TMA Salutes Member and Industry Contributions at AM19

One of former TMA President Ivan Spector’s last official duties was to honor professionals within the membership and the industry for their distinguished dedication to and support of TMA and its members’ interests.

On Monday, October 14th, Spector presented the newly-named Mel Mahler Award for Outstanding Service to the Monitoring Industry (formerly known as the President’s Award) to Steve E. Correll, executive director of Nlets. In presenting the award, Correll’s work to advance the ASAP-to-PSAP program was noted, as was his leadership in establishing the premier justice and public safety exchange mechanism in North America. This year marked the 11th anniversary of TMA’s partnership with Nlets. Correll will be retiring from Nlets this year after 18 years of service.

TMA’s highest award, the Stanley C. Lott Award, was presented to past TMA President and former Executive Director Jay Hauhn at the Annual Meeting’s closing dinner, October 16th. The award recognized Hauhn for his above and beyond commitment to TMA and to the monitoring industry over a period of more than 40 years. He, like Correll, played an instrumental role in the establishment and growth of TMA’s ASAP-to-PSAP program, which he continues to promote. Jauhn is currently working as a consultant to ADT.

Please join us congratulating the contributions of these great industry professionals.

TMA to Host Cybersecurity Webinar Series

TMA is pleased to announce a four-part Cybersecurity webinar series, taught by Ryan Fritts, Vice President of Product and Information Security, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for ADT. The course is designed for Monitoring Center IT staff interested in the latest developments in threat management. Participants will learn how to mitigate external attacks and insider threats.

  • Thursday, Nov 7 – Webinar #1: Cybersecurity Baselines (Compliance, baseline security requirements)
  • Thursday, Nov 21 – Webinar #2: Vulnerabilities & Risk Management
  • Monday, Dec 2 – Webinar #3: Social Engineering (The Human Threat Element)
  • Monday, Dec 9 – Webinar #4: Data Breaches (Forensic and legal perspectives around cyber and crisis communication)

PRICING:

  • Non-members: $399 (4 sessions, exam, certificate); $110 each (a la carte)
  • TMA Members: $279 (4 sessions, exam, certificate); $79 each (a la carte)

Learn more about this TMA Signature Webinar Series presentation.

TMA Presents Donation to Napa-Based Charity

In conjunction with TMA’s 2019 Annual Meeting, a fundraising raffle was held to benefit the Cope Family Center, a family resource center with a mission to empower parents, nurture children and strengthen communities. The Center provides parents with the education, resources and support they need to raise children who thrive.

TMA donated 100% of the proceeds which totaled $1,750.

Three prizes were awarded, however, all three winners graciously rolled over their gift cards to the charity, making the total donation from the TMA 2019 Annual Meeting $2,275.

We are grateful to our lucky winners:

First Prize:  $300 gift card and bottle of Napa Wine – Ivan Spector, Alarme Sentinelle

Second Prize:  $175 gift card and bottle of Napa Wine – Peter Giacalone, Cloud Communication Technologies, LLC

Third Prize:  $75 gift card and bottle of Napa Wine – Mark Melendes, CIBC Bank, USA

Learn more about the Cope Family Center online.

 

Verizon Announces 5G Home Internet in Chicago

The following is a Verizon press release announcing the company’s expansion of its 5G home broadband network, with a twist. The wireless giant said Monday it will expand its service to Chicago on Thursday, joining parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento and making it the fifth city to get home internet from its 5G network.

There are opinion articles stating that this technology will not replace fiber or cable speeds.

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An internet of another kind is landing in Chicago. Starting October 24, customers in parts of the Windy City can sign up for Verizon’s 5G Home Internet – super-fast wireless broadband using the power of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Network on the 3GPP New Radio (NR) standard.

“Now, in addition to Verizon’s speedy 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service, Chicago customers can access 5G Home Internet, the next generation of lightning fast home broadband internet service,” said Brian Higgins, vice president, device and consumer product marketing, Verizon. “With flexibility, freedom and choice that enables a whole new world of experiences, 5G Home Internet is truly the future of home connectivity.”

Why 5G Home Internet?

Customers can enjoy typical speeds of 300 Mbps and peak speeds of 1 Gbps on the first commercially available Wi-Fi 6 router complete with parental controls, a powerful 10W speaker with Bluetooth playback and Wi-Fi capability. The Wi-Fi 6 router also features Amazon Alexa Built-in, allowing customers to control smart home devices, hear the news, ask questions and access more than 100,000 skills – hands-free.

With the new 5G Home Internet router, you can download movies in seconds versus minutes. Gamers get low latency for a better gaming experience, and there’s plenty of bandwidth for a family of streamers or those who want to outfit their pad with the latest smart home gadgets. This is also great for those who work from home or run a small business out of the house, ultra-low lag for clear video chats means never having to leave the couch.

Enjoy the best content on the best network

By teaming up with the best content providers in the industry, Verizon continues to bring choice, access and exclusive offers on the content you watch. 5G Home Internet customers will enjoy YouTube TV for free for one month and the latest router with Amazon Alexa Built-in.

Customers can also use their choice of streaming hardware as part of the service, including Stream TV, Fire TV Cube or Fire TV Stick 4K, delivering a fast, fluid experience with access to an extensive library of channels, apps and entertainment, which include thousands of titles in 4K Ultra HD.

5G Built Right

Verizon is building the most powerful 5G network in America. Since last fall, Verizon has launched 5G Ultra Wideband in 13 cities with plans to expand to more than 30 cities by the end of this year. And we’ve expanded the 5G footprint to 16 sporting & entertainment arenas across the country.

How much is 5G Home Internet and where can I sign up?

Verizon 5G Home Internet is all about no fuss service: no annual contract, no deposit and no hidden fees. All customers get the service free for three months. Tired of waiting on the cable installer? Want to setup 5G Home Internet yourself? Go for it. If not, that’s okay, we’ll do it for you.

5G Home Internet starts at $50 per month for Verizon customers and $70 per month for non-Verizon customers with autopay and paperless billing. The service is available in select areas of Chicago, as well as parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

Don Young, ADT, Becomes TMA’s 35th President

The Monitoring Association (TMA) is pleased to announce Don Young, CIO and EVP of Operations of ADT, as the new President who officially began his two-year term on Thurs., Oct. 17, 2019 at the conclusion of TMA’s 2019 Annual Meeting, Young recently served a two-year term as Vice President on the Executive Committee leading up to his presidency. He succeeds Ivan Spector, Sentinel Alarm, Montreal, QC. Spector who will serve an additional two-year term as Immediate Past President on the TMA Executive Committee.

“It is a distinct honor to serve as TMA’s president,” stated Young, “In some ways, I feel as though I’ve been preparing for this role for 30 years. As our industry faces new and rapidly emerging technologies, it is more important than ever to leverage the collective knowledge, expertise, and strength of TMA and its member companies to convey the importance of professional monitoring to consumers and first responders. It is also vital that we take an active leadership role in the development of new industry standards to provide a framework by which our businesses can most effectively protect life, property, and data for our customers.”

Young brings a broad spectrum of knowledge, experience, and expertise spanning both business and technology to his new TMA leadership position. Since joining ADT in 2016, his primary areas of responsibility have encompassed information technology and operations. Young first entered the alarm industry in 1988 after serving four years in the United States Air Force.

“As I begin this new part of my journey with TMA, I want to first and foremost recognize our outgoing President Ivan Spector for his strong and strategic leadership over the last two years. His contributions to the organization, its members, and the industry at large are quite substantial,” Young stated. “Amongst his many accomplishments, his work to further the adoption of TMA’s ASAP-to-PSAP program; advocate on behalf of members to NFPA; and, to establish TMA as the issuer of FirstNet certification are most notable. On behalf of a very grateful professional community, I express our deep appreciation to Ivan for his remarkable service.”

“We are delighted to welcome Don to this pivotal leadership role within TMA,” stated Celia T. Besore, executive director, TMA. “Having worked closely with him for the last year, I recognize and embrace his passion for excellence. His wealth of industry knowledge and experience is a great asset to TMA and will be an integral part of our growth and success over the next two years.”

Cincinnati, OH Becomes 62nd ASAP-to-PSAP

The City of Cincinnati OH is the 62nd Emergency Communications Center in the United States to implement ASAP, and the 4th ECC in the state of Ohio to implement ASAP.

According to Bill Hobgood, the consultant who managed the Cincinnati Ohio ASAP implementation, “Cincinnati Emergency Communications Officials are thrilled with the ASAP go-live. On day two of the ASAP go-live, an area of Cincinnati experienced a power outage that normally would have resulted in a barrage of calls coming into the call-taking queue from alarm companies calling in alarms via telephone. Because ASAP completely bypasses the call-taking process with no telephones involved, there was no backlog this morning during this outage. One official noted that the ASAP implementation was one of the smoothest projects implemented at the city of Cincinnati’s ECC.”

Cincinnati OH went live on October 15th & 16th with Rapid Response Monitoring iand Vector Security initially, followed by Security Central, Alert 360, Tyco (Johnson Controls), Affiliated Monitoring, AT&T Digital Life, the National Monitoring Center, Vivint, Brinks Home Security, Guardian Protection, and Protection One. ADT will be live with Cincinnati in the next few weeks.

UL Releases Statement Addressing Industry Concerns

In a statement from UL:

UL’s public mission is to promote safer working and living environments for all people. We make every effort to confirm that UL-certified products meet stringent safety requirements, including opening a Product Incident Report for any issue that comes to our attention.

Consistent with our usual policies regarding product safety matters, when UL received the alarm system claims, UL immediately opened a Product Incident Report and began an investigation.

During such investigations, certification documentation is reviewed, products are often re-tested, and if any issues are found, UL works with the product manufacturer to resolve the issues. In some instances, a public notice may be issued.

Based on the investigation completed thus far, no safety issues have been identified. The investigation is still ongoing.

UL sees no imminent hazard despite the assertions currently in the market. The current standards address reasonably foreseeable hazards, faults or misuse not intentional disablement of a life safety device. Those making claims have their own commercial interest in driving concern. The requirements being suggested around attack by fire and/or malicious intrusion are currently not mandated by the applicable standards or code. New suggested requirements could be brought to the attention of the Standard Technical Panel. Those making claims are part of the STP and have not brought suggested revisions to the STP’s attention to-date.

West Palm Beach, FL – 61st ASAP-to-PSAP Launched

West Palm Beach, FL became the 61st Emergency Communications Center (ECC) in the country to implement the ASAP-to-PSAP program and the 8th ECC in the state of Florida. The following alarm companies became functional as of October 10, 2019 in the order listed below:

Vector Security and Rapid Response, followed by Affiliated, Security Central, Tyco, Alert 360, Protection One, AT&T, Guardian Protection, ADS Security, Brinks Home Security, Vivint, and National Monitoring Center. ADT is in process and will be coming online at a later date.

Learn more about TMA’s ASAP-to-PSAP service.

D.C. Circuit Court Upholds Most of 2017 Net Neutrality Order; Vacates State Preemption

On October 1, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its per curiam decision on the appeal of the FCC’s 2017 net neutrality order, also known as the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. Although the court upheld the Order in large part, it vacated part and remanded part back to the FCC to address three issues in which it found the Order inadequate: “(1) The Order failed to examine the implications of its decisions for public safety; (2) the Order does not sufficiently explain what reclassification will mean for regulation of pole attachments; and (3) the agency did not adequately address Petitioners’ concerns about the effects of broadband reclassification on the Lifeline Program.” The court vacated that part of the Order pre-empting any state or local requirement that “would effectively impose rules or requirements that [the FCC] repealed or decided to refrain from imposing in this order or that would impose more stringent requirements for any aspect of broadband service that [the FCC] address[ed] in this order.”

The court upheld the FCC’s decisions to restore the classification of broadband Internet access service as a less regulated “information service;” reinstate the private mobile service classification of mobile broadband Internet access service; eliminate the Internet Conduct Standard and the Bright Line Rules; and adopt enhanced transparency requirements that mandated ISPs to disclose information about their practices to consumers, entrepreneurs, and the FCC.

Chairman Pai, alongside Commissioners O’Rielly and Carr, were pleased with the court’s decision to uphold the majority of the Order. Chairman Pai said, “Today’s decision is a victory for consumers, broadband deployment, and the free and open Internet. The court affirmed the FCC’s decision to repeal 1930s utility-style regulation of the Internet imposed by the prior Administration.” Commissioner O’Rielly said, “It is heartening to see a court get most of the decision correct. … At the same time, vacating the preemption provisions seems to misread precedent and ignores the technology’s structure, which cannot be segmented into intrastate portions. Inevitably, this will lead to Commission case-by-case preemption efforts and more litigation.” Commissioner Carr said, “Today’s decision is a big win for a free and open Internet and for U.S. leadership in 5G.”

Commissioners Rosenworcel said, “Today’s court decision vacates the FCC’s unlawful effort to block states and localities from protecting an open internet for their citizens. From small towns to big cities, from state houses to governors’ executive actions, states and localities have been stepping in because the FCC shirked its duties. In addition, the court took the agency to task for disregarding its duty to consider how its decision threatens public safety, Lifeline service, and broadband infrastructure.”

Commissioner Starks said, “Above all else, today’s decision breathes new life into the fight for an open internet. It confirms that states can continue to step into the void left by this FCC. To that end, it is a validation of those states that have already sought to protect consumers, and a challenge to those that haven’t yet acted to think hard about how to protect their citizens.”

TMA Issuing Certificates of Verification for FirstNet Services

The Monitoring Association (TMA) is pleased to announce that it has now started issuing TMA Certificates of Verification to qualifying alarm companies to support review of eligibility for FirstNet services.

As we announced in April, TMA reached an agreement with AT&T to provide qualified alarm companies with a TMA Certificate of Verification that will enable them to apply for eligibility to use FirstNet services for alarm transport communications.

FirstNet is the nationwide public-safety wireless broadband network platform, built and deployed through a first‐of‐its‐kind public‐private partnership between the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) and AT&T. The FirstNet Authority is an independent authority of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

TMA will be issuing certificates to those companies who meet accepted alarm industry standards that result in the transmission of public safety related alarms from systems designed primarily to protect life and/or property (e.g. robbery, burglary, unlawful intrusion, fire, emergency medical) to a Central Station Monitoring Facility that confirms and verifies the authenticity of the alarm and notifies a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for relay to a public safety agency for the purpose of initiating an emergency response.

Public‐safety related alarms are critical to alerting first responders of emergencies requiring their urgent response.

As we mentioned above, for an alarm services company to apply to use FirstNet services for alarm transport communications as an extended primary user in support of public safety, it must first verify compliance through receipt of a TMA Certificate of Verification.

The alarm services company can then seek approval for eligibility to use FirstNet services by presenting the TMA Certificate of Verification to AT&T along with their contract(s) and/or service order(s), or to another alarm services company who will be providing FirstNet services from AT&T.

The TMA Certificate of Verification must be renewed every 12 months from when the initial TMA Certificate is issued.

“FirstNet services will enhance our ability to support public safety and first responders. I am very pleased the alarm industry will be able to use FirstNet services for alarm transport communications,” said Louis T. Fiore, chairman of AICC and past president of TMA.

“Delivering emergency alarms via the FirstNet communications platform supports public safety, helping first responders get the information they need to respond to an alarm-initiated incident. By working with TMA as part of the rigorous eligibility process, we can help to make sure that alarms transmitted using FirstNet services are relevant to and align with the public safety mission and truly serve on the frontlines of notification should a public safety incident occur,” said Bob Sloan, chief operating officer, FirstNet Program at AT&T. “We’re pleased to see the thorough examinations TMA has conducted over the past six months before issuing its first Certificates of Verification.”

For more information, please contact TMA Executive Director Celia Besore at 703‐660‐4913 or at cbesore@tma.us.