The nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) could improve interoperability, capacity and reliability of public safety responses in states like Pennsylvania in cases of blizzards, gas explosions, riots, manhunts and hurricanes, a FirstNet blog post said Monday. Pennsylvania Statewide Interoperability Coordinator Mark Wrightstone earlier this year said the state's land mobile radio system, PA-StarNet -- which is used by more than two dozen agencies in Pennsylvania -- allows both voice and data traffic, uses 800 MHz trunked digital technology and services more than 25,000 subscriber devices, the post said. Wrightstone said that PA-StarNet has “extensive experience” with interoperable public safety communications, making it “ideally suited to coordinate Pennsylvania’s response to the federal FirstNet program and its mission to improve radio communications for first responders.”
UniPixel landed a preproduction order of its XTouch sensors from a major unidentified Japanese CE manufacturer for a touch screen in a 10-inch tablet product, the components vendor said in a Monday announcement. “While this pre-production order does not guarantee that this sensor will eventually enter mass production with this customer, we are excited about moving this opportunity forward to the next step.”
Funding shortfalls are hampering CBP’s ability to ensure nuclear and radiological material doesn’t enter U.S. territory, said a representative of the American Association of Port Authorities in testimony to the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on Oct. 27 (here). Port authorities across the country are criticizing the CBP’s failure to effectively update radiation port monitors (RPMs) at U.S. ports, said Joseph Lawless, director of maritime security at the Massachusetts Port Authority.
The diversion of $4 billion in customs user fees to unrelated transportation projects in the six-year Senate highway bill would damage CBP’s ability to increase its staffing to authorized levels, the National Treasury Employees Union said in an Oct. 28 statement (here). House Democrats recently lashed into that use of the fees, arguing they should be applied to facilitation and border functions (see 1510150029). “Sufficient CBP staffing must be provided to ensure security and mitigate long wait times at our nation’s air, sea and land ports of entry,” said new NTEU President Tony Reardon in the statement. “There is perhaps no greater roadblock to legitimate trade and travel efficiency than the shortage of staff at the ports. Understaffed ports lead to long delays for the traveling public and in commercial lanes as cargo waits to enter U.S. commerce. Those delays result in real losses to the U.S. economy.” CBP has struggled to fill the additional hires (see 1504230030). The House introduced a long-term bill in recent days, but Ways and Means lawmakers haven't yet provided funding sources for the legislation (see 1510260009). The Senate gave the go-ahead on a three-week highway stopgap on Oct. 28 in a move that sends the legislation to President Barack Obama.
Bipartisan enthusiasm surrounded the package of draft measures and the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act (HR-3805) considered during Wednesday’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Witnesses and lawmakers agreed on the merits of the ideas, posted in draft form earlier this week on the committee website, addressing such deployment concerns as pole attachments, deadlines for the General Services Administration and creation of an inventory of federal assets (see 1510260057).
Some senators slammed the provision of Bipartisan Budget Act agreement that would allow robocalls to cellphones for the collection of debt owed to the government, such as in student loan debt collection. “We should be getting rid of robocalls, not empowering the federal government to make them,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., scoffed Wednesday during a Commerce Committee hearing, blasting “this nutty path.”
Bipartisan enthusiasm surrounded the package of draft measures and the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act (HR-3805) considered during Wednesday’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Witnesses and lawmakers agreed on the merits of the ideas, posted in draft form earlier this week on the committee website, addressing such deployment concerns as pole attachments, deadlines for the General Services Administration and creation of an inventory of federal assets (see 1510260057).
House lawmakers unveiled five discussion drafts Monday intended to facilitate broadband deployment and slated for discussion Wednesday during a Communications Subcommittee hearing at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The measures involve pole attachments, historic review of broadband facilities and agencies’ role in locating such facilities, deadlines for the General Services Administration and an inventory of federal assets. Also under discussion will be the much-praised Broadband Conduit Deployment Act (HR-3805).
House lawmakers unveiled five discussion drafts Monday intended to facilitate broadband deployment and slated for discussion Wednesday during a Communications Subcommittee hearing at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The measures involve pole attachments, historic review of broadband facilities and agencies’ role in locating such facilities, deadlines for the General Services Administration and an inventory of federal assets. Also under discussion will be the much-praised Broadband Conduit Deployment Act (HR-3805).
The House Communications Subcommittee locked down 10 a.m. Wednesday in 2123 Rayburn for an expected hearing on barriers to broadband infrastructure deployment. “With ever-increasing demand for broadband Internet access, whether fixed or mobile, the subcommittee will review proposals break down barriers preventing consumer access to this vital resource,” the committee said in a news release. “The proposals would streamline processes for getting access to federal lands and utility poles, require smart dig-once policies that take advantage of existing roadwork to deploy fiber conduit, and examine the bureaucracy that impedes private sector investment in broadband.” Lawmakers on multiple House committees raised the issue of “dig once” policies Thursday, including Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who has prioritized the issue in past sessions of Congress. In the Transportation Committee, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., proposed an amendment to the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act (HR-3763) during a Thursday markup. The amendment would have set up a process by which “the conduit would be laid in as that road was repaired or constructed,” he said, calling it “pretty simple” but with major economic development and public safety implications: “The cost is minor compared to the potential benefit,” Garamendi said. “Ms. Eshoo has introduced a similar bill that will eventually be discussed in committee.” Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., opposed the amendment, arguing it would be “imposing new mandates” on states. Garamendi disagreed but withdrew the amendment, promising “we’ll continue to work this.” In the Communications Subcommittee, Eshoo and Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., introduced the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act, an Eshoo bill that lacked GOP backing in the past. “Paving the way for smoother deployment of state-of-the-art-broadband networks has long been a goal for our subcommittee,” Walden said in a statement. “This legislation meets that goal and makes it easier to connect more Americans to this vital 21st century resource.” The American Cable Association, AT&T, CenturyLink, Incompas, Public Knowledge, TechFreedom and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation lauded the bill. Similar provisions exist as part of a bipartisan bill that Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is spearheading in the Senate. The bill “will further reduce the cost of laying thousands of miles of fiber optic lines by private businesses,” American Cable Association President Matt Polka said. The bill attracted 26 other lawmakers as co-sponsors, Eshoo’s spokesman told us. The backers are a mix of Democrats and Republicans, from Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. Garamendi also backs the Eshoo/Walden bill.