Today:  National Cyber Security Awareness Month, US Senators Introduce the SPEED Act, FCC Network Reliability Best Practices for Small and Rural Providers

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

National Cyber Security Awareness (NCSAM), the annual campaign and combined efforts between private industry and public agencies, was created to enable companies and individuals to make better, smarter cybersecurity choices. For a listing of the weekly events planned for October 2017, see The Department of Homeland Security.

Week 4:  October 23-27 – Theme: The Internet Wants YOU: Consider a Career in Cybersecurity

According to a study by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, by 2022, there will be a shortage of 1.8 million information security workers. It is critical that today’s students graduate ready to enter the workforce to fill the vast number of available cybersecurity positions. Week 4 will encourage students and other job seekers to explore cybersecurity careers. Key influencers – like parents, teachers, guidance counselors and state and local officials – will learn more about this growing field and how to engage youth in pursuing cybersecurity careers.

US Senators Introduce SPEED Act

U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) introduced S. 1988, “Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of Broadband Infrastructure Act of 2017” (SPEED Act). The measure would accelerate the deployment of new broadband infrastructure to both rural and urban areas by streamlining the permitting process for telecommunications equipment that is installed in locations that have already been subjected to historical or environmental reviews by:

• Exempting telecommunications infrastructure from environmental and historical reviews by the FCC and other federal agencies in a public ROW if previously installed telecommunications infrastructure has already undergone environmental and historic reviews for the same public ROW. Any provider exempted from these reviews must still comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act;
• Exempting the deployment of small cells from environmental and historical reviews only if (1) they are being deployed in a public ROW and are not higher than an existing structure in the public ROW; and (2) they are serving as a replacement for an existing small cell and they are the same or substantially similar to the small cell that is being replaced;

• Exempting the deployment of wireless services (e.g. voice, video, or data) from environmental and historical reviews if (1) they are located in an existing public ROW and (2) adhere to tower height and guy-wire requirements;
• Directing the Government Accountability Office to develop a report analyzing how to increase the efficiency of deploying broadband infrastructure to federal lands; and;
• Directing the FCC’s Streamlining Federal Siting Working Group to submit a report to Congress on its preliminary findings and recommendations for accelerating the deployment of high-speed Internet access to federal lands across the United States.

The Act would not preempt the authority of a State or local government to apply and enforce all applicable zoning and other land use regulations.

FCC Commissioner O’Rielly issued a statement applauding the introduction of the legislation.

FCC Network Reliability Best Practices for Small and Rural Providers

The FCC’s Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) released a public notice encouraging small and rural communications service providers to review and consider implementing, where appropriate, best practices recommended by the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to improve network reliability. The Bureau reviewed the CSRIC best practices and outage data from the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System  to identify trends and common failures among outages experienced by small and rural service providers. This process identified 23 of the most recurring best practices reported in NORS outage reports during the last five years.  The Bureau encourages small and rural communications services providers to review and consider these 23 best practices along with other CSRIC best practices as appropriate for their networks.

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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.