Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

T-Mobile USA told the FCC this week it supported a suggestion by Sprint that the Dept. of Justice provide an opinion on the scope of a wireless carrier’s legal obligation to protect the privacy of customers in emergency situations. T-Mobile filed reply comments on a petition by public safety groups, including the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials, that argued for broader disclosure of customer situation in emergency situations. T-Mobile said it sympathized with the frustration public safety operators have in this area, but agreed with CTIA the FCC lacks authority to change such disclosure requirements because they're based on statutory mandates. These concerns “are better directed to Congress,” T-Mobile said. But T-Mobile said it backed DoJ providing an opinion on the legal obligations of carriers. T-Mobile said it also would support the FCC hosting a “legal summit” or information exchange to clarify the scope of the law and a carrier’s obligation to protect customer privacy. T-Mobile outlined its written emergency disclosure procedures. Its policy is to “positively identify” an emergency caller and obtain a written demand for disclosure on “official letterhead” prior to release of customer information. “When T-Mobile has a reasonable belief that an emergency exists where there’s immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person, whether that person is a T-Mobile subscriber, T-Mobile may disclose any subscriber information in its possession to emergency personnel, including the location of a particular phone or past billing records,” it said. While public safety petitioners had raised the question of whether property loss constitutes such an emergency, T-Mobile said it doesn’t place property loss in a category requiring the disclosure of certain customer information and will only release a customer’s name, address and phone number in response to a burglary or building fire report. The law doesn’t consider property loss to be an emergency requiring the release of more information, T-Mobile said. Public safety petitioners had also asked the FCC to rule that carriers must release caller location information to emergency dispatchers even if the customer proprietary network information requested was associated with a customer who was not the caller to 911. AT&T Wireless also cited concerns over the limited statutory scope for such disclosures. “Given that there is little ambiguity in either the statutory language or the congressional intent evidenced in the legislative history, it would not be appropriate for the Commission to grant petitioners’ request to expand the scope of the statutes,” AT&T Wireless said. Verizon Wireless said it backed DoJ providing guidance because the public safety petition seeks interpretation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which is a federal criminal statute. A DoJ pronouncement could take into account homeland security legislative changes that have altered the ECPA, Verizon Wireless said. “Unless and until the DoJ passes on these important legal questions, the FCC has no support for the position supported by public safety and should deny the petition,” Verizon Wireless said.

Mich. officials plan to conduct a $200,000 study with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) on the impact of communications towers on migratory birds. The FCC Wireless Bureau outlined plans for the study Wed. as part of an agreement between the state and the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau. The “avian collision study plan” involves 350-500 ft. towers Mich. is building as part of one of the first statewide 800 MHz public safety systems. The study will cover factors in risks that towers pose to birds, including lighting, tower height and guy wires. The voluntary memorandum of understanding (MOU) involves Mich.’s 800 MHz public safety licenses and ensures that when the state builds its Mich. Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS) it will meet FCC rules on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The MPSCS includes 180 towers. In 2001, an FWS regional office wrote to the FCC and Motorola, asking that construction on 6 towers in Mich. cease because of their impact on migratory birds (CD May 6 p13). The Mich. National Wildlife Federation and others petitioned for a halt in construction, citing the Migratory Bird Treat Act and NEPA. The FCC said the study would help understand the effects of communications towers on birds protected by the ESA and migratory birds. The Commission last month opened an inquiry on the impact of towers on migratory birds, seeking information on a topic it said hadn’t been studied sufficiently to date to provide adequate data. The Wireless Bureau said the study would “systematically research the effect of lighting, height and guy wires on avian collisions at selected towers in the 350- 500-ft. height range in the MPSCS.” The range of types and heights of towers in the study will help provide a systematic measure of the effects of those factors. Environmentalists have said as many as 4-5 million birds are killed annually from tower collisions, but industry groups have said those figures are far too high. The study, funded by the state of Mich. and its Departments. of State Police and Information Technology, was developed along with scientist Paul Kerlinger of Curry & Kerlinger, who represented Mich., and Albert Manville of FWS, who chairs the Communication Tower Working Group. A pilot study to examine design aspects of the main study will be conducted this fall. The main study is to begin in the spring, according to documents released Mon. Besides determining the importance of factors such as tower height, the study will examine bird fatality rates at each tower under review. “Future tower construction and permitting should hopefully result in the reduction of fatalities,” a summary of the study plans said. “In addition, some towers may be retrofitted to reduce fatalities and a prioritization of towers that need retrofitting can also be determined.” The study will help earmark towers that pose problems. The MOU said that 90 days after the study was completed, the Mich. State Police and the FWS would review findings on tower lighting to “develop reasonable and prudent measures to address the lighting configuration for the MPSCS.” Those measures must meet FCC and FAA requirements for aviation safety, the MOU said. Also within 90 days, the agencies said they would examine non-lighting-related changes. If funding beyond the $200,000 committed by Mich. is available, the MOU said additional towers might be added and weather radar might be used to verify bird migration and numbers.

Power management and restoration practices for telecom networks are under review following the massive Aug. 14 blackout in the Northeast, wireline and wireless industry officials told the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) Mon. Of particular NRIC interest was the impact of the sustained outage on wireless networks, which suffered from both spikes in call volume and, in some cases, from backup generation that ran out (CD Aug 18 p1). FCC Chmn. Powell said such demand spikes were likely to be something the industry would have to factor in for future emergencies.

In a joint filing Fri., USTA and the 4 Bell companies -- BellSouth, Qwest, SBC and Verizon -- asked the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to stay the narrowband portion of the FCC’s Triennial UNE Review Order. The sections of the order targeted by the stay request included: (1) Switching/UNE-P provisions. (2) Competitive access to high-capacity loops and dedicated transport. (3) New rules for access to enhanced extended links (EELs), a loop-transport UNE combination. (4) Permission for wireless providers to gain access to UNEs, in particular the high-capacity transport element.

While witnesses representing state and local wireless interests all praised the House Telecom Subcommittee at a hearing Thurs. for addressing deficiencies in E911 deployment, all said there should be some changes in legislation (HR-2898) designed to facilitate its deployment. The bill, by Rep. Shimkus (R-Ill.), would authorize $100 million in spending over 5 years, penalize states that diverted E911 funding, create an E911 office in NTIA and direct the FCC to review E911 accuracy requirements for rural areas.

With an eye on speeding the rollout of wireless services in rural areas, the FCC unanimously adopted a proposed rulemaking Wed. with a wide range of possible changes, asking how to make unused spectrum available to new users and provide access to capital and equipment. The proposal also raised the possibility of allowing wireless operations with higher power levels to enter less densely populated rural areas. It tentatively concluded the cellular cross-interest rule should remain in rural service areas (RSAs) with 3 or fewer competitors, but would remove the limit in other RSAs.

Kathleen Wallman, who chaired the FCC’s Public Safety National Coordination Committee (NCC), outlined for the Commission Wed. the technical and operational standards developed by the panel for the public safety 700 MHz band. The federal advisory committee was chartered in 1999 and recently completed its work on nationwide public safety interoperable communications systems. They included narrowband standards for public safety officials using 700 MHz radios to communicate interoperably. The NCC also completed work on and recommended a wideband data standard for that spectrum’s wideband data interoperability channels. “Wide area systems are in the planning process and will be implemented soon in areas where incumbent television stations don’t pose an obstacle,” Wallman told the Commission. The NCC, whose charter expired July 25, covered a process that involved 300 members over 4 years. Among its last recommendations was a wideband data standard that could make “cutting-edge” technology available, including digital transmissions of fingerprints to police vehicles, she said. Wallman said the National Public Safety Council would assume responsibility for advising the FCC on interoperability and other critical public safety communications issues. For areas of the country where public safety spectrum at 700 MHz was encumbered pending the DTV transition, Wallman said the work of the NCC “is on hold until the broadcasters can be migrated out of that spectrum.” In general, she said public safety would need more spectrum, particularly for homeland security initiatives.

With fanfare, CTIA unveiled Tues. a wireless industry voluntary consumer code, but it didn’t appear to quell continued criticism by some state regulators and consumer groups. Before FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Dane Snowden, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R- La.) and the CEOs of 5 national wireless carriers, CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler outlined 10 bulleted guidelines, including commitments to offer customers a 14-day trial period. Wheeler repeatedly stressed the code was a “floor not a ceiling.”

FCC Chmn. Powell praised progress on hearing aid compatibility with wireless phones, including a meeting Thurs. of the Interagency Committee on Disability Research to promote cooperation among federal agencies on the issue. The Commission in July required digital wireless phones to be compatible with hearing aids, with nationwide operators to offer 2 compliant handsets within 2 years. The agency approved performance levels that required handsets to provide reduced radiofrequency interference as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Analog handsets typically don’t cause interference, but digital handsets can do so for hearing-aid users because of the electromagnetic energy emitted by the antenna or other components. Hailing progress on that issue, Powell cited a technical standards workshop this week, an intergovt. coordination session and a new industry incubator program. “Taken together, these 3 initiatives will significantly advance the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that all Americans -- whether or not they use hearing aids -- have an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of wireless communications,” he said. “Our success in implementing hearing aid compatibility will depend on the cooperative efforts of wireless service providers, wireless phone manufacturers, hearing aid manufacturers, consumer representatives, federal agencies and other stakeholders.” On Wed. the ANSI standards committee C63 held a workshop on the requirements of the group’s technical standard on wireless hearing aid compatibility and new test methods to evaluate a product’s compliance. The new FCC rules cover some of the performance levels in that ANSI standard. The Interagency Committee on Disability Research held a separate workshop Thurs. to promote cooperation among federal agencies, Powell said. The workshop included the Food & Drug Administration, FCC, industry officials and others. Powell also said a meeting is set for today (Fri.) of the Alliance for Telecom Solutions’s Hearing Aid Compatibility Incubator. The point is to bring together officials of the wireless and hearing aid industries to discuss technical issues in implementing digital handset changes under the new FCC rules. “This work is integral to preserving access to wireless telecommunications to individuals with hearing disabilities,” Powell said.

One day after a summary of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order was published in the Federal Register, USTA and SBC filed an appeal in the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Wed. They asked the court to review the order that they said “purports to create new unbundling rules to replace those vacated by this court in [USTA] v. FCC.” A Verizon spokesman confirmed Verizon separately filed a notice of appeal to the D.C. Appeals Court.