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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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FCC commissioner calls on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app storesBy Brian Fung, CNN Updated 7:19 PM ET, Wed June 29, 2022 Washington (CNN Business)A member of the Federal Communications Commission is renewing calls for Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing national security concerns surrounding TikTok's Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance. In a June 24 letter to the CEOs of Apple (AAPL (AAPL)) and Google (GOOGL (GOOGL)), FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr described ByteDance as "beholden" to the Chinese government and "required by law to comply with [Chinese government] surveillance demands." Citing a recent BuzzFeed News report that ByteDance's Chinese staff had accessed US TikTok users' data on multiple occasions, Carr said the allegations showed how TikTok is "out of compliance with the policies that both of your companies require every app to adhere to." Apple and Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, TikTok called the BuzzFeed report "misleading." "Like many global companies, TikTok has engineering teams around the world," TikTok said. "We employ access controls like encryption and security monitoring to secure user data, and the access approval process is overseen by our US-based security team. TikTok has consistently maintained that our engineers in locations outside of the US, including China, can be granted access to U.S. user data on an as-needed basis under those strict controls." In a statement, Buzzfeed News said it "stands categorically behind our reporting that US user data was accessed by China-based TikTok employees far more frequently than previously known, and we're glad that TikTok even confirmed this in its own statement." For years, US officials have expressed concerns that Chinese government access to US users' data or communications could put national security at risk. But whether Carr's plea will work is uncertain. The FCC plays no role in regulating Internet-based services such as app stores, and prior efforts by the US government to ban TikTok from US app stores have faltered amid court challenges. Decisions about how and whether the FCC should act would require buy-in from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who leads the independent federal agency. The same day as the BuzzFeed report, TikTok announced that it had migrated its US user data to Oracle cloud servers based in the United States, and that it would eventually be deleting backups of its US user data from its own proprietary servers. Carr wrote in his letter that he was not assured by the announcement. "TikTok has long claimed that its U.S. user data has been stored on servers in the U.S. and yet those representations provided no protection against the data being accessed from Beijing," he said. "Indeed, TikTok's statement that '100% of US user traffic is being routed to Oracle' says nothing about where that data can be accessed from." — CNN's Oliver Darcy contributed to this report |
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Tech-Based Hybrid Warfare: The Need for Endpoint CybersecurityBy Rex M. Lee Friday, March 18, 2022 Threats posed by nation-state hackers and intrusive apps are a result of “tech-based hybrid warfare” being waged by China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and other bad actors worldwide who are exploiting vulnerabilities within operating systems and popular apps that are distributed by Google, Apple, & Microsoft. Furthermore, Google, Apple and Microsoft are enabling app developers from China and Russia to monitor, track, and data mine the Android OS, Apple iOS and Microsoft OS end user for financial gain as a result of partnerships with Chinese and Russian corporations that include ByteDance (TikTok-China), Tencent (WeChat-China), BAIDU (Android App developer/Google partner), and Prisma Labs (Android App developer-Russia). Consistent with hybrid warfare, tech-based hybrid warfare targets everyone, including teens, children, business leaders/professionals, government/elected officials, and members of military and law enforcement who use smartphones, tablet PCs and other connected products supported by the Android OS, Apple iOS or Microsoft Windows OS. This means that nation-state hackers, plus Chinese and Russian companies, are weaponizing endpoint devices supported by these popular operating systems as a means to launch attacks on any network, including critical infrastructure. Additionally, app developers from adversarial countries are using popular apps and social media platforms, such as TikTok and WeChat, as vehicles to surveil and data mine the Android OS, Apple iOS, and Microsoft Windows OS end user for profits 24x7/365 days per year, whether the end user is an adult, teen, child or business/government end user. ByteDance’s social media app TikTok, which can be described as “legal malware”, is being distributed by way of app stores owned by Microsoft, Google and Apple, as well as pre-installed software that is included with the Microsoft Windows 11 OS, posing massive privacy and cybersecurity threats to billions of Microsoft Windows 11 OS end users, including business end users, worldwide. For example, a single intrusive app enables the developer, including those from China and Russia, to conduct surveillance on the end user while enabling the developer to collect more than 5,000 highly confidential data points associated with the end user’s personal, business, medical, legal and employment related information as a result of the end user using their smartphone for personal, business and employment purposes. What is more concerning about TikTok is the fact that a member of the Chinese government was added to the board of ByteDance exposing corporate information to the Chinese Government according to a 2021 Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance report. This means that TikTok end users could be exposing highly confidential personal and business information to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) posing massive cybersecurity and privacy threats to TikTok end users, including the end user’s employer. Vulnerabilities within Windows OSToday endpoint cybersecurity is not being addressed 100% by chief information officers (CIOs), chief information security officers (CISOs) or IT/cybersecurity professionals due to a hyper focus on traditional network cybersecurity. As a result of “tech-based hybrid warfare”, nation-state hackers from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are exposing vulnerabilities within the Android OS, Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows OS to launch ransomware, distributed denial of service (DDoS) and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks on networks, including critical infrastructure. Aside from the OS, intrusive apps that support smartphones, tablet PCs, connected products and PCs are also being used to launch attacks on networks while enabling the developers to monitor, track and data mine the end user, posing massive privacy and cybersecurity threats to the end user, plus the end user’s employer. For example, Lazarus, a North Korean state-sponsored hacker group, recently exploited Microsoft’s Windows OS to launch Trojan horse malware attacks on networks rather than using traditional hacking methods centered on infiltrating a network via telecom infrastructure or using email to launch an attack according to a report by ESET security researcher Anton Cherepanov. As I reported in my 2019 MissionCritical Communications Magazine article, “The Rise of Foreign Cybersecurity Threats”, vulnerabilities within the Microsoft Windows 10 OS were used by Russian state-sponsored hackers to launch attacks, via Triton Trisis malware, on the industrial control systems (ICS) of the Petro Rabigh oil refinery in Saudi Arabia in order to cause an explosion. Triton Trisis evolved from NotPetya ransomware (Black Energy Malware), which is used by Russian state-sponsored hackers to attack critical infrastructure within Ukrainian utilities as part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. NotPetya, plus other ransomware, is known as “crash-override malware” which can be installed by using plug-ins associated with the Windows OS and Linux, posing massive cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure, including Internet of things (IoT)/industrial IoT (IIoT) devices, and industrial control systems (ICS). Trojan horse, Triton Trisis, Black Energy, and NotPetya malware attacks usually are launched as a result of an insider attack meaning that the attack was launched by an employee or through the organization’s supply chain which could include suppliers from adversarial countries such as China or Russia. Dangerous and Intrusive AppsAside from the Windows OS, nation-state hackers can also launch DDoS and MITM attacks on networks by way of intrusive apps that are distributed by Google Play, Apple App Store and Microsoft App Store. According to James Barclay, senior research and development (R&D) engineer at Duo Labs, Apple’s mobile device management (MDM) platform can be compromised by hackers, including nation-state hackers from China and Russia, to collect highly confidential end user personal and business information from Apple device and app end users, including businesses and government entities that use the MDM platform for security purposes. “An attacker could use the serial number with the DEP (device enrollment program) API (application programmable interface) to retrieve the activation record (or DEP profile) and leak information about the organization, or be used in social-engineering attacks to, for example, call the help desk and give them the serial number asking for help ‘re-enrolling’ in the MDM server,” Barclay explained during an interview conducted by Lindsey O’Donnell of Threat Post in 2018. As of this date, there is no record of Apple fixing this issue. The Need to Decouple U.S. CI from ChinaUnknown to most Apple product owners and users is the fact that Apple uses servers located in China to store iCloud information uploaded by Apple iOS end users according to a CNN report. 0 Apple using critical infrastructure in China associated with iCloud is another example of why the U.S. government needs to mandate that technology providers and manufacturers decouple critical infrastructure, including manufacturing, from China, especially since China continues to be a threat to Taiwan while using forced labor associated with manufacturing. As I have reported in the past, nation-state hackers from around the world have infiltrated popular app stores to have their malware inadvertently distributed by tech giants such as Google who have removed hundreds of these dangerous apps from Google Play over the past few years. The use of Triton Trisis, and other malware that can be launched by way of operating systems, intrusive apps and MDM security platforms pose massive threats to utilities, governments, energy companies, utilities, the military and other entities supported by critical infrastructure. Vulnerabilities within MDM Platforms/Security AppsAlthough, MDM platforms will help secure connected devices, such as smartphones, by blocking intrusive third-party apps that are downloaded by the device user, MDM device platforms will not protect the end user from intrusive apps that are pre-installed into smartphones, tablet PCs, IoT/IIoT devices, connected products and PCs supported by the Android OS, Apple iOS or Microsoft Windows OS. According to T-Mobile and Verizon, any connected device supported by the Android OS, Apple iOS, or Microsoft Windows 8, 10, or 11 OS cannot be fully privatized or secured due to uncontrollable pre-installed surveillance & data mining technology in the form of intrusive apps developed by Google, Apple and Microsoft, plus their developer partners, including those from China such as BAIDU. The reason the Android OS, Apple iOS or Microsoft Windows OS cannot be fully privatized or secured is due to the fact that all operating systems concerned are developed using an open API architecture in order to support intrusive apps which enable app developers to conduct surveillance on end users while data mining highly confidential personal and business information from the OS end user to exploit for profits. Aside from being intrusive, many popular apps and social media platforms are intentionally designed to be addictive, posing safety threats to the end user as admitted by Meta (Facebook) cofounder Sean Parker during an Anxios interview in 2017. This is what Mr. Parker had to say: “It’s a social validation feedback loop, the kind of thing that a “hacker” like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology … God only knows what it is doing to our children’s brains… It’s me, it’s Mark (Zuckerberg), Kevin Systrom of Instagram, it’s all of these people, understood this consciously… And we did it any ways.” China and Russia are using the Android OS, Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows OS, intrusive apps and social media platforms as a means to conduct hybrid warfare, attack networks, conduct corporate espionage, spread propaganda (misinformation/disinformation), disrupt elections, and conduct surveillance and data mining technology users around the world. The fact is Google, Apple and Microsoft are dependent on profits as a result of partnering with Chinese and Russian companies beholden to their governments, including the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), so these U.S. tech giants are not going stop distributing intrusive Chinese and Russian apps and social media platforms any time soon. Additionally, Chinese and Russian companies are enabled by the U.S. government to hire powerful K-street law firms/lobbyists in order to influence U.S. lawmakers such as the case with ByteDance (TikTok-China) who hired American Continental Group (ACG) and lobbyist David Urban. Due to massive profits as a result of predatory surveillance and data mining business practices rooted in “Surveillance Capitalism”, companies and government entities need to adopt best practices associated with endpoint cybersecurity in order to protect their networks, as well as their confidential and protected information including, intellectual property (IP) and classified information. Endpoint Cybersecurity and Privacy Best PracticesBoard members, senior executives, and government officials need to implement enterprise and organizational strategies centered on cybersecurity, intelligence, and securing confidential and protected information, including IP and classified information. Every CEO, CIO, CISO, and IT/cybersecurity professional needs to be aware of intrusive and addictive apps and social media platforms, including those from China and Russia, plus ban their employees from using these intrusive apps on any smartphone, tablet PC, connected product or PC used for official company/government business. Countries such as India have already been banning many of these Chinese and Russia apps from being used by their citizens dating back to 2018, yet the U.S. government, Google, Apple, and Microsoft continue to enable Chinese and Russian companies to surveil and data mine U.S. citizens for profits, even in light of Russia invading the Ukraine and China continuing to be a threat to Taiwan. Every corporate attorney needs to review the end user licensing agreements (terms of use) that support operating systems, apps, platforms, and cloud storage platforms as a means to identify and mitigate risks associated with predatory and exploitive business practices employed by OS/app developers, and platform providers. If possible, eliminate bring your own device (BYOD) programs, especially within the defense industry and critical infrastructure. Explore using third-party device management solutions who provide MDM services as well as telephone expense management solutions, especially for companies who cannot afford to eliminate their BYOD programs. Apple and Microsoft provide the best cybersecurity while enabling their end users to configure their connected devices, such as smartphones & PCs, for optimum privacy and security. However, they will still be able to surveil and data mine their OS and app end users to some extent while sharing the end user’s personal and business information with third-parties known as their “trusted partners” according to their end user licensing agreements and/or terms of use.
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| Source: | Radio Resource Media Group |
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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Ham radio operators: A long-lasting technologyREPORTER: LISA HUTSON PUNTA GORDA With all the changes and advancements in technology, it is remarkable to see one particular hobby last more than 100 years even in times of trouble. That’s amateur radio. From his home in Punta Gorda, Marty Purselley can communicate with other ham radio operators all over the world. “We can see England, Puerto Rico. We can see France, Canada, Norway,” says Purselley as he uses software to scan for other ham radio stations. A small radio with a waterfall display of wavelengths sits next to his laptop where the sound of Morse code runs continuously. “You can see every one of those lines below that horizontal line is a station transmitting Morse code,” explains Purselley. Morse code is a language few understand but Purselley learned as a teenager. “I look back and I go ‘gah, what kid wakes up at 4:30 to go work Morse code?’ Well someone who is a ham radio guy. I had to have my dad drive me to the FCC office to get licensed. I show up in the 77 call books so I was a novice ham,” Purselley said. In just a matter of five minutes, Purselley can throw up a portable antenna in his backyard and reach someone across the ocean. In 1979, this unique hobby of amateur radio came in handy.
A high school student on April 10th, 1979, Purselley used his ham radio to find a friend’s grandmother caught in the aftermath of a tornado that leveled Wichita Falls, Texas. Storm spotters all connected via amateur radio for search and rescue operations. Purselley asked them for help. “We’ve tried to call her. We can’t call her. Is there any way you can get in touch with her? And I said Mike, let me check. I got on a network that was a health and welfare network and the phone lines were down, they couldn’t reach and I talked to the network control operator and I said, can you go check at this address and see if she’s okay,” Purselley said. “They did, they got back. They got back on the air and told me she did, she’s fine. Tell them she’ll be back in touch. And this guy remembered this all these years later and said do you remember that? And I said you know I do remember that now that you mention it. I thought it was no big deal.” On Sept. 11, 2001, Andrew Pantelides was living and working in New Jersey. “Once the second plane hit, you knew it wasn’t an accident,” Pantelides said. “Obviously in that whole area, there were no telephones. You know that shutdown everything other than emergency communication. The next day, I brought in all my equipment and set it up in the office just to be on the safe side.” But even 9/11 is not his most memorable ham radio experience. “I was traveling some back roads in New Jersey and I came across an automobile accident with the car upside down and my cell phone did not work but my amateur radio got through and I was able to get police, fire and ambulance,” says Pantelides. “We’re there when all else fails. That’s the amateur radio motto. When all else fails, amateur radio is there.” Dave Weinstein, president of the Charlotte Amateur Radio Society, got his license 61 years ago. For him, it’s a way of life. “It’s e-mail, Twitter and Snapchat all put together. With nobody in between. Just you and that other person. You think you have your cell phone but trying using that cell phone right after an emergency. It will not be possible,” says Weinstein. That’s why during hurricanes in Charlotte County, ham radio operators sit side-by-side with county emergency responders. “We send premade messages out to addressees letting their relatives know that they are OK,” said Weinstein. Technology that has worked for more than 100 years is still saving lives today. “Just marrying technology with computers and ham radio. It’s a lot of fun,” says Purselley. National Summer Field Day for amateur radio operators is this weekend. It is a time when thousands of operators set up their radios all over the country and communicate with each other only using radio. There are a number of clubs in Southwest Florida participating and looking to spread their love for the hobby to the younger generation. You are welcome to join them in Punta Gorda at 29075 Riverview Lane after 2 p.m. Saturday through 2 p.m. Sunday. You can also check out Field Day at North Ft. Myers Community Park with the Fort Myers Amateur Radio Club. |
| Source: | Wink News |
| PRISM IPX Systems |
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Thousands of Users Worldwide Depend on Prism IPXOur Customers Trust Us To Make Sure That Their Messages Get Delivered
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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.
Experts in Paging Infrastructure
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GLENAYRE INFRASTRUCTUREService ContractsI 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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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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The iPhone will be the future of proving our identity, online and offlineBen Lovejoy — Jun. 24th 2022 6:42 am PT
We’ve seen some baby steps towards using our iPhone for proving our identity. But a couple of recent developments point to a future in which an iPhone — plus biometrics — could let us use our phone as a single means of verifying our identity, both online and in face-to-face interactions. In all, Apple provides support for four initiatives which I think provide a clear pointer to a future in which the iPhone will be our one-stop device for ID … Proving our identity with an iPhoneApple currently offers support for four separate initiatives:
Each of these form some early stepping stones to what will eventually be a world in which our iPhone will be the primary way in which we prove our identity, both online and offline. Mobile driving licenses (mDL)Back in June of last year, Apple announced its plans to allow state ID documents like driving licenses in the Wallet app.
The company said that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would be climbing aboard, allowing iPhone owners to present digital versions of their driving licenses as proof of ID for airline travel.
That didn’t happen in the fall of 2021 as scheduled, and when it did finally happen, it was just dipping a toe in the water. As the mDL (mobile driving license) tracker shows, the system hasn’t yet been officially implemented anywhere in the US as yet, and there are just a handful of trials at a tiny number of airports. The wheels of government grind exceedingly slowly, so the point at which we can flash our iPhone at a TSA checkpoint or traffic cop are some way off yet, but some 30 states have announced that they are at least exploring the idea. Student ID cardsPartnering with Blackboard lets college students store their ID card in the Wallet app, which can then be used for everything from entering campus facilities to paying their laundry bills.
Passkeys in the Cloud/FiDOBack in 2020, Apple joined the Fido Alliance, a tech working group dedicated to eliminating passwords. We’ve previously explained how FiDO (Fast IDentity Online) works.
At no point is there a password involved: Authentication is performed on your device, not on the website server. The web server trusts your iPhone to authenticate you in exactly the same way that payment terminals trust your phone for Apple Pay transactions. Apple branded its implementation of FiDO as Passkeys in the Cloud. After a halfway house in iOS 15, the iPhone maker has fully implemented this in iOS 16 and macOS 13. Of course, it also requires online services to support the login method, and this will again take time. Captcha bypassiOS 16 allows allows us to bypass Captchas in apps and on the web.
This might seem like an odd thing to mention in this context, as it doesn’t actually verify our identity, but it operates on the same principle — it carries out a form of user validation, and the authentication needed for this happening entirely on our device. Again, this requires apps and websites to sign-up, so rollout will take some time, but it’s an easy way to improve the user experience while reducing friction (points at which people might give up), so I’d again expect adoption to be reasonably brisk. Proving our identity in this way will become standardLong-term, I’d expect the principles involved here to become the standard way we prove our identity, both online and offline. This is because it’s safer for all involved — individuals, companies, and governments. IndividualsIt’s safer for us both online and offline. Online data breaches are ridiculously common. Companies keep making ridiculous mistakes like storing customer databases on cloud servers without any protection, or messing up permissions to anyone with access to their network can download customer records. With FiDO, there is no database to hack. Offline, only the necessary personal data is revealed, and that is done in encrypted form. When you show your mobile driving license at a TSA checkpoint, they only receive the actual data they need, not all the data stored on/in your license. It’s very much equivalent to Apple Pay, where the payment terminal doesn’t get all of the information on your credit card, and relies on your iPhone confirming that it has verified your identity with Face ID or Touch ID. CompaniesOne of the biggest headaches for businesses is keeping customer data safe from hackers. The financial and reputational cost of a security breach can be extremely costly. With FiDO, no user credentials are stored on the server as the authentication happens entirely on our devices. (Of course, they still have to keep other customer data safe, but removing the need for login credentials is a big win.) GovernmentsPaper documents can be convincingly forged, despite watermarks and the like, which is why really important ones like passports also rely on electronic security in the form of an embedded RFID chip. Moving all identity documents to electronic versions, with biometric protection, is a huge step forward in security. There is massive additional potential in this approachI mentioned above that companies will still have to store some customer data, like addresses. But what if they didn’t have to? What if you place an online order, and your iPhone or Mac sends an encrypted code which can only be decoded by courier companies? What if your doctor didn’t phone you with test results, but instead sent you a link to a file which can only be read by a device which uses biometric authentication to prove your identity? What if you didn’t have to show your credit card or ID when collecting concert tickets, but your iPhone verified your identity without revealing any of your data? It doesn’t take much imagination to see the massive potential for on-device authentication to be used in any situation in which we need to prove our identity, whether online or offline. To me, on-device authentication is the future of ID checks, even — eventually — passports and visas. Personally, I can’t wait. |
| Source: | 9to5Mac |
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 |
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 |
CONFESSIONS OF A REFORMED FREQUENCY STANDARD NUTby: Jenny List January 17, 2018
Do you remember your first instrument, the first device you used to measure something? Perhaps it was a ruler at primary school, and you were taught to see distance in terms of centimetres or inches. Before too long you learned that these units are only useful for the roughest of jobs, and graduated to millimetres, or sixteenths of an inch. Eventually as you grew older you would have been introduced to the Vernier caliper and the micrometer screw gauge, and suddenly fractions of a millimetre, or thousandths of an inch became your currency. There is a seduction to measurement, something that draws you in until it becomes an obsession. Every field has its obsessives, and maybe there are bakers seeking the perfect cup of flour somewhere out there, but those in our community will probably focus on quantities like time and frequency. You will know them by their benches surrounded by frequency standards and atomic clocks, and their constant talk of parts per billion, and of calibration. I can speak with authority on this matter, for I used to be one of them in a small way; I am a reformed frequency standard nut. THAT ANNOYING FINAL COUNTER DIGIT
You might ask how such an obsession might develop. After all, who needs a frequency standard accurate to an extremely tiny fraction of a Hz on their bench? The answer is that, unless your job depends upon it, you don’t. If you are a radio amateur, you really only need a standard good enough to ensure that you are within the band you are licensed to transmit upon, and able to stay on the frequency you choose without drifting away. But of course such sensible considerations don’t matter. If you’ve bought a frequency counter, you have an instrument with nagging seventh and eighth digits that show you how fast that crystal oscillator you thought was pretty stable is drifting. And there you are, teetering on the edge of that slippery slope. The first electronic radio frequency oscillators used turned circuits, combinations of inductors and capacitors, to provide their frequency stability. A tuned circuit oscillator can be surprisingly stable once it has settled down, but it is still at the mercy of the thermal properties of the materials used in that tuned circuit. If the temperature goes up, the wire in the inductor expands, and its inductance changes. Older broadcast radios sometimes required constant manual retuning because of this, and very few radio transmitters rely on these circuits for their stability. The answer to tuned circuit instability came in the form of piezoelectric quartz crystals. These will form a resonator with similar electrical properties to a tuned circuit, but with a much lower susceptibility to temperature-induced drift. They are stable enough that they have become the ubiquitous frequency standard behind most of today’s electronics: almost every microprocessor, microcontroller, or other synchronous circuit you will use is likely to derive its clock from a quartz crystal. Your 1957 FM radio might have needed a bit of tuning to stay on station, but its 2017 equivalent is rock-stable thanks to a crystal providing the reference for its tuning synthesiser.
Crystals are good — good enough for most everyday frequency reference purposes — but they are not without their problems. They may be less susceptible than a tuned circuit to temperature-induced drift but they still exhibit some. And while they are factory-tuned to a particular frequency they do not in reality oscillate at exactly that frequency. Crystal oscillators seeking that extra bit of accuracy will therefore reduce drift by placing the crystal in a temperature-regulated oven, and will often provide some means of making a minor adjustment to the frequency of oscillation in the form of a small variable capacitor. If you have a crystal oscillator in an oven, you’re doing pretty well. You’ve reduced drift as far as you can, and you’ve adjusted it to the frequency you want. But of course, you can’t truly satisfy the last part of that sentence, because you lack the ability to measure frequency accurately enough. Your trusty frequency counter isn’t as trusty once you remember that its internal reference is simply another quartz crystal, so in essence you are just comparing two crystals of equivalent stability. How can you trust your counter? At this point, we’re done with frequency standards based on physical dimensions of materials, and have to move up a level into the realm of atomic physics. All elements exhibit resonant frequencies that are fundamentals of the energy levels in their atomic structure, and these represent the most stable reference frequencies available: those against which our standard definitions of time and frequency are measured. There are a variety of atomic standards at the disposal of metrologists with large budgets, but the ones we will most commonly encounter use either caesium, or rubidium atoms. The caesium standard forms the basis of the international definition of time and frequency, while rubidium standards are a more affordable and accessible form of atomic standard. RAISE YOUR OWN STANDARD
One of the oldest and simplest ways to calibrate an oscillator to a standard frequency is to perform the task against that of a broadcast radio transmitter. You will hear an audible beat tone in the speaker of a receiver when the frequency of the oscillator or one of its harmonics is close enough to the station for their difference to be in the audible range, so it is a simple task to adjust the oscillator to the point at which the beat frequency stops. The lower frequency limit of human hearing allows a match to within a few tens of hertz, and a closer match can be achieved with the help of an oscilloscope. A 100 kHz crystal calibration oscillator used to be a standard part of a radio amateur’s arsenal, and it could be matched to any suitable broadcast frequency standard worldwide. For a Brit like me back in the day it was convenient to use the caesium standard BBC Radio 4 long wave transmitter on 200 kHz to calibrate my 100 kHz oscillator, but sadly for me in 1988 when the ink was barely dry on my licence they reorganised long wave frequencies and moved it to 198 kHz. When I was at the height of my quest for a pure frequency standard, the next most accessible source was to take a broadcast standard and use that as the reference source to discipline a crystal oscillator by means of a phase-locked loop. You could buy off-air frequency standard receivers as laboratory instruments, but as an impoverished student I opted to build my own. Here in the UK, I had the choice of the aforementioned 198 kHz Radio 4 transmitter or the 60 kHz British MSF time signal, and I chose the former as I could cannibalise a long wave broadcast receiver for a suitable ready-wound ferrite rod antenna. This fed an FET front-end, which in turn fed a limiter and filter that provided a Schmitt trigger with what it needed to create a 198 kHz logic level square wave. Then with a combination of 74-series logic dividers and the ever-versatile 4046 PLL chip I was able to lock a 1 MHz crystal oscillator to it, and be happy that I’d created the ultimate in frequency standards. Except I hadn’t really. Despite learning a lot about PLLs and choosing a long time constant for my loop filter, I must have had an unacceptably high phase noise. Not the only time my youthful belief in my own work exceeded the reality.
Off-air standards are still an accessible option for the would-be frequency afficionado, but it is rather improbable that you would build one in 2017 because a far better option now exists. The network of GPS and similar navigation satellites is an accessible source of high-accuracy timing for everybody, with a multitude of affordable GPS hardware for all purposes. Thus it is simpler by far to opt for a GPS-disciplined crystal oscillator, and indeed we have seen them from time to time being used in the projects featured here. GPS is very good, and the only way to get fancier is to go atomic. The once-impossible dream of having your own atomic standard is now surprisingly affordable, as the proliferation of mobile phone networks led to a large number of rubidium standards being deployed in their towers. As earlier generations of cell towers have been decommissioned, these components have found their way onto the second-hand market, and can be had from the usual sources without the requirement to mortgage your children. The modules you can easily buy contain a crystal oscillator disciplined by reference to the rubidium standard itself. The standard monitors the intensity of monochromatic light from a rubidium lamp through a chamber of rubidium gas exposed to radio frequency matching the resonant frequency of the transition between ground states of the rubidium atom, and locks the radio frequency to the resonance observed as a dip in that intensity. Seekers of the ultimate in standard frequency accuracy now have several options when it comes to calibration sources. Making an off-air standard is more trouble than a GPS-based one, and the more adventurous among you can find a rubidium-disciplined source. Or perhaps you already have. There’s no shame in excess precision, but we’re curious: do you really need such an accurate source of timing information? Or are you chasing that last digit just because it’s there? |
| Source: | Hackaday |
| Leavitt Communications |
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EWA Supports FCC Inquiry on Receiver StandardsContact: Andrea Cumpston, Executive Director, Communications June 27, 2022 (Herndon, VA) — The Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) is supporting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initiative to advance discussions regarding how receivers influence successful spectrum sharing and the introduction of new technologies. Considering the growing demand for wireless communications, the Commission is rightfully investigating all means of maximizing the use of available spectrum, including the ability of receivers to accept higher levels of RF noise without diminishing quality of service. In its comments, EWA noted that “private wireless systems deployed by members of the Alliance are essential to the day-to-day lives of all Americans. They are integral to the delivery of electricity, water, oil and gas, and all other essential services. They are used in the construction of roads, bridges, airports, refineries, and every other imaginable facility needed to support the American economy. These licensees continually invest in technology advances and deploy more spectrally efficient equipment to accommodate their growing requirements since they have not received an infusion of new spectrum since the mid-1980s. They are fortunate in relying on vendors that recognize the vital nature of their operations that deliver robust, reliable equipment, both on the transmit and receive side. But wireless systems do not exist in a vacuum. If systems in adjacent bands include receivers that are not designed with adequate interference immunity, EWA members and the FCC become embroiled in avoidable interference complaints — a waste of valuable resources.” The FCC’s Notice of Inquiry (NOI) is broad-ranging, and the outcome cannot be predicted, but the need to investigate the issue, in EWA’s opinion, cannot be disputed. In particular, EWA in its comments:
About the Enterprise Wireless Alliance The EnterpriseWireless Alliance is the leading national trade association and advocate for business enterprises, private carrier operators, equipment manufacturers, and service providers that support the private wireless industry. An FCC-certified frequency advisory committee, EWA provides its members and clients with consulting services, frequency coordination, license preparation, spectrum management and associated business intelligence services. Learn more at www.enterprisewireless.org. |
| Source: | Enterprise Wireless Alliance |
| Inside Towers Newsletter |
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| Source: | Inside Towers newsletter | Courtesy of the editor of Inside Towers, Jim Fryer. Inside Towers is a daily newsletter by subscription. |
| BloostonLaw Newsletter |
FCC Lifeline Waivers Set to Expire June 30On June 30, a series of waivers of certain Lifeline program rules originally adopted by the FCC in March and April of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire. As we reported in previous editions of the BloostonLaw Telecom updates, these waivers suspended Lifeline rules governing recertification, reverification, general de-enrollment, and income documentation. On March 25, 2022, the FCC adopted an Order extending these waivers (for the seventh time) until June 30, 2022. As of this writing, no action has been taken by the FCC to extend the waivers again. Carriers with questions about the effects of the expiring waivers may contact the firm for more information. BloostonLaw Contacts: Sal Taillefer. HeadlinesNTIA Now Accepting Applications for Middle Mile Infrastructure ProgramOn June 22, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it is now accepting applications for the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Grant (MMG) Program. Applications will be accepted until September 30. The MMG Program presents a unique and significant opportunity for clients to participate in and/or benefit from the construction of new or upgraded middle mile networks that can improve the quality of their connections to the Internet and hopefully enable them to reduce or control their growing middle mile transport costs. BloostonLaw attorneys are experienced in NTIA funding applications and are available to help with both the application and post-award compliance processes so that you and your customers can enjoy the benefits. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, this program was created in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 to provide funding for the construction, improvement or acquisition of middle mile infrastructure to reduce the cost of connecting to the Internet backbone areas that are “unserved” (currently less than 25/3 Mbps service) or “underserved” (currently less than 100/20 Mbps service). Grants will generally be in a range from $5 million to $100 million (which can be modified upon a reasonable showing), with a required match of 30 percent (which may be waived for Tribal Governments and Native entities, but is very unlikely to be waived for other entities). Construction of the middle mile facilities must be completed within 5 years after the grant is made available to the grantee (with a possible one-year extension upon a showing that the project has been started and that extenuating circumstances precluded timely completion). The initial MMG application requirements include: (1) an irrevocable standby letter of credit from an acceptable bank for no less than 25 percent of the grant amount; (b) audited financial statements for the three prior fiscal years (or a commitment to provide them by a NTIA deadline); (c) one-page resumes for all key management personnel of the applicant, its subcontractors, and any other entity that will play a substantial role in building, managing or operating the middle mile network; (d) a narrative statement describing the applicant’s experience, qualifications and readiness to undertake the middle mile project; (e) ownership information and an organizational chart or charts detailing all parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates; (f) a budget narrative and detailed budget justification spreadsheet, plus a network design diagram, project costs, build-out timeline and milestones, and capital investment schedule; (g) demonstration of compliance with all applicable federal state and local laws, including occupational safety and health requirements, federal labor and employment laws, and civil rights and nondiscrimination laws; (h) a plan for ensuring that the project workforce will be an appropriately skilled and credentialed workforce; (i) a description of the applicant’s hiring, training and apprenticeship programs that support equitable workforce development and job quality; and (j) a description of how the applicant has sufficiently accounted for current and future weather and climate-related risks (such as wildfires, extreme heat and cold, flooding and extreme winds) to the middle mile network. The NTIA application process includes: (1) a Merit Review; (2) a Programmatic Review; (3) an Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OICG) Assistant Administrator Review; and (4) Final Project Selection by the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. At many points during this process, NTIA can request additional information from an applicant and set a deadline for its submission. All funds made available through the MMG Program are subject to the Build America, Buy America Act. All real property, equipment and intangible property acquired or improved with MMG award funds is held in trust for the beneficiaries of the program for the duration of its useful life, and is subject to liens, disposition conditions and reversionary interests. Finally, MMG awards are subject to build-out milestones, bi-annual reporting requirements and audit obligations. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Sal Taillefer. FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for July Open MeetingOn June 24, the FCC issued the tentative agenda for its June Open Meeting, currently scheduled for July 14. At the meeting, the FCC is tentatively scheduled to consider the following items:
Each summary above contains a link to the draft text of each item expected to be considered at this Open 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, Cary Mitchell and John Prendergast. SpaceX Solicits Grassroots Support in Ongoing DISH Regulatory DisputeElon Musk’s SpaceX is escalating its regulatory battle with DISH Network over 12 GHz band operating rights by urging its users to sign a petition to be filed with the FCC and members of Congress. Soliciting grassroots support is clearly permissible in a public proceeding but the FCC is likely to put more weight on technical showings in this engineering-driven proceeding. Still, clients that are aware of rural customer dissatisfaction with Starlink service and that would like to add their voices to the record should contact the firm. Specifically, on June 28, the company sent a call to action to its US-based subscribers. “Today we ask for your support in ending a lobbying campaign that threatens to make Starlink unusable for you and the vast majority of our American customers,” SpaceX wrote. The message goes on to allege “if DISH gets their way, Starlink customers will experience harmful interference more than 77% of the time and total outage of service 74% of the time, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans.” The dispute centers on rights to operate in the 12 GHz band. Since 2016, DISH has been asking the FCC for rights to use the spectrum for a terrestrial 5G cellular network. The Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in early 2021 seeking input on the feasibility of allowing 12 GHz mobile services while protecting incumbents from harmful interference. However, SpaceX argues that the DISH proposal will degrade its broadband service, and it has called engineering studies filed by DISH “technically meritless.” There are 500 megahertz of spectrum at stake that are currently used for satellite broadcasting and that SpaceX has described as its “workhorse frequencies” for Starlink downlink connections. Terrestrial 5G proponents respond that SpaceX has access to plenty of other spectrum to accomplish its broadband mission. Consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge yesterday filed an ex parte letter in the 12 GHz docket (WT Docket No. 20-443) criticizing Starlink for holding itself out as the broadband solution for rural America but failing to come through as promised. The group cites the alleged inability of Starlink to meet demand for pre-ordered units in rural communities, allegations of price hikes for equipment that was never received, and “appalling” customer service when rural customers try to get tech support or redress for billing or service issues. And they object to Starlink’s prioritizing downlink service to Earth Stations in Motion (or ESIMs) before fulfilling its mission of serving ordinary Americans. “Apparently, SpaceX has decided to give customers in rural America a back seat to gamers on mountain tops and luxury RVs,” wrote Public Knowledge. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast, Cary Mitchell, and Sal Taillefer. Comments Sought on Next Gen TV / ATSC 3.0On June 21, the FCC adopted a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on the state of the Next Generation Television (“Next Gen TV” or “ATSC 3.0”) transition and on the scheduled sunsets of two rules adopted in the First Next Gen TV Report and Order. Comment and reply comment deadlines have not yet been established. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on the progress of Next Gen TV broadcasters’ “voluntary, market-driven deployment” of ATSC 3.0 service and the current state of the ATSC 3.0 marketplace, including whether holders of essential patents for the ATSC 3.0 standards are licensing such patents on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms. Next, the FCC seeks comment on the scheduled 2023 sunset of the rule requiring that a Next Gen TV station’s ATSC 1.0 simulcast primary video programming stream be “substantially similar” to its 3.0 primary programming stream. Finally, the FCC seeks comment on the scheduled 2023 sunset of the requirement that a Next Gen TV station comply with the ATSC A/322 standard. Carriers interested in filing comments may contact the firm for more information. BloostonLaw Contacts: Gerry Duffy and Sal Taillefer. Law and RegulationFCC Announces Availability of Broadband Fabric; Data Due Sept. 1On June 23, the FCC issued a Public Notice announcing that the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) that will be used for the inaugural Broadband Data Collection (BDC) is now available for broadband service providers and governmental entities to access, subject to certain procedures. Data can be submitted in the BDC beginning on June 30, 2022, and initial filings are due no later than September 1, 2022. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, facilities-based service providers are required to file granular data in the BDC system on where they make mass-market Internet access service available as of June 30, 2022. Last week, the FCC also released a Public Notice and Enforcement Advisory reminding all facilities-based service providers of fixed or mobile broadband Internet access service of their duty to timely file complete and accurate data in the BDC on a biannual basis. A copy of the advisory is available here. Fixed broadband service providers that accessed the preliminary Fabric do not need to execute a new license agreement and may access the production Fabric data files for their relevant geographic areas via a link that will be emailed to them by the Commission’s Fabric contractor, CostQuest. Fixed broadband service providers that did not access the preliminary Fabric may now access the production Fabric by registering with CostQuest. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Sal Taillefer. Auction 112 Closes; Down Payments Due by 6 PM ET on July 8On June 23, the FCC announced the winning bidders and post-auction procedures and deadlines for Auction 112, which offered construction permits for full power television stations. According to the Public Notice, the auction raised a total of $33,043,250 in net bids, with seven bidders winning a total of 18 construction permits. A list of the winning bidders can be found here; a summary of each qualified bidder’s upfront payment and post-auction payments or refund, as applicable, can be found here. The major post auction deadlines are as follows: Down Payments ……………………………………. July 8, 2022 by 6:00 PM ET Final Payments …………………………………….. July 22, 2022 by 6:00 PM ET Late Payments ……………………………………... August 5, 2022 by 6:00 PM ET The full payment instructions can be found in the Public Notice, here. If a winning bidder fails to remit the required down payment by the deadline, the bidder will be deemed to have defaulted, its long-form application will be dismissed, and it will be liable for a default payment. If a winning bidder fails to pay the balance of its winning bid in a lump sum by July deadline, then it will be allowed to make a late payment within 10 business days after the payment deadline, provided that it also pays a late fee equal to 5% of the amount due. If a winning bidder fails to pay (a) the balance of its winning bid by the payment deadline or (b) the balance of its winning bid plus the late fee by the late payment deadline, then it will be in default, and it will be subject to applicable default payments. Finally, a bidder that is found to have violated the antitrust laws or the Commission’s rules in connection with its participation in the competitive bidding process may be subject, in addition to any other applicable sanctions, to forfeiture of its upfront payment, down payment, or full bid amount, and may be prohibited from participating in future auctions. Non-winning bidders may obtain a refund of their upfront payments by submitting a written refund request with the information set forth in the Public Notice. This request may be filed electronically using the FCC auction application system or by obtaining a physical form through the the Refund Form link found on the My Auctions page. BloostonLaw Contacts: Gerry Duffy and John Prendergast. Comments on ACP Data Collection NPRM Due July 25On June 23, the FCC published in the Federal Register its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on “broadband transparency rules” regarding the annual collection of information about the price and subscription rates of Internet service offerings received by households enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program, as required by the Infrastructure Act. Comments are due July 25, and reply comments are due August 8. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, the FCC is specifically seeking comment on the data to be collected, mechanism for collecting this data, and format for the data’s publication. Carriers interested in participating in the proceeding may contact the firm for more information. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Sal Taillefer. FCC Waives Number Aging Rule for New Mexico Providers; Montana Providers Affected by DisastersOn June 23 and 29, the FCC adopted two Orders temporarily waiving the telephone number “aging” rule for providers in New Mexico and Montana affected by natural disasters. The aging rule says that service providers may only age telephone numbers that have been disconnected for up to 90 days before assigning them to other customers. According to the FCC, customers who have been displaced by natural disasters – wildfire in New Mexico, severe storms and flooding in Montana – may want to discontinue their service temporarily and reinstate it at a later time. Specifically, the FCC’s expectation is that in many cases these customers may seek to reinstate their service after the 90-day period has lapsed. Accordingly, the FCC adopted the waivers, which were effective immediately and expires on March 20, 2023 and March 27, 2023, for New Mexico and Montana respectively, absent further FCC action. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast. IndustryRUS Replays ReConnect Round 4 Webinar; To Post Materials OnlineOn June 29, as this edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update went to press, USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) held a repeat performance of its June 22 webinar providing information about the ReConnect Program’s next Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Specifically, the webinar covered:
Although the webinar will have concluded by the time this edition is released, the slides, a transcript, and a recording of the webinar will be posted on the ReConnect website in the near future. NTIA Announces Final Award for Broadband Infrastructure ProgramOn June 27, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded Michigan State University over $10 million from the Broadband Infrastructure Program, which is a part of the Administration’s Internet for All initiative. According to a press release, the grant will fund middle mile fiber infrastructure expansion in partnership with last mile Internet service providers in the state of Michigan. The project will take place in 74 counties, enabling a total of 103 access points with almost 70,000 census blocks and over 120,000 unserved locations. It is reported to provide 16,499 unserved households across the state with high-speed Internet. This is the final award from the Broadband Infrastructure Program. The program granted a total of 14 awards totaling more than $288 million in funding. It was funded by the Consolidated Appropriations Act. Deadlines[WAIVED; NEW DEADLINE NOT YET ESTABLISHED] 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 FCC 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 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, 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. 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 contact: Sal Taillefer. AUGUST 1: FCC FORM 499-Q, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORTING WORKSHEET. All telecommunications common carriers that expect to contribute more than $10,000 to federal Universal Service Fund (USF) support mechanisms must file this quarterly form. The FCC has modified this form in light of its recent decision to establish interim measures for USF contribution assessments. The form contains revenue information from the prior quarter plus projections for the next quarter. Form 499-Q relates only to USF contributions. It does not relate to the cost recovery mechanisms for the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund, the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), and the shared costs of local number portability (LNP), which are covered in the annual form (Form 499-A) that was due April 1. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens and Gerry Duffy. AUGUST 1: FCC FORM 502, NUMBER UTILIZATION AND FORECAST REPORT: Any wireless or wireline carrier (including paging companies) that have received number blocks—including 100, 1,000, or 10,000 number blocks—from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), a Pooling Administrator, or from another carrier, must file Form 502 by August 1. Carriers porting numbers for the purpose of transferring an established customer’s service to another service provider must also report, but the carrier receiving numbers through porting does not. Resold services should also be treated like ported numbers, meaning the carrier transferring the resold service to another carrier is required to report those numbers but the carrier receiving such numbers should not report them. Reporting carriers file utilization and forecast reports semiannually on or before February 1 for the preceding six-month reporting period ending December 31, and on or before August 1 for the preceding six-month reporting period ending June 30. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens and Gerry Duffy. AUGUST 1: LIVE 911 CALL DATA REPORTS — 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. Clients should obtain spreadsheets with their company’s compliance data from their E911 service provider (e.g., Intrado / West). BloostonLaw Contact: Cary Mitchell. AUGUST 29: COPYRIGHT STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS. The Copyright Statement of Accounts form plus royalty payment for the first half of year is due to be filed August 29 at the Library of Congress’ Copyright Office by cable TV service providers. BloostonLaw Contact: Gerry Duffy.
Calendar At-a-GlanceJune July August September TBD
Reminder: FCC to Retire Old FRN/CORES System July 15As we previously reported, the FCC will retire its legacy Commission Registration System (CORES) effective at 6:00 PM ET on July 15, 2022. The replacement version of CORES (“CORES2”) can be found on the FCC’s website at https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.do. Going forward, any new registrations for an FCC Registration Number (FRN) should use the CORES2 system. BloostonLaw Contact: Richard Rubino FCC to Open Filing Window for 800 MHz Interstitial Applications on July 7The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications and Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureaus have announced that the FCC will begin accepting applications for the 800 MHz interstitial channels on July 7, 2022. The interstitial channels are 12.5 kHz bandwidth channels in the 809-817/854-862 MHz band. The FCC will dismiss any pending applications for the interstitial channels that include a waiver request seeking early access to this spectrum, in order to provide an equal opportunity to all applicants and to establish a stable spectral environment for the release of these interstitial channels pursuant to the FCC’s Public Notice announcing the acceptance of applications for these 800 MHz Interstitial channels. The FCC has made clear that any dismissed application must be refiled in order to be considered without any preference or priority – meaning that applications should generally be processed in date receipt order/on a first-come, first-served basis. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino FCC Releases Proposal for FY2022 Regulatory Fees, Seeks Public CommentThe FCC has released its formal Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) seeking public comment on the new fee schedule, and procedural changes in connection with the collection of regulatory fees for the fiscal year that will end on September 30, 2022. For FY2022, the FCC is required to collect $381,950,000. As shown below, while there have been certain adjustments to the FCC’s proposed regulatory fees, the FCC has held the line on the fees applicable to most of our private radio clients. Comments will be due July 5, 2022 and Reply Comments will be due July 18, 2022.
Of note, the FCC is asking for comment regarding whether it would be appropriate to increase the De Minimis dollar threshold, which currently sits at $1,000. The De Minimis threshold is applicable only to regulatory fees that are paid on an annual basis. Fees that are paid as part of the filing fee for a new station or license renewal are not subject to this threshold. Any regulated entity with a total annual regulatory fee due of less than $1,000 from all regulated sources is currently treated as “de minimis” and therefore exempt from the payment of regulatory fees. The $1,000 de minimis threshold was based upon the FCC’s estimated cost of collecting a debt — which includes several administrative steps including: data compilation, preparation and validation; invoicing; debt transfer for third party collection; responding to debtor questions and disputes; and processing payments. The FCC is now asking for comments on raising the threshold, how it should calculate the costs of collection of regulatory fees, and whether the cost of collecting a regulatory fee begins after the regulatory fees are due and once delinquencies occur. Alternatively, the FCC has asked whether the cost of collection should begin when the Commission collects data on a payor’s regulatory fee status, which is generally prior to the regulatory fee due date. Commenters who advocate for a higher annual de minimis threshold should discuss which steps in the debt collection process should be included in “the cost of collecting a regulatory fee.” As an example, should the Commission also consider the costs associated with reviewing and resolving waiver requests and installment payment requests? Clients interested in commenting should let us know.
BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino FCC Seeks Comment on Maritime Automatic Identification Systems and Application Specific MessagesThe FCC has issued a Public Notice seeking comment to gain an understanding of the reliability of the delivery of safety-related information carried on the two shared, narrowband maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS) frequencies, commonly referred to as channels AIS 1 and AIS 2. Comments are due July 18, 2022 and Reply Comments are due August 2, 2022. AIS uses shared channels to exchange navigation safety-related information to properly-equipped vessels and shore stations, including vessel identification, position, navigation status (to reduce the risk of collisions), and Application-Specific Messages (ASMs), which convey weather and other maritime safety announcements. Concerns have been raised that AIS may experience reduced reliability in areas with high vessel traffic, as more vessels become equipped with authorized AIS equipment, and as usage of ASMs and other AIS applications and services increase. The FCC seeks comment on a range of issues, including whether it should assign additional frequencies for ASMs, in order to reduce congestion on AIS 1 and 2. The FCC is seeking comment on whether there is congestion on the AIS 1 and AIS 2 channels in the United States (offshore or inland waterways) that reduces its reliability or degrades its safety. If so, the FCC wants to know how this congestion has affected the operations and reliability of various AIS applications and services, as well as where congestion and related impacts have been experienced. The FCC is also requesting comment on the extent to which ASMs are contributing to this congestion, and asks commenters to provide detailed information about specific instances when the proper functioning of AIS was disrupted due to congestion and any data demonstrating that ASMs were the cause. The FCC has also asked whether congestion has significantly affected the reliability of ASMs. If AIS or ASM efficacy is a problem, the FCC is requesting comment on whether there are technical or other solutions to address the problem. To the extent commenters believe additional spectrum is needed for ASMs, the FCC seeks comment on the considerations for and against the FCC implementing the ITU’s international allocation, moving ASMs to AIS 1 and AIS 2 at 161.950 MHz and 162.000 MHz. The FCC also asks commenters to address whether frequencies other than AIS 1 and AIS 2 could be used for ASMs, including other VHF-FM marine-band spectrum. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino FCC Grants Waiver of U-NII Rules to Allow Steerable Directional Beams at Higher Power LimitsThe FCC has granted Kongsberg Seatex AS (Kongsberg) a waiver of Rule Section 15.407(a)(3), so that it can apply for an FCC certification that would allow it to market U-NII devices in the 5.725-5.850 GHz band that emit steerable directional beams at power levels that exceed the limits in that section. The Kongsberg system is used for broadband communications between maritime vessels, as well as between maritime vessels and shore. Each communication is between two points, with no simultaneous point-to-multipoint operations. While the Kongsberg system employs high-gain antennas that have directional properties similar to antennas used for fixed point-to-point land communications, the design is different in that the Kongsberg radios use phased-array antennas (both transmit and receive) that are kept closely aligned with each other as the vessel(s) on which they operate move. Both the shipboard and shore units are the same product type and use the same transmission technology. Rule Section 15.407(a)(3) permits U-NII devices to operate in the 5.725-5.850 GHz band with a maximum conducted output power of one watt. If an antenna with a maximum directional gain of greater than 6 dBi is used, the conducted power output must be reduced below one watt by the amount in dB that the antenna gain exceeds 6 dBi, so that the EIRP is limited to no more than four watts. However, because the antennas deployed in fixed point-to-point applications that have a gain of greater than 6 dBi may be used without any corresponding reduction in conducted power output, there is no specific EIRP limit for those applications. The Kongsberg system is not a fixed point-to-point system because it is used to communicate with maritime vessels that move. Kongsberg is seeking a waiver to permit the operation of its non-fixed system with one-watt maximum conducted power and an antenna gain that exceeds 6 dBi, i.e., it seeks to operate under the provisions that are applicable to fixed point-to-point systems. It also proposes specific conditions on the sale, installation, and use of the equipment that would be associated with the waiver. In granting this waiver, the FCC noted that the higher antenna gain limits would increase the maximum communication distance over water from 1.2 KM to at least 9 KM — which the FCC found would be useful for a variety of maritime applications including: operation of autonomous surface vessels; hydrographic surveying prior to and during dredging of ports and waterways; remote inspection of underwater pipelines and other underwater installations; monitoring marine life; oil and gas exploration; scientific research; communications during search and rescue operations; fishery research; tracking of unmanned underwater vehicles; dock and harbor inspections; and monitoring sediment in river outlets for safe navigational passages. Additionally, the FCC noted that with the waiver, the Kongsberg system could assist in the promotion of safety on the water (search and rescue, man-overboard alerts and oil spill management), and foster economic benefits through the use of autonomous vessels for underwater surveying of pipeline and harbor facilities. Commercial cellular data services are available only in close proximity to land, while satellite services can have speed and usage limitations as well as latency issues. This is especially relevant for scientific applications that must transport several GB of data. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino FCC Chair Issues Statement on Funding for Next-Gen911In response to Congressional Action to advance funding for Next-Gen 911, Chairwoman Rosenworcel issued the following statement at the conclusion of the House of Representative’s Energy and Commerce Subcommittee markup of several telecom pieces of legislation – including the Spectrum Innovation Act of 2022:
Support for Next-Gen 911 is critically important in order to ensure that calls for emergency service can be answered and dispatched rapidly and accurately. The telecommunications technology for first responders has advanced significantly over the past 20 year from basic push-to-talk radios to highly capable and advanced radios, mobile computers, tablets and portable medical equipment that is modem-equipped. Chairwoman Rosenworcel is correct that upgrading 911 systems will bring first responders more quickly by allowing call centers to more accurately pinpoint the location of the emergency, and therefore dispatch the correct units to the call. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino Commissioner Nomination for Gigi Sohn Stalled; No End in Sight for Deadlock at the FCCThe Biden administration’s telecom agenda appears to be in peril, with little movement in Congress on the confirmation of Gigi Sohn to become the fifth commissioner. In the absence of a fifth FCC commissioner to break the current deadlock, the Biden administration’s policy initiatives such as expanding broadband access and affordability may be at risk. Ms. Sohn, a lawyer and co-founder of the telecom advocacy group Public Knowledge, has been a lightning rod for criticism because of her strong advocacy for net neutrality. She previously served as an aide to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who established the agency’s net neutrality rules in 2015. Those rules were later overturned by the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai. If Sohn isn’t confirmed before the summer recess, Democrats may lose their chance to fill the position should Republicans gain control of Congress in November. And pulling Sohn’s nomination at this stage would put the administration in the tough position of having to get a new nominee through hearings and confirmed on a very short timeline. President Biden nominated Sohn to serve as a Democratic member of the FCC in October of 2021, at the same time he nominated Jessica Rosenworcel to serve as FCC chair. But while Rosenworcel’s confirmation last December went smoothly, Sohn’s nomination quickly ran into partisan problems. In addition to her progressive telecom policy positions, Republicans have criticized Sohn for social media posts that they say show hostility toward Fox News, and for liking posts that suggested support for the “defund” police movement. The latter development led the Fraternal Order of Police to oppose her nomination. Sohn has said that the tweets expressed her views as a private citizen, and won’t bear on how she would carry out her duties at the FCC. Despite the controversy, the White House says it “continues to strongly back” Sohn, according to reporting from Axios. It’s worth noting that Sohn has also won support from a variety of telecom and NTCA, the Rural Broadband Association. “I urge Congress to move forward with the nomination of Sohn as the fifth commissioner to the FCC,” wrote NTCA’s CEO Shirley Bloomfield in an online op-ed last January. "Her confirmation is critical to ensuring all hands will be on deck as the FCC considers the future of universal service and builds upon its efforts to get and keep every American connected." The Communications Workers of America (CWA) recently announced a six-figure digital advertising campaign aimed securing Sohn’s confirmation. The Senate Commerce Committee voted in early March to advance the nomination of Sohn to the full Senate, and that’s where things remain at a standstill. Democrats currently hold a slim majority in that chamber, but Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) are still undecided, according to Axios. And with the war in Ukraine and other matters requiring Senate time and having higher priority, a quick end to the partisan deadlock at the FCC appears increasingly unlikely. BloostonLaw Contact: John Prendergast FEMA Says No Nationwide EAS Test This YearA nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) has been a near-annual tradition since the system first went online in 2011. But Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff has said it will not conduct a nationwide EAS test in 2022. This means that entities who are EAS Participants (i.e., those that operate analog radio and television stations, wired and wireless cable television systems, digital broadcast systems, digital television broadcast stations, Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service, digital cable and digital audio broadcasting systems, and wireline video systems) will not have test participation and EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) obligations this August and into September. “It will not happen this year,” said a FEMA official at the NAB show back in April. “We are planning to do that in the early part of 2023.” Reports say that FEMA is working to develop a new survey system that would allow the agency to better monitor the results of the national test of the Wireless Alert System (WEA), which is expected to be tested alongside EAS next year. The survey would be a “crowdsource” poll asking the public about whether they heard or saw the alerts. The information would then be shared with MVPD providers and the wireless industry to improve alert and warning capabilities for all. FEMA is reportedly working on the regulatory approval process with the Department of Homeland Security as well as obtaining OMB approval for the new information collection. 2022 will be the second year of the last three without a nationwide EAS test. FEMA postponed the 2020 test out of fears the it would create undue burdens for an industry coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 test (last August) relied on broadcast-based architecture with a daisy-chain of stations spreading the message from 76 Primary Entry Point stations. The FCC’s final report of the 2021 test says it involved 25,644 EAS Participants across the U.S. and results showed the test message reached 89.3% of participants, about a 1% increase from the 2019 test. There were fewer technical complications experienced by Primary Entry Point stations, and roughly half as many complications with receipt and retransmissions as 2019. BloostonLaw Contact: Cary Mitchell. FCC Continues to Take Hardline Against Property Owners Who Allow Illegal Pirate Radio Stations The FCC has continued its campaign against illegal radio operations by citing property owners for pirate radio stations that are operated on the owner’s property. As we have reported over the years, the FCC takes the issue of unlicensed operation very seriously, due to the potential for harmful interference to licensed radio operations (both in the broadcast services and in the public safety/industrial services). The FCC is now taking a harder line against property owners under the recently enacted PIRATE Act which allows the FCC to issue fines of up to $2 million against parties who “knowingly facilitate illegal broadcasting on their property.” Under this authority, the FCC “provides written notice to property owners and property managers that it has reason to believe are turning a blind eye to – or even helping facilitate – illegal broadcasting. These new Notices of Illegal Pirate Radio Broadcasting also will afford parties a period of time to remedy the problem before any enforcement action moves forward.” Just this month, the FCC has issued several notices to property owners and landlords. Over the years, FCC investigations have found that landlords and property managers were often well aware of the illegal activity on their premises, but apparently have not taken strong action against this activity. The FCC has previously sent warning letters to landlords and even requested cooperation from national property owner organizations in order make property owners aware of the issue. Despite these efforts, pirate broadcasts have persisted, and Congress has now empowered the FCC to penalize property owners and managers that knowingly allow pirate radio stations to operate from their buildings and other properties. In this regard, the FCC also stated that landlords and property managers could find themselves liable if a pirate radio station operator ceases operation for a period of time and then begins operation again from the same site (a problem that has occurred frequently). BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino. $34,000 Fine Proposed Against HAM Radio Operator for Interference in Johnson FireThe FCC has proposed to fine Jason Frawley, a HAM Radio Operator, $34,000 for apparently interfering with radio communications that were controlling firefighting aircraft while attempting to extinguish the Johnson Fire near Elk River, Idaho in 2021. These illegal communications occurred over the course of more than one day. The proposed $34,000 fine is apparently the largest of its kind for this sort of conduct by a HAM radio operator. While the US Forest Service was fighting the 1,000 Acre fire, it received eight unauthorized radio transmissions on government frequencies from an individual who identified himself as “comm tech”, communicating his observations of hazards near the Elk Butte airstrip where Mr. Frawley and his equipment were located. These transmissions interfered with critical communications between firefighting aircraft and crews on the ground. On the second day of the interference, a US Forest Service supervisor went to the airstrip and identified Mr. Frawley as the individual causing the interference to Government radio operations. Mr. Frawley admitted he was broadcasting on government frequencies to the US Forest Service and in response to an FCC Letter of Inquiry. The FCC takes very seriously radio operations that cause interference to other licensed operations, as well as illegal operations on frequencies allocated for federal government use. Here, Mr. Frawley’s actions could potentially have had disastrous consequences during a major wildfire. BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast, LLP is a telecommunications law firm representing rural telecommunications companies, wireless carriers, private radio licensees, cable TV companies, equipment manufacturers and industry associations before the FCC and the courts, as well as state and local government agencies. Our clients range from Fortune 500 companies to small and medium-sized enterprises whose vitality and efficiency depend on the effective deployment of communications. |
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Thank you to everybody who took part and especially to Martin Theuerweckl (#Notruf #Niederösterreich), Varty Apanosian (American Messaging #NewJersey), Adam Price (#AmsMsg #SanDiego) for content rich presentations. A chance to learn more about how and what to develop and to deliver for #CriticalMessaging in #HealthCare, #PublicSafety, #PublicHealth. More info and presentations from next week on at www.critmsg.org (see "Events"). |
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