All filed comments support a late October petition by CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association (see 2211010056) seeking changes to rules in the FCC’s new mandatory disaster response initiative (MDRI). Replies to oppositions were due at the FCC Tuesday, after the deadline was delayed in December (see 2212190040). FCC commissioners approved the rules in July (see 2207060070)
Federal Railroad Administration’s emergency notification system (ENS) is the key to getting information to the railroads in any emergency, FRA officials said Tuesday during a webinar by 911.gov. Blue ENS signs, with calling information and an 800-number to call, are located at every railway crossing in the U.S. with a unique number assigned to identify the crossing, explained Michail Grizkewitsch, FRA transportation specialist. “Everybody thinks they have to call 911,” Grizkewitsch said. “In reality, when we deal with railroads their dispatch centers can be 10 states away,” he said. CSX operates in 26 states, with a single dispatch center in Jacksonville, Florida, he noted. Grizkewitsch said when the ENS center is called, operators there can do everything necessary to stop trains from running to avoid an accident, stalled vehicle, or other emergency. ENS “is your quickest way to get to the railroad,” he said. FRA advises members of the public, in some cases, to call the ENS number before they dial 911, he said: “The reason being, calling this 1-800 number will get that train stopped in a matter of seconds. … It takes a mile or more to stop a train so our biggest and No. 1 priority is getting that train stopped.” Railroad emergencies are frequent, Grizkewitsch said. In the U.S., a vehicle is struck by a train every three hours and each year there are more than 3,000 railway crossing accidents and about 1,000 people attempt suicide by jumping in front of a train, he said.
The FAA is proposing that passenger and cargo aircraft in the U.S. have 5G C-band-tolerant radio altimeters or install approved filters by early 2024. The requirement is proposed in a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register, with comments due Feb. 10. Industry experts saw the latest as a net positive for telecom carriers, but some warned of a dangerous precedent being created by the FAA.
What the metaverse is, and will mean for consumers, is still evolving, speakers said during a CES discussion Saturday. The metaverse means “we’re going to be able to be anywhere, have anywhere be with us, together,” said David Treat, Accenture senior managing director. “It’s the end of that two-dimensional, highly constrained version of the digital world,” he said. “Screw the metaverse,” said Justin Hochberg, CEO of Virtual Brand Group, a metaverse company: “I am tired of giving Facebook, i.e., Meta, branding over all of the things that we do. I don’t want to call it metaverse anymore.” Hochberg said he agreed with Treat in general, but there are problems. “Right now, it’s a lot of technology, but not a lot of use cases,” he said. Zach Bruch, CEO of non-fungible token company Recur, said when he hears metaverse he doesn’t think about Facebook. Bruch said the definition should be broad. “You can be riding a Peloton, you’re in the metaverse; on a Zoom call, you’re in a metaverse,” he said. “Using the digital world to connect with other people, for all sorts of different things and different use cases, to me that’s what the metaverse is,” he said. “You’re on the metaverse,” said Betty (who uses only her first name), CEO of NFT company Deadfellaz. “We’re already in these digital spaces all day, every day -- I think that’s the metaverse,” she said. “In reality, it’s [gaming platform] Discord, it’s Twitter, it’s where we’re already at,” she said. “I don’t think it’s chaotic, but it can feel chaotic from an outsider’s perspective,” she said: “The tech and the aesthetics don’t line up just yet, but they will.” Every major wave of innovation is “proceeded by a couple of decades worth of work that laid the foundation,” Treat said. The metaverse integrates years of work on blockchain technology and augmented and virtual reality, he said. If you think of the metaverse as decades of innovation converging, “you see a multi-decade, natural progression to an inevitable outcome that will break us away from the digital world [as] something that we experience on a flat plane of glass in the computer we’re sitting in front of or the phone we’re holding up,” Treat said.
Completing NTIA’s work on more than $48 billion in connectivity spending through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will take years and require “a huge amount of work,” but it’s not the agency’s only focus, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson told CES Saturday. Other speakers said wireless projects must be able to fully compete with fiber for the program to be most successful.
Digital healthcare offers promise for doctors and their patients, but doctors have to play a role as technology unfolds, physician Bobby Mukkamala, immediate past board chair of the American Medical Association, told CES Friday. Telehealth has been a recurring focus of the FCC under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, with a telehealth item teed up for a commissioner vote later this month (see 2301050048). Mukkamala and other speakers also noted challenges posed by AI.
The FCC is seeking comment on revised rules for carriers to report data breaches. The NPRM, released Friday and approved 4-0 last month, proposes eliminating the “outdated” seven-business-day mandatory waiting period before notifying customers of a breach and requiring the reporting of inadvertent but harmful breaches to the FCC, FBI and Secret Service.
The Consumer Technology Association's president sharply criticized FTC merger policy during a Thursday keynote at CES. CTA also released a scorecard on the most innovative countries in the world. In one of the most prominent presentations at CES, John Deere executives described how the autonomous tractor will help feed the world as population continues to expand. The company introduced the fully autonomous tractor at CES a year ago.
CTA warned of potential rocky months ahead as CES got started in Las Vegas Wednesday. Supply chain issues are easing, but labor shortages remain, said Steve Koenig, CTA vice president-research, during his annual tech trends update before formal CES programming begins Thursday. CTA projects in a new report U.S. technology retail revenue of $485 billion in 2023, slightly above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels but down from a record-breaking $512 billion in 2021.
The FCC released a long-expected NPRM Wednesday seeking comment on proposed service rules allowing the use of the 5030-5091 MHz band by drones, which was approved by commissioners Dec. 23 (see 2212230035). Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the NPRM takes a broad look at the use of spectrum by unmanned aircraft systems. It asks more than 160 questions about future use of the band and other spectrum by drones.