Jimm Phillips

Washington firefighters “encountered difficulty communicating with each other” on the 800 MHz band used for their radios while attempting to rescue passengers from a train in a smoke-filled Metrorail tunnel and in the adjacent L’Enfant Plaza station Jan. 12, said the city’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) department Saturday in a report. Firefighters were delayed in their rescue of passengers stranded on the Metrorail train because their radios weren’t functioning properly in the station and tunnels, FEMS said in its report to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he's asking the state legislature to pass a bill backed by his office that would significantly strengthen New York’s data breach notification law, vowing it would be “the strongest, most comprehensive in the nation” and would make New York a “national model for data privacy and security.” Schneiderman’s push for a strengthened New York data breach law followed days after the White House proposed a national data breach bill to replace the “patchwork” of existing state laws (see 1501120043) and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced the Data Security and Breach Notification Act (S-177) (see 1501140046). That bill’s text remained unavailable Friday, but Nelson has said he intended the bill to mirror the White House proposal.

The BroadbandUSA initiative under the NTIA’s auspices uses the agency’s experience with the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) “and brings that skill set to share with communities around the country to help them with the issues they’re facing to ensure” they can improve their broadband access, Douglas Kinkoph, acting associate administrator of the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications, said in an interview. The White House announced the BroadbandUSA initiative Wednesday as part of its package of plans to improve access to affordable high-speed broadband. President Barack Obama also declared his support for ending state laws that restrict municipal broadband deployments as part of that plan (see 1501140048). BroadbandUSA is “a continuation in some ways of NTIA’s mission of always pushing and helping in the broadband space, but we’re not funding this time,” Kinkoph said Thursday. “We’re providing expertise and sharing it on a no-cost basis.” New NTIA grants would have required legislation from Congress, and the White House emphasized that its new broadband plan would focus on initiatives that didn’t require Congress. NTIA’s BTOP experience means it has “expertise that cuts across infrastructure, broadband mapping, broadband adoption, digital inclusion and public access,” which can all be integrated into advice the agency can provide to local communities, said Laura Breeden, program director-public computing and broadband adoption.

The satellite industry faces tough fights ahead to protect the C band from reallocation for mobile services uses, industry executives said Thursday during a Washington Space Business Roundtable event. The FCC is looking at a portion of the C band -- 3550 MHz-3650 MHz -- for spectrum sharing purposes and is considering possible revisions to the rules for its proposed Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) that would govern sharing between incumbent satellite and federal users of the spectrum and new entrants to the band. Delegates to the ITU-run World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), set for Nov. 2-27 in Geneva, will consider a proposal from the international wireless industry seeking an even larger reallocation of the C band for mobile services, which the satellite industry opposes (see 1411130041).

President Barack Obama declared his support Wednesday for ending state laws that restrict or prohibit municipal broadband deployments and said he would file a letter with the FCC urging the commission to use its authority to remove barriers to local broadband deployments, as expected (see 1501130067). “I believe a community has the right to make its own choice” on deploying broadband free from state restrictions, Obama said in a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which has a municipal broadband network. He said “all of us,” including the FCC, “should do everything we can to push back on those old laws.”

President Barack Obama will declare his support Wednesday for FCC pre-emption of state laws restricting municipal broadband and will file a letter with the agency in support of pre-emption, said National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients on a call Tuesday with reporters. The commission is currently considering whether to pre-empt laws in North Carolina and Tennessee in response to petitions filed by the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the city of Wilson, North Carolina. Obama is expected to announce his support for FCC pre-emption during a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, as part of a proposal to increase access to affordable high-speed broadband, Zients said. The administration “is making its view clear,” as it did when Obama announced his support for Communications Act Title II reclassification in November (see 1411100035), Zients said.

The White House advanced new proposals on cybersecurity Tuesday ahead of President Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 State of the Union speech, releasing further details about legislative proposals on information sharing, cybercrime and grants for cybersecurity education at historically black colleges. The set of proposals partially mirrors aspects of the White House’s May 2011 cybersecurity legislative proposals. Obama plans to make cybersecurity a major focus in his State of the Union speech, as he has in previous years.

The Missouri House’s HB-437 is the latest “attempt to erect barriers to the deployment of broadband networks,” the Coalition for Local Internet Choice said Monday. The bill, introduced Thursday, would bar any municipality from offering broadband or other competitive services unless the municipality already offers the service, a private company isn’t offering the service within the municipality’s boundaries, the service would have an annual fiscal impact of less than $100,000 or a majority of voters approve the service offering. “It is ironic that while the International CES show in Las Vegas spotlighted hundreds of new devices and applications that require big bandwidth, legislation would be introduced in Missouri that would impair the development of networks that enable that bandwidth,” CLIC said in a statement. HB-437 “is about fairness,” Rep. Rocky Miller, the Republican who sponsored the bill, emailed us. “This bill is meant to even the playing field and eliminate socialized/non-commercial services provided by municipalities. I simply want to vote to allow for my city to provide a service if that service is already being provided by another company.” Miller said the bill would prevent “unfair competition” and still lets municipalities offer services if voters approve them. Missouri law restricts all political subdivisions from providing certain telecom services but exempts 911 and “Internet-type” services.

President Barack Obama’s proposal for improving cybersecurity information sharing will center on a plan to work with the private sector to expand the nation's information sharing apparatus, two industry officials who attended White House briefings on the proposals told us Monday. Obama is to discuss cybersecurity information sharing during a speech Tuesday at the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC).

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., reintroduced the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) Friday, but a new year and a new session of Congress hasn’t substantially changed the bill’s prospects for enactment, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us. Ruppersberger cited North Korea’s December data breach at Sony Pictures Entertainment as the impetus for his early reintroduction of the bill, saying in a statement that “we must stop dealing with cyber attacks after the fact.” The version of CISPA for the 114th Congress (HR-234) is a near facsimile of the version the House passed during the 113th Congress (see report in April 19, 2013, issue). The Senate didn’t vote on the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), which was substantially similar to CISPA, before the 113th Congress adjourned in December.