Dear Friends of Wireless Messaging,

Welcome back to The Wireless Messaging News.

In today's LETTERS TO THE EDITOR a couple of ham radio operators are asking for help in programing Motorola Nucleus transmitters. I hope someone can help them. Lots of these transmitters are becoming available since paging companies are just throwing them away. Hams do a lot to help the public in times of emergences.

Mobile phone use not causing brain cancer, University of Sydney study claims

May 6, 2016 — 2:07PM

Daisy Dumas Writer

A 1987 Telstra ad for Australia's first mobile phone. Analysis of the 29 years since shows no correlation between mobile phone use and brain cancer occurrence. Photo: Supplied

Mobile phone use has not caused a rise in brain cancer in Australia, says a new study led by the University of Sydney.

Despite the near complete uptake of mobile phones among Australians over the past 29 years, the communications devices, which emit electromagnetic radiation, are not correlated to incidences of brain cancer, the authors claim.

Has the incidence of brain cancer risen in Australia since the introduction of mobile phones 29 years ago? , published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology on Thursday, goes against the claims of American epidemiologist Devra Davis, whose visit to Sydney in November raised concerns over the dangers of mobile phone use.

Mobile phone use has risen to 94 per cent since 1987, when the first mobile phone call was made in Australia . Photo: Eddie Jim

Mobile phone use has risen to 94 per cent since 1987, when the first mobile phone call was made in Australia.

For the study, trends analysis of mobile phone use was compared with national cancer data, which shows 19,858 males and 14,222 females aged 20-84 were diagnosed with brain cancer between 1982 and 2012.

Expected estimates of brain cancer incidences were based on former studies that indicated an increase in the disease of up to 150 per cent in heavy mobile phone users.

But, taking into account a predicted 10-year lag rate for the disease to emerge, the scientists found no correlation between rises in phone use and the disease, besides among the oldest age group.

"Brain cancer incidence between 1982 and 2013 has not increased in any age group except those aged 70-84," the authors state, showing that incidences of cancer, for the most part, flatlined over the study period.

The rise in incidences among the older group was more likely to be from increased accuracy around detection, the authors hypothesise.

"The rise started before mobile phones were even available in Australia. It's almost certainly attributable to the rise in Australia of more advanced diagnostic techniques," Simon Chapman, study lead and Emeritus Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney, said.

He said that the paper was now the fifth national study - after those in the US, Nordic countries, England and New Zealand - that had reached the same conclusion.

"They are consistent in showing, over the time that mobile phones have been around - 29 years in Australia, there's just been no increase in brain cancer in the population."

He said the study took in extremely large numbers and used only publicly accessible data.

"It's not as if we have some little study group with a hundred or a few thousands cases in it."

Other studies have drawn links between rare forms of brain cancer and mobile phone users under the age of 20 and mobile phone use and ipsilateral (on the same side as phone use) tumours .

In her book, Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family , Dr Davis warned that it might take up to 40 years for the true picture of brain cancer and mobile phone correlation to emerge.

If that were the case, we would be seeing early rises in brain cancer occurrence now, Professor Chapman said.

"It's true that we may not see a peak in incidences for 40 years, but if we were to see a peak then, we would already be seeing the line not flatlining but rising," he said.

"You hear people saying that mobile phones should always be used with hands free. I don't know whether people ought to waste their money, I suppose it might give peace of mind, but there is nothing in the data that suggests anything is going on."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Now on to more news and views.

Wayne County, Illinois

Emergency Radio Communications Wireless Messaging Critical Messaging Telemetry Paging Wi-Fi

Wireless Messaging

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

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

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Advertiser Index

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IARU Region 2 Calls for Emergency Communications Workshop Papers, Presentations

04/28/2016

International Amateur Radio Union Region 2 ( IARU-R2 ) will hold an Emergency Communications Workshop in Chile this fall, in conjunction with the 19th IARU Region 2 General Assembly . The conference committee is inviting papers and presentations the event. The workshop on October 11 in Viña del Mar, Chile, will offer an opportunity for Region 2 emergency coordinators and other national-level Amateur Radio emergency communication experts to network and to share information on Amateur Radio emergency response as well as to augment the capabilities of the region’s amateurs to react to large-scale, multinational communication emergencies.

The event is open to radio amateurs in IARU Region 2 with high-level expertise in providing disaster and emergency communication. Attendees will be responsible for their travel and lodging costs. A block of rooms will be available at the O’Higgins Hotel in downtown Viña del Mar. Register online.

Call for Papers

Delegates representing IARU Region 2 member societies, national or international Amateur Radio emergency communication organizations, or national/international-level subject matter experts in Amateur Radio emergency communication are invited to submit proposals and informational papers. Topics must be related to Amateur Radio emergency communication, disaster response, technology, or operating standards.

Documents must be in electronic form (MS Word or Power Point) . When laying out the document format, use A4 paper with at least 3-centimeter margins on all sides. The title page should have a top margin of at least 6 centimeters. Do not insert page headers or footers.

The deadline to submit is July 1. The IARU Region 2 Emergency Communications Workshop Committee will select the most appropriate papers for presentation. All other submitted materials will be compiled for distribution to all delegates and will be posted on the Region 2 website for downloading.

Direct submissions in English to ecw@iaru-r2.org ; direct submissions in Spanish to tce@iaru-r2.org .

The Emergency Communications Workshop will be held on Tuesday, October 11, at the Hotel O’Higgins in Viña del Mar from 9 AM until 6 PM.

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Flagler County Quietly Scraps Plan for 3 New Emergency Communications Towers, For Now

FLAGLERLIVE | MAY 3, 2016

A lattice-type communication tower of the sort the county uses. (©FlaglerLive)

Eight months after proposing to piggyback its emergency communications system for free on three new towers to be privately built in three key spots, the Flagler County administration has quietly been forced to drop the entire plan as the company, Jacksonville-based NexTower, pulled out of the deal.

The arrangement collapsed once the county commission declared one of the three locations, on John Anderson Highway in Flagler Beach, unfeasible for a tower . That location drew strong opposition from residents, not least along John Anderson, whose residents tend to be richer and well connected. A second location, at Cody’s Corner off County Road 305, was also initially rejected, but with a caveat that the location could work in a better arrangement with a local property owner. The only tower the commission approved was in Espanola—next to South Bunnell, the poorest and politically least powerful area of the county.

The towers would have risen to heights of between 320 and 350 feet, far exceeding county regulations. NexTower would have built all three towers at its expense. But in exchange, it would have received very favorable terms not usually afforded cell tower companies. Height restrictions would have been waived by the county to enable placing the county’s 800 megahertz emergency communications system in preferential spots atop the towers, but also to enable NexTower to market the structures to up to 20 customers, far more than the four or five that can fit on a 150-foot tower such as the one planned for the heart of Palm Coast, near the public library.

The county would have realized another major benefit: it would have no longer had to pay the $250,000 a year in rent that it pays now on three towers, a considerable saving.

The three new towers were to have been key to the county’s next-generation emergency communications system, as the current system, in place since 2003, is approaching its demise. Palm Coast government, which, like the sheriff’s office, depends on the county’s emergency communications network and infrastructure for its employees, has been pressuring the county to more precisely explain when it intends to move to a new system, and where it intends to place towers in Palm Coast. County and city have been at odds over the timetable of those improvements, with the county stressing that it has the transition under control, and that planning is under way. The setback with NexTower, however, adds another hurdle in the way of a resolution, as it resets to zero the county’s planning for new towers.

The county for now has renewed for five years the rental of space on existing towers, and County Administrator Craig Coffey says the deal with NexTower does not affect the coming transition, nor the functionality of the system as it currently operates. He said the deal fell through once the tower on John Anderson was no longer in the mix.

“The economics in totality no longer worked for them, so what we all agreed to is basically go back and revisit it in a few years,” Coffey said. “It just wasn’t there for us. It wasn’t there for them. So it’s got to be a win-win. We think there is an opportunity to go back and revisit that. We’ll start that process again in a year or so when we have a lot more time to do it right, and really it gives us a chance, the system, to not necessarily be constrained by existing sites, because we still had some sites that weren’t being considered at the time. Now, moving forward, we’ll have all the sites being considered at the same time.”

The plan for the three NexTower system was first presented to the county planning board by Kevin Guthrie, the former emergency services manager, who presented it as a critical part of the county’s ability to ensure safe and broad emergency communications. The taller towers were to reduce the number of areas that have weak or no reception, which means that when firefighters or cops are in those areas, they can’t communicate with each other. That endangers them and makes their work more difficult.

In Coffey’s analysis, the discussion for new towers was happening sooner than the when the system needed to be upgraded. “Now actually, again, it will allow us to stand up new towers and a new system and still have the other system working until we’re ready to flip the switch,” he said. “We weren’t as happy at the time, but in hindsight, it’s actually probably going to work out much better for us, much better for the system. Because we’re approaching everything now as one comprehensive, from-the-ground up, we’ll be able to put towers where they make most sense, get the most coverage and stuff like that. We’ll be able to take our time working through the process. We don’t want people to feel like we’re trying to cram something into locations.” Even though people depend on cell towers daily and hourly, “towers tend to make people unhappy at some level, depending on how you do it. Especially these towers, they’re fairly tall.”

The county is considering owning the new towers, but at $1 million apiece, that’s very unlikely, especially when it can trade height waivers for free rent, or county land it could lease, as was the case with some of the towers discussed last fall. So the more pressing question for now is location, and whether tower sites in Palm Coast will be necessary.

That’s just what Palm Coast wants to know. A long set of responses by County Commission Chairman Barbara Revels to questions from Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts suggested that at least some tower presence in Palm Coast will be necessary: “At least one, if not two of those new towers will need to be within the City of Palm Coast,” the Revels response, drafted by the administration, stated in early March. The towers would have to be 350 feet tall.

The county’s response went on, using some of the same tone Netts used in his letter, with his repeated capitalizing of the word “NOW”: “If the city is sincere in its desire to improve the safety of its first responder,” the county wrote Netts, “there are things the city can do NOW to assist the county in determining the potential for improving radio coverage and building penetration. The city could provide us all locations within the city where it would support a standard tower.” The county proposed a location in the area of Cypress Pointe and Palm Coast Parkway or at the county library off of Belle Terre Parkway. “Would the city support either of those locations?”

So Palm Coast has gotten responses to at least some of its questions, but county and city remain at odds over long-range planning for the tower system—and the abandoned county plan with NexTower is more likely to generate more questions still.

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Selected portions of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, and/or the BloostonLaw Private Users Update — newsletters from the Law Offices of Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast, LLP — are reproduced in this section with the firm’s permission.

REMINDER: New Requirements in Effect for 2016 Form 481 Filing

Eligible Telecommunications Carriers are reminded that new requirements have gone into effect for this year’s annual Form 481 filing, due July 1, 2016 . For 2016, ETCs do not have to file pursuant to Section 54.313(a)(11) (reporting results of network performance tests). However, ETCs must now file for Section 54.313(a)(12) (broadband reasonable comparability rate certification) and Section 54.313(e) (Recipients of Connect America Phase II), where applicable. In addition, Rural Broadband Experiment participants must now file.

BloostonLaw is experienced in preparing and filing Form 481, as well as meeting the FCC’s requirements to obtain confidentiality for the filings. Carriers interested in obtaining assistance should contact the firm.

Headlines

FCC Proposes New Special Access Regulation

On May 3, the FCC issued a Tariff Investigation Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in which it declares unlawful certain tariff provisions regarding s special access service — a.k.a. business data service or BDS — and proposes to replace the existing regulatory structure with a new technology-neutral framework that classifies markets as either competitive or noncompetitive, and regulates providers accordingly. Comments are due June 28 and reply comments are due July 26.

In the Tariff Investigation Order, the FCC concludes an investigation into the terms and conditions of 18 business data (or special access) services tariff pricing plans offered by AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier and Verizon. Specifically, the FCC declares unlawful so-called “all or nothing” contracts that require a customer to make all of its purchases through a single supplier plan during the term of commitment. The FCC further concludes that certain of the shortfall and early termination penalties contained in the pricing plans are unjust and unreasonable practices. Certain other practices are addressed by the FNPRM.

In the FNPRM, the FCC proposes:

• to identify competitive markets as those in which material competitive effects are present;
• a set of de-regulatory rules to govern competitive markets, primarily applying the Communications Act’s just-and-reasonable requirements and prohibiting NDAs that prevent carriers from providing information to the FCC;
• a set of rules to safeguard customers in non-competitive markets, including the use of price regulation and the prohibition of certain tying arrangements that harm competition;
• that tariffs should not be used in the future as part of the regulation of any BDS;
• a future periodic data collection of a kind that will allow the Commission to update periodically its identification of competitive and non-competitive markets; and
• elimination of the current exemption for certain Verizon services from the basic provisions of the Act governing just and reasonable offerings of telecommunications services.

The proposed framework is, according to the FCC, based on four fundamental principles: 1) competition is best; 2) the new regulatory framework should be technology-neutral; 3) barriers that may be inhibiting the technology transitions should be removed; and 4) regulations should be constructed to meet not only today’s marketplace, but tomorrow’s as well.

FCC Issues NPRM on TTY Transition

On April 29, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on amendments to its rules aimed at facilitating the transition from text telephone (TTY) technology to real-time text (RTT) communication for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, speech disabled, and deaf-blind over Internet Protocol (IP) enabled networks and services. Comments will be due 45 days after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register, and reply comments will be due 60 days after publication.

Specifically, in order to facilitate the TTY-RTT transition, the FCC proposes the following amendments:

• Replace rules governing the obligations of wireless service providers and equipment manufacturers to support TTY technology with rules defining the obligations of these entities to support RTT over IP-based wireless voice services.
• In order for wireless service providers’ and equipment manufacturers’ support of RTT to be deemed sufficient for compliance with the rules:
  • RTT communications must be interoperable across networks and devices, and this may achieved through adherence to RFC 4103, as a “safe harbor” standard for RTT;
  • RTT communications must be backward compatible with TTY technology, until the Commission determines that such compatibility is no longer necessary; and
  • Wireless services and equipment capable of sending, receiving and displaying text must support specific RTT functions, features, and capabilities necessary to ensure that people with disabilities have accessible and effective text-based communications service.
• An implementation timeline:
  • For Tier I wireless service providers, and manufacturers that provide devices for such services, implementation of RTT would be required by December 31, 2017.
  • For non-Tier I wireless providers, and manufacturers of equipment used with such services, we seek comment on an appropriate timeline for implementation of RTT.

Finally, the FCC seeks comment on whether to amend the rules to place comparable responsibilities to support RTT on providers and manufacturers of wireline IP services and equipment that enable consumers to initiate and receive communications by voice.

FCC Sets Initial Clearing Target of 126 Megahertz for Broadcast Incentive Auction; Reverse Auction Bidding to Begin May 31

After reviewing the initial spectrum relinquishment commitments of TV broadcasters and running software to repack remaining broadcasters in a smaller portion of the TV Band, the FCC has set an initial clearing target of 126 megahertz for the 600 MHz Incentive Auction. Under the band plan associated with this spectrum clearing target, 10 paired blocks of licensed spectrum will be offered in the forward auction on a near-nationwide basis. This is the highest possible target, which should give small and rural auction bidders a much better shot at winning one or even two spectrum blocks in their areas of interest, with ten targets to shoot at. The further good news is that the vast majority of spectrum to be sold will be unimpaired.

Specifically, the FCC has adopted a band plan for ten paired channel licenses in 5 + 5 megahertz blocks (100 megahertz total bandwidth) that will be made available on a near-nationwide basis for bidding by wireless service providers in the 600 MHz Band forward auction. An illustration of the initial band plan is shown below. The lettered squares in the chart represent the paired wireless blocks to be offered, while the sequentially numbered squares (and 37) represent TV channels. The rectangles labeled 3, 9, and 11 are the guard bands and duplex gap, with the numbers representing their respective sizes in megahertz.

The geographic area used for all of the forward auction license blocks is a Partial Economic Area (or “PEA”), and a total of 4030 “Category 1” blocks (zero to 15 percent impairment) and a total of 18 “Category 2” blocks (greater than 15 percent and up to 50 percent impairment) will be available for bidding. The Commission has indicated that 99 percent of the “Category 1” blocks will be zero percent impaired. This suggests that the process of repacking of broadcasters has been very successful (at least in theory) and that the wireless industry should, in 3 or 4 years, have access to an additional 100 megahertz of “low band” spectrum for the provision of fixed and mobile broadband services.
The FCC will begin the reverse auction in earnest on May 31st to determine which broadcasters will be allowed to sell their spectrum (i.e., to see which ones will accept the lowest price to abandon their spectrum). This compensation, as well as relocation costs for broadcasters that remain on the air, will be paid out of proceeds from the forward auction. Once the auction ends, broadcasters will have 39 months to migrate to the new airwaves to make room for auction winners to deploy services on their newly acquired spectrum licenses. Because this process will be costly, Congress appropriated $1.75 billion to establish a TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund to reimburse broadcasters for costs they “reasonably incur[]” in relocating to a new channel.

According to a senior FCC official cited in a recent Wall Street Journal article, the reverse auction is expected to take four to six weeks. If correct, this would mean that forward auction bidding (which is supposed to begin on the second business day after the close of bidding in the reverse auction) should begin in early to mid-July. Some analysts have predicted that forward auction proceeds may reach $70 to $80 billion (consistent with the $2.68 per MHz/POP generated by last year’s AWS-3 auction), though others are more guarded, suggesting the incentive auction may bring in just $25 to $35 billion. With the large number of licenses available for bidding, there is a reasonable chance that proceeds could come in toward the higher end of these estimates, even with per MHz/POP prices lower than AWS-3.

Forward auction bidding, which will be conducted using an “ascending clock” format, will see prices for all channel blocks in each PEA market rise incrementally from round-to-round so long as demand for licenses in the PEA exceed their supply. Bidders still demanding licenses when the clock prices stop rising in every license category in every area will become winners of those licenses (not unlike a game of “musical chairs”).

Unlike bidders in the forward auction, who were identified in a recent FCC Public Notice, the identities of participating broadcasters will remain confidential throughout the auction and for two years after, while the remaining broadcast operations are repacked into Channels 2-29. All auction participants are subject to strict rules prohibiting communications about bidding, to prevent anti-competitive conduct.

Comment Sought on Wireless Disaster Resilience and Information Sharing Proposal

On April 28, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau issued a Public Notice seeking comment on the ex parte presentation made by wireless providers AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon, together with CTIA, in which they announce a “Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework” described as “a voluntary initiative that will enhance coordination and communication to advance wireless service continuity and information sharing during and after emergencies and disasters.” Comments will be due 15 days after the Public Notice is published in the Federal Register.

In the letter, the carriers detail a five prong approach to enhance industry coordination to “facilitate greater network resiliency and faster restoration of service” which they assert will “obviate the need for legislative action or inflexible rules that could have unintended consequences.” Specifically, the five prongs include: (1) providing for reasonable roaming under disaster arrangements when technically feasible; (2) fostering mutual aid during emergencies; (3) enhancing municipal preparedness and restoration; (4) increasing consumer readiness and preparation; and (5) improving public awareness and stakeholder communications on service and restoration status. Under each prong, the carriers provide specific actions that they will undertake designed to “enhance coordination among wireless carriers and all key stakeholders, improving information sharing and making wireless network resiliency more robust.

A copy of the ex parte presentation can be found here . Since the FCC is fond of adopting “industry concensus” proposals on thorny issues that draw a lot of public complaint (such as network outages), our clients should review the proposed approach to see if it is something that they can live with (or if it instead imposes disproportionate costs on small and rural carriers).

Law & Regulation

Comment Deadline Established for Dormant Proceeding Termination

On May 2, the FCC published in the Federal Register the Public Notice of February 22 seeking comment on whether certain docketed proceedings listed in the Public Notice should be terminated as dormant. Therefore, comments are due June 1 and replies due June 16.

The proceedings to be terminated include dockets in which no further action is required or contemplated by the FCC, as well as those in which no pleadings or other documents have been filed for several years. The termination of a dormant proceeding includes dismissal as moot of any pending petition, motion, or other request for relief that is procedural in nature or otherwise does not address the merits of the proceeding. The records in terminated proceedings remain part of the Commission’s official records, and the various pleadings, orders, and other documents in these dockets continue to be accessible to the public, post-termination.

Parties with pending proceedings at the FCC should review the list and consider filing comments if the matter is still an issue for them. According to the FCC, proceedings in which petitions addressing the merits are pending should not be terminated, absent the parties’ consent. However, to the extent that a particular proceeding includes a petition addressing the merits or other pending pleadings, a party’s failure to file comments in response to the FCC's Public Notice will be construed as consent to termination of that proceeding.

Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Seeks Comment on Mobile Competition

On April 29, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau issued a Public Notice seeking comment on the state of mobile wireless competition. Comments are due May 31, and reply comments are due June 15.

The purpose of the Public Notice is to solicit input on competition in the mobile wireless marketplace for the FCC’s Nineteenth Annual Report on the State of Competition in Mobile Wireless, including Commercial Mobile Radio Services (Nineteenth Report). Among other topics, the Bureau is seeking input on:

• competitive dynamics within the mobile wireless marketplace regarding, such as the number of subscribers and financial indicators, such as revenue or profitability;
• overall industry metrics such as coverage, including by spectrum band, technology, geography, and demographics;
• upstream ( e.g., spectrum) segments as well as consumer behavior regarding mobile wireless services, including consumer usage, handsets, mobile applications, and intermodal developments, such as mobile-wireline substitution; and
• pricing levels and trends and other non-price factors on which service providers compete, as well as performance metrics for mobile broadband networks, such as speed and latency, including the methodologies used for assessment.

The Bureau also seeks comment on whether the metrics provided in the Eighteenth Report were sufficient for analyzing competition in the mobile wireless marketplace in a useful and timely manner, or whether any changes should be made for the metrics to be included in the Nineteenth Report.

Carriers interested in participating in the Bureau’s comment cycle should contact the firm for more information.

FCC Finalizes Rules Governing 3.5 GHz Band

On May 2, the FCC issued a Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration (Second Order) finalizing the rules governing the “Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the 3550-3700 MHz band (3.5 GHz Band)”. In this Second Order, the FCC finalizes the regulatory scheme first created in 2015 in the 3.5 GHz R&O. In that Order, the FCC adopted specific licensing, technical, and service rules to enable dynamic sharing between three tiers of users in the 3.5 GHz Band.

In this Second Order, the FCC resolves the three outstanding issues raised in the Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this proceeding. First, it adopts an engineering-based approach for determining when a Priority Access License (PAL) area is in use. Second, it adopts a flexible secondary market regime for Priority Access Licenses, allowing a single PAL to be issued in License Areas located in Rural Areas in the absence of mutually exclusive applications. Finally, it expands access for wireless broadband operators with the need to protect fixed satellite service operations, and adopts protections that will be tailored to the characteristics of each grandfathered earth station, by making clear that Spectrum Access Systems must be capable of receiving and responding to interference complaints from Fixed Satellite Service earth station licensees.

Tower Construction Guidance Provided for Protection of Bats

On April 29, the FCC issued a Public Notice indicating that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released a final rule requiring protective measures related to the threatened status of the northern long-eared bat, which affects the environmental review of tower projects in the bat’s range. Specifically, all tower construction projects within the bat’s range must follow the USFWS process for federal actions located here . Similarly, if a project requires consultation with USFWS, the party will be consulting pursuant to Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a “designated non-Federal entity.”

According to the Public Notice, the bat’s range includes much of the eastern and north central United States, Canadian provinces from the Atlantic Ocean west to the southern Yukon Territory, and eastern British Columbia. This includes the following 37 States and the District of Columbia: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Carriers with tower projects in the bat’s range should contact the firm for more information.

FCC Denies Requests to Extend Comment Deadline for Internet Privacy

On April 29, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau issued an Order denying requests for an extension of time to file comments on the FNPRM on establishing privacy regulations for broadband internet access service providers. Therefore, comments are still due May 27, and replies are still due June 27.

By way of reminder, the FCC is seeking comment on the following proposals:

• define the information that would be protected as “customer proprietary information” (customer PI) to include both CPNI as established by Section 222(h) of the Act and personally identifiable information (PII) collected by the broadband providers through their provision of BIAS.
• enhance the ability of consumers to make informed choices through effective disclosure of broadband providers’ privacy policies
• adopt a three-tiered approach to choice with respect to use of customer PI obtained by virtue of providing the broadband
• whether additional protection, above and beyond Section 705 of the Communications Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (including those provisions known as the Wiretap Act), is needed.
• whether, and how, Section 222 should be applied to provide additional protection to some or all forms of content or to otherwise complement the effectiveness of existing federal laws.
• whether there are any small-provider-specific exemptions that are appropriate, such as for small providers who have already obtained customer approval, or who collect data from fewer than 5,000 customers a year (provided they do not share customer data with third parties).
• whether there are particular types of information, for example, Social Security numbers, financial account information, or geo-location information that, although included within the definition of customer PI, are so sensitive that they deserve special treatment.
• that consumers should be able to rely on their broadband provider to take reasonable steps to safeguard customer information from unauthorized use, disclosure, or access, and seeks comment on whether there are other data security requirements that the Commission should adopt, such as data minimization requirements.

The FCC is also considering adopting rules that harmonize the privacy requirements for cable and satellite providers with the rules for telecommunications providers, and on what barriers may exist to the ability of consumers to resolve disputes and it recognizes the right to access and correct the customer information their broadband provider maintains about them.

Industry

Altice/Cablevision Merger Approved

On May 3, the FCC granted applications filed by Altice N.V. and Cablevision Systems Corporation to transfer control of authorizations from Cablevision Systems Corporation to Altice N.V. subject to condition requested by the Executive Branch Agencies.

Altice, a Netherlands company, provides fixed and mobile voice, video, and broadband services in a range of markets throughout the world, including in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Portugal, Switzerland, Israel, the French Caribbean and Indian Ocean regions, and the Dominican Republic. Altice serves approximately 34.5 million subscribers world-wide. Altice has an application pending before the Commission for the transfer of control of Suddenlink Communications and its subsidiaries to Altice.

Cablevision offers digital television, Internet services, and Voice over Internet Protocol service to approximately 3.1 million subscribers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Cablevision also operates a network of over 1 million Wi-Fi Internet access points across the Cablevision footprint. Cablevision's subsidiary, Cablevision Lightpath, offers competitive telecommunications services to companies in the New York Metro area and also owns Cablevision Media Sales, the company's advertising sales division. Cablevision provides news and information in its service area through the News 12 programming networks; Newsday, a Long Island daily newspaper; amNewYork, a free daily serving New York City; and Star Community Publishing, a publisher of weekly shoppers and community papers on Long Island.

FCC Announces Meeting of Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture

On April 28, the FCC issued a Public Notice announcing the meeting of the Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA), to be held on May 6, 2016, from 1:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC Headquarters. At this meeting, the Task Force will hear overview presentations of 2016 tasks from the Task Force's three working groups, specifically Working Group 1 — Optimal Approach to Cybersecurity, Working Group 2 — Optimal Approach to NG911 Architecture Implementation, and Working 3 — Optimal Approach to NG911 Resource Allocation. Each of the Task Force Working Groups is described in more detail at https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/task-force-optimal-public-safety-answering-point-architecture-tfopa .

The FCC will provide audio and/or video coverage of the meeting over the Internet from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live .

Deadlines

MAY 31: FCC FORM 395, EMPLOYMENT REPORT. Common carriers, including wireless carriers, with 16 or more full-time employees must file their annual Common Carrier Employment Reports (FCC Form 395) by May 31. This report tracks carrier compliance with rules requiring recruitment of minority employees. Further, the FCC requires all common carriers to report any employment discrimination complaints they received during the past year. That information is also due on May 31. The FCC encourages carriers to complete the discrimination report requirement by filling out Section V of Form 395, rather than submitting a separate report.

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 outage, unfulfilled service request, and complaint data, broken out separately for voice and broadband services, information on the ETC’s holding company, operating companies, ETC affiliates and any branding in response to section 54.313(a)(8); its CAF-ICC certification, if applicable; its financial information, if a privately held rate-of-return carrier; and its satellite backhaul certification, if applicable. Form 481 must not only be filed with USAC, but also with the FCC and the relevant state commission and tribal authority, as appropriate. Although USAC treats the filing as confidential, filers must seek confidential treatment separately with the FCC and the relevant state commission and tribal authority if confidential treatment is desired.

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

JULY 29: CARRIER IDENTIFICATION CODE (CIC) REPORTS. Carrier Identification Code (CIC) Reports must be filed by the last business day of July (this year, July 29). 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.

AUGUST 1: FCC FORM 507, UNIVERSAL SERVICE QUARTERLY LINE COUNT UPDATE. Line count updates are required to recalculate a carrier's per line universal service support, and is filed with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). This information must be submitted on July 31 each year by all rate-of-return incumbent carriers, and on a quarterly basis if a competitive eligible telecommunications carrier (CETC) has initiated service in the rate-of-return incumbent carrier’s service area and reported line count data to USAC in the rate-of-return incumbent carrier’s service area, in order for the incumbent carrier to be eligible to receive Interstate Common Line Support (ICLS). Because July 31 falls on a Sunday this year, the filing will be due August 1. This quarterly filing is due July 31 and covers lines served as of December 31, 2013. Incumbent carriers filing on a quarterly basis must also file on September 30 (for lines served as of March 31, 2014); December 30 (for lines served as of June 30, 2014), and March 31, 2015, for lines served as of September 30, 2014).

Calendar At-A-Glance

May
May 9 – Comments are due in Emergency Alert System NPRM Proceeding.
May 12 – Comments are due on Rate-of-Return FNPRM.
May 17 – Reply comments are due on TCPA Home Office Line Classification proceeding.
May 27 – Comments are due on Internet Privacy NPRM.
May 31 – Comments are due on Mobile Competition.
May 31 – FCC Form 395 (Annual Employment Report) is due.

June
Jun. 1 – Deadline to increase local residential rates above $18 to avoid reductions in support.
Jun. 1 – Comments are due on Dormant Proceeding Termination.
Jun. 7 – Reply comments are due in Emergency Alert System NPRM Proceeding.
Jun. 13 – Reply comments are due on Rate-of-Return FNPRM.
Jun. 15 – Reply comments are due on Mobile Competition.
Jun. 16 – Reply comments are due on Dormant Proceeding Termination.
Jun. 27 – Reply comments are due on Internet Privacy NPRM.
Jun. 28 – Comments are due on New Special Access Regulation.

July
Jul. 1 – FCC Form 481 (Carrier Annual Reporting Data Collection Form) is due.
Jul. 1 – FCC Form 690 (Mobility Fund Phase I Auction Winner Annual Report) is due.
Jul. 26 – Reply comments are due on New Special Access Regulation.
Jul. 29 – Carrier Identification Code (CIC) Report is due.

August
Aug. 1 – FCC Form 507 (Universal Service Quarterly Line Count Update) is due.
Aug. 1 – International Traffic Data Report is due.

Microsoft plugs 300M Windows 10 devices, reiterates July end to free upgrade

But skeptics continue to doubt that the company will kill the free upgrade

By Gregg Keizer Follow
COMPUTERWORLD
MAY 5, 2016 10:19 AM PT

Microsoft today said that 300 million "active devices" are running Windows 10, a boost of 30 million, for an increase of 11%, in the last five weeks.

The Redmond, Wash. company also warned customers that the Windows 10 free upgrade offer would end July 29, and urged them to grab the deal before it vanishes.

"Time is running out. The free upgrade offer will end on July 29 and we want to make sure you don't miss out," said Yusuf Mehdi, a senior executive in the Windows and devices group, in a post to a company blog Thursday.

After July 29, Mehdi added, customers can get Windows 10 pre-installed on a new device, or pay the full price for a Windows 10 license to upgrade their current system. The consumer-grade Windows 10 Home costs $119, while Windows 10 Pro — which adds some corporate-specific features — runs $199.

Some had previously speculated that Microsoft would extend the free upgrade after the end of July, rationalizing that the company would want to continue building the user base. But in March, Directions on Microsoft analyst Wes Miller dismissed such talk .

"If they extend [the free deal] past July, they might as well as extend it forever," Miller said then. "The longer Windows 10 is free, the harder it becomes to end it. Microsoft is cognizant of that."

Even so, and even with Mehdi's call to upgrade before the offered ends, some Microsoft watchers remain skeptical that the deal would expire. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, for instance, pointed to Microsoft's language in its follow-up statement to her. "The free upgrade promotion is currently slated to end on July 29," Microsoft told Foley [emphasis added].

Like virtually all companies, Microsoft carefully chooses its words in its public pronouncements, and typically uses vagueness like "currently slated" to give it an out if, say, it changes its mind.

But Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, pitched in on the side of skeptics. "I don't think that the upgrade will end," Moorhead said in an interview today. "It will continue, likely as a lower-priced version. Microsoft is going to ride the free upgrade as long as they can possibly can."

Moorhead bet that Microsoft would extend the offer, one way or another, at least once or twice, keeping it around "until it feels comfortable that no one else will upgrade."

On the numbers front, Microsoft continued its habit of trumpeting not only Windows 10's growth, but also a host of peripheral statistics on usage, likely driven by its desire to portray the OS as as much a service as software. Mehdi, for example, ballyhooed the billions of minutes customers had spent on Edge in March, and the billions of hours users had occupied themselves playing games on Windows 10 devices since its debut.

Moorhead applauded the usage numbers from Microsoft, calling them a proof of engagement.

"It's a positive mark," said Moorhead of Microsoft's statistics. "Windows has had its reputation thrust on it by the competition, who claim that Windows users are not engaged in doing this or doing that. But this is all part of the messages to [Microsoft's] ecosystems. To the hardware OEMs, it '[Windows 10] is a growing and thriving environment, and you should have confidence in making devices.' To developers, it's all about UWP [Universal Windows Platform] apps."

To most, the important number is 300 million, described this time as "active devices," as opposed to the "active users" metric Microsoft used previously. It was unclear whether the change reflected a true difference.

Microsoft's 300 million includes not only personal computers — which obviously compose the bulk — but also tablets, smartphones, Xbox One game consoles and other hardware. That explained the difference between Microsoft's number and the latest estimate generated by Computerworld, which, based on analytics vendor Net Applications' user share data and the often-cited total of 1.5 billion Windows PCs worldwide, pegged the OS on 259 million personal computers during April.

It was no great surprise, then, that the growth over that month as expressed by Net Applications and Microsoft were similar: Microsoft claimed an increase of 30 million, while Net Applications' data signaled a slightly smaller 24 million.

"I think Microsoft is proving to everybody that Windows 10 is a third viable platform," said Moorhead. "iOS and Android didn't kill Windows."

Microsoft plans to release the next major upgrade to Windows 10, dubbed "Anniversary Update," this summer. Mehdi did not divulge a specific date today, but many expect that the upgrade will ship near, or even on, July 29.

This story, "Microsoft plugs 300M Windows 10 devices, reiterates July end to free upgrade" was originally published by Computerworld .

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

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

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

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Beauty

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
― Confucius

It's Hard Work Being a Bee

He Meixia, a 25-year-old farmer, pollinates each blossom on a pear tree by hand in the Sichuan province, China.

POLLINATING FRUIT TREES is a job best done by bees. But there aren’t a lot of bees in China these days, which leaves farmers to find other solutions. In Hanyuan County, often called the pear capital of the world, workers go tree to tree, hand-pollinating the white blossoms with brushes.

The technique is one of many that farmers around the world are adopting as pollinator populations fall steadily. Researchers attribute the decline to many factors, including pesticides, parasites, and invasive predators. Many species are edging toward extinction, according to a United Nations report released in February.

Farmers in Sichuan province (which includes Hanyuan County) have been hand-pollinating for years, deploying small armies of workers armed with brushes on long sticks to dab the flowers. It’s tedious, but cheaper than renting bees.

While some might fear this is a sign of what’s to come for US agriculture, Eric Mussen, an apiculturist at UC Davis, doesn’t see farmers here replacing bees with humans anytime soon. “Beekeepers are finding ways to limit colony losses and fill their empty boxes,” he says. “Colony numbers have leveled off and have been increasing over the past few years. We are finding that our crops are receiving more pollination services from native bees than we had realized. So, at the moment we are not feeling desperate.”

It’s debatable whether replacing humans with bees is sustainable in the long-term. But as bee populations wane worldwide, more fruit-bearing trees might see new visitors dusting their spring blossoms. And they won’t necessarily have wings.