The Federal Communications Commission issued a press release reminding communications providers of the Commission's resources specially geared towards information management and assistance during the upcoming hurricane season (June 1 to November 30).

Communications service providers needing emergency special temporary authorizations (STAs) or seeking consultation with FCC Bureaus and Offices about their communications recovery efforts after hours or on weekends are encouraged to contact the FCC’s 24/7 Operations Center at 202-418-1122 or fccopcenter@fcc.gov.

Additionally, the Commission brought attention to its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), a voluntary, web-based system that allows wireless, wireline, broadcast, and cable providers to report communications infrastructure status and situational awareness information to the FCC. The FCC release communications providers that have not yet submitted their emergency contact information t register in the DIRS using the following URL: https://www.fcc.gov/nors/disaster/Login.cfm. during times of crisis.

Last week, UTC and NEI filed an ex parte letter with the FCC listing 43 nuclear power plants that use Telex equipment operating on the 700 MHz and/or 800 MHz bands (i.e. above 698 MHz). The letter supplements the ex parte filings that UTC/NEI previously made with the FCC in regards to establishing a transition period to migrate off the 700 MHz band.

This move comes as an FCC deadline of June 12, 2010 looms for broadcast auxiliary operations, such as wireless microphones - including Telex headsets - to stop using the 700 MHz band which has been reallocated for 4G commercial and public safety communications. Not coincidentally, the FCC released a public notice reminding operators of wireless microphones in the 700 MHz band to either retune or replace their gear by June 12, 2010. Such an action would "avoid interference to public safety communications and next generation commercial services," according to the FCC. The list of equipment affected by this notice is listed here.

A proposed decision was issued on May 21, 2010, which sets requirements for the three major California IOUs to follow when drafting their smart grid deployment plans, which must be submitted by July 1, 2011. Read more »

Canada jointly released its National Strategy and Action Plan for Critical Infrastructure to address the full range of risks and threats to critical infrastructure.

The Action Plan calls for the creation of a National Cross-Sector Forum to promote collaboration across the sector networks and address cross-jurisdictional and cross-sectoral interdependencies. One of the key actions will be to form a Federal-Provincial-Territorial Critical Infrastructure Working Group that has sector-wide representation. Additionally, in order to boost information sharing, this working Group will create an information-dessimination framework. Each sector will also do a risk-assessment analysis and these sector risk-profiles will be used to develop sector-specific work plans that will be implemented by the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Critical Infrastructure Working Group Read more »

HR 5026, the Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense (GRID) Act, passed the House by unanimous voice vote on Wednesday, June 9, 2010. The act allows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to bypass the NERC standards setting process of Section 215 of the Federal Power Act and issue orders directly concerning:
1) Vulnerabilities not addressed by current NERC CIP standards which remain in effect until FERC approves a NERC standards which covers the vulnerability; and
2) Imminent cyber threats, as determined by the President. FERC jurisdictional authority is also extended to energy distribution facilities serving the Presidentially-designated top 100 defense facilities in the US, including Alaska and Hawaii, and the territories. FERC is also directed to address mitigation measures for geomagnetic events (including solar flares and EMPs) and physical attacks.

The Act will now be referred to the Senate for consideration. With the clock winding down for this session of Congress and the calendar already full with other items, consideration by the full Senate is uncertain. In fact, Majority Leader Reid has made it known that he intends to consider only comprehensive cybersecurity legislation rather than sector-by-sector bills due to the lack of time.

A coalition of public-safety groups, formally known as the Public Safety Alliance, have launched a campaign to push Congress to modify the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) proposed auction of the D Block included in its National Broadband Plan. Read more »

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced a funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0000359) of $5.75 million in FY2010 and an additional $14 million in FY2011 for up to six projects in seven topic areas related to improving cyber security of utility control systems and information technology systems. The seven topic areas include: 1) Response to Cyber Attack in Progress; 2) Centralized Cryptographic Key Management; 3) Situational Awareness Data Collection, Analysis and Visualization; 4) Hardened Platforms and Systems; 5) Secure Communications; 6) Remote Access; 7) Secure Smart Grid Communication Architecture.

The deadline for filing applications is July 12, 2010. 

The FCC has approved rule changes that would allow up to 30 MHz bandwidth on channels in the upper 6 GHz band (6525-6875 MHz). In the same rule making, the FCC said they will allow applicants to operate pursuant to conditional authority on two additional channel pairs in the 23 GHz Band. Both items were recommended by the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC).

To implement these new 6 GHz rules, the FCC will adopt the specific channel plan proposed in the NPRM, with the corrections noted by AT&T and FWCC,i.e., 30 MHz bandwidth paired channels (for 60 MHz total for each authorized path) at 6555 and 6725 MHz, 6595 and 6755 MHz, 6625 and 6785 MHz, 6655 MHz and 6815 MHz, and 6685 MHz and 6845 MHz. Read more »

The Department of Energy has announced two public hearings related to their recent Request for Information (RFI) publications concerning to utilities and the Smart Grid. One RFI requests comments on the communication requirements of utilities and the second addresses access to customer smart grid data. The meetings will be held June 17th and 29th, respectively. UTC is preparing its own comments as well as helping members prepare their submissions. Read more »

Following yesterday's announcement about public hearings on utilities and Smart Grid, the Department of Energy (DOE) today listed expected participants at these discussions, the first of which is scheduled for this Thursday.

At this time, the participants include:

• Becky Blalock, Senior Vice President and CIO, Southern Company;
• Lynne Ellyn, Senior Vice President and CIO, DTEnergy;
• James Ingraham, Vice President of Strategic Research, Electric Power Board of Chattanooga;
• Kyle McSlarrow, President and CEO, National Cable & Telecommunications Association;
• Roy Perry, Director, Strategic Assessment CableLabs;
• Jim L. Jones, Vice President and CIO of Great River Energy in Minnesota;
• Commissioner Sherman Elliott from Illinois Commerce Commission;
• Mike Lanman, President - Enterprise and Government, Verizon Wireless.

UTC will continue providing updates as they become available.