Today:  FCC Emergency Alerting Webinar, Commissioner Carr on Connected Care, CTIA Releases its State of Wireless 2018 Report

FCC Emergency Alerting Webinar

The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a webinar on July 25, 2018 on the on the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts.  The free webinar will focus on issues relevant to broadcasters, cable television service providers, wireless service providers, state and local emergency managers, and other emergency alert and warning stakeholders. Topics will include:

• A description of these alerting systems and how they work;
• Who is eligible to initiate alerts, and how they are authorized;
• How authorized alert initiators are trained and available training resources;
• Lessons learned from recent alerting events, including the Hawaii false ballistic missile alert;
• Recent FCC regulatory actions and changes under consideration; and
• Recent FEMA updates to the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

The webinar will help ensure that participants are familiar with these alerting systems and how to use them. There will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions. To register, click here.

Commissioner Carr on Connected Care

In remarks at a recent event at the University of Mississippi Medical Center Event, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr spoke about the FCC’s upcoming agenda item that would establish a new $100 million “Connected Care Pilot Program.” He said that, “[i]f adopted, this new program would target support to connected care deployments that would benefit low-income patients, including those eligible for Medicaid or veterans receiving cost-free medical care.  It would support a limited number of projects over a two- or three-year period with controls in place to measure and verify the benefits, costs, and savings associated with connected care.” He also discussed his recent experience visiting facilities were connected care programs were being implemented and said that “Given the significant cost savings and improved patient outcomes associated with connected care, we should align public policy in support of this movement in telehealth. At the FCC, we can play a constructive role by helping to support the connectivity and deployments needed to ensure that all communities get a fair shot at benefiting from new telehealth technologies.”

CTIA Releases its State of Wireless 2018 Report

The wireless trade association, CTIA, released a report on the current state of wireless.  Key topics included: small cell site expansion; the increase in data-only mobile devices; smartphone adoption across demographics; and the increase in reliance on mobile connectivity. 

Small cell sites in operation numbered at 323,448 at the end of 2017 according to the report.  This number represented a 52% growth over the last decade.  According to the report, analysts project that wireless carriers will need to deploy approximately 800,000 small cells over the next few years.  CTIA noted that mobile data use continues to increase year-over-year stating that it quadrupled since 2014 and is 40 times the volume of traffic in 2010.  Data-only devices such as IoT devices, wearables, and connected cars rose to 126.4 million in 2017, which is up almost 20% year-over-year. 

According to CTIA, smartphone adoption has increased across all its measured demographics.  Also, Millennials lead smartphone adoption in the U.S.  Interestingly, smartphone adoption for those making under $30,000 annually has increased to 67% from 22% in 2011.  The report noted that 68% of Americans are using their mobile device for things such as: mobile banking; health apps; shopping; connected cars and homes; and finding entertainment.  Interestingly, the report noted that consumers exchanged 1.77 trillion messages in 2017 (SMS and MMS combined). 

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’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 an Inteserra Briefing.