for the band, as well as a cooperative sharing regime with incumbent DoD radar systems that will allow commercial providers to use the band on an unrestricted basis in most areas. At a handful of locations (typically near the coasts), commercial operators will need to coordinate with Federal users, and may be required to modify their operations (e.g., reduce power, add filters adjust antenna pointing angles, install shielding, etc.) to protect Federal operations against harmful interference. New licensees in the 3.45 GHz band will not be directly responsible for paying the cost of relocating incumbent federal users. Instead, these incumbents will be eligible for reimbursement for the cost of relocating or sharing their operations, and this will be paid for out of a portion of the auction proceeds. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Cary Mitchell. IndustryFCC Announces First Slate of Emergency Broadband Benefit ProvidersOn April 1, the FCC issued a Press Release announcing the first slate of Internet service providers accepted into its Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. Thus far, approximately 319 providers offering broadband service in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and half of U.S. territories will participate in the Program. A full list of accepted providers can be found at: https://www.fcc.gov/ebb-providers-state. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program provides eligible households with discounts of up to $50 a month for broadband service, and up to $75 a month if the household is on Tribal lands. It also provides a one-time discount of up to $100 on a computer or tablet for eligible households. The Program is open to households that participate in an existing low-income or pandemic relief program offered by a broadband provider; Lifeline subscribers, including those that are on Medicaid or accept SNAP benefits; households with kids receiving free and reduced-price lunch or school breakfast; Pell grant recipients; and those who have lost jobs and seen their income reduced in the last year. “Ever since the FCC adopted rules for the nation’s largest-ever program to help households nationwide afford broadband service, agency staff has been hard at work providing interested providers with guidance to participate in the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. This $3.2 billion program was designed to lower the cost of high-speed Internet service for those struggling to afford broadband connectivity during the ongoing pandemic and I’m proud of the progress we’ve made in onboarding more than 300 providers into the program. There are more to come. Every day we are approving additional interested providers, developing the program systems to make it available for consumer sign-up, and working hard to ensure that eligible households most at risk of digital disconnection can soon take advantage of this benefit,” said Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Supply Chain Workshop Scheduled for April 26On April 1, the FCC announced that it will be co-leading a workshop on April 26, 2021 with the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. According to a press release, the event will provide updates on efforts to secure the nation’s communications supply chain and is part of NCSC events in April highlighting National Supply Chain Integrity Month. The workshop will feature panels that explore initiatives to promote the supply chain integrity of small and medium-sized businesses and efforts to protect the software supply chain. Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel will provide opening remarks, and officials with NCSC, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration will deliver keynotes. Representatives from the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security, Wireless Telecommunications, and Wireline Competition Bureaus will also participate. The workshop will be live streamed on www.fcc.gov/live and on the FCC’s YouTube channel. Additional information regarding the agenda, speakers, and logistics will be available on the website closer to the event: www.fcc.gov/supply-chain-integrity-joint-workshop. “The FCC is taking significant action and working with its Federal partners to secure our nation’s communications networks. This workshop will bring together a broad group of government, industry, and public policy experts to explore our combined efforts on what we are doing today to build a safer future. It is vital that we work collaboratively to protect against vulnerabilities that could provide foreign interests with access to our networks, jeopardizing the security of communications in the United States,” said Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel. DeadlinesMAY 26: STUDY AREA BOUNDARY RECERTIFICATION. In addition to the obligation to submit updated information when study area boundaries change, all ILECs are required to recertify their study area boundary data every two years. The recertification is due this year by May 26. Where the state commission filed the study area boundary data for an ILEC, the state commission should submit the recertification. However, where the state commission did not submit data for the ILEC and the ILEC submitted the study area boundary data, then the ILEC should submit the recertification by May 26. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Sal Taillefer. MAY 31: FCC FORM 395, EMPLOYMENT REPORT. Common carriers, including wireless carriers, with 16 or more full-time employees must file their annual Common Carrier Employment Reports (FCC Form 395) by May 31. This report tracks carrier compliance with rules requiring recruitment of minority employees. Further, the FCC requires all common carriers to report any employment discrimination complaints they received during the past year. That information is also due on June 1. The FCC encourages carriers to complete the discrimination report requirement by filling out Section V of Form 395, rather than submitting a separate report. Clients who would like assistance in filing Form 395 should contact Richard Rubino. BloostonLaw Contacts: Gerry Duffy and Sal Taillefer. JUNE 1: FCC FORM 395, EMPLOYMENT REPORT. Common carriers, including wireless carriers, with 16 or more full-time employees must file their annual Common Carrier Employment Reports (FCC Form 395) by May 31. However, because the 31st is a Sunday this year, the filing will be due on June 1. This report tracks carrier compliance with rules requiring recruitment of minority employees. Further, the FCC requires all common carriers to report any employment discrimination complaints they received during the past year. That information is also due on June 1. The FCC encourages carriers to complete the discrimination report requirement by filling out Section V of Form 395, rather than submitting a separate report. BloostonLaw Contact: Richard Rubino. JULY 1: FCC FORM 481 (CARRIER ANNUAL REPORTING DATA COLLECTION FORM). All eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) must report the information required by Section 54.313, which includes 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. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Sal Taillefer. JULY 1: 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 Commission an annual report each year on July 1 for the five years following authorization. Each annual report must be submitted to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, 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 Commission’s rules. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Sal Taillefer. JULY 31: FCC FORM 507, LINE COUNT DATA (A-CAM AND ALASKA PLAN RECPIENTS). Sections 54.313(f)(5) and 54.903(a)(1) of the FCC’s rules requires all rate-of-return telecommunications carriers to provide line count information on FCC Form 507 to USAC, the universal service Administrator. Carriers receiving Connect America Fund Broadband Loop Support (CAF BLS) must submit this information annually on March 31st of each year, and may update the data on a quarterly basis. Carriers that receive Alternative Connect America Model (A-CAM) I, A-CAM II, or Alaska Plan support are required to file by July 1st of each year. For 2020, the FCC has extended the A-CAM filing deadline until July 31. BloostonLaw Contacts: Gerry Duffy and Sal Taillefer. 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. Calendar At-a-GlanceApril May June July
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