House E&C Plans Hearing On Huawei Gear Use in U.S. Networks

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The House Energy and Commerce telecom subcommittee will hold a hearing next Tuesday (Sept. 24) on efforts to legislate on removing foreign telecommunications gear from U.S. networks.

“We look forward to pushing ahead with legislation to root-out suspect network equipment nationwide ,” E&C Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said in a joint statement today.

The Sept. 24 session comes amid panel leaders’ talks on how to provide funds to help rural telecom companies ditch gear from Chinese providers like Huawei and ZTE, as POLITICO reported last week. Rural carriers, which chose this equipment for its low cost,fear Trump administration moves to block out Huawei will leave them with hefty bills. Senate Commerce lawmakers this summer approved a measure, S. 1625 (116), that would unleash $700 million to help these rural telecom companies.

“The smaller ones are probably the ones that need the help, and how you draw that line will be a challenge,” E&C ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told POLITICO recently. “There are models here that would work. For the improved communications networks and the increased security, it would be worth the federal investment.”

Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said at a wireless conference today that “any funding should require recipients to observe good cybersecurity practices in the future.”

The panel didn’t announce witnesses for the session, which will also focus on ways to “improve coordination and management of spectrum resources to better serve the American people,” according to Pallone and Doyle.

Paradise Valley, AZ to Enforce Call Verification – June 1

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The Town of Paradise Valley Alarm Ordinance has supported enhanced call verification for years but we were not enforcing it. We have recently put more of a focus on false alarm reduction and to support this will be requiring ECV prior to alarm companies notifying our dispatchers. We are hoping to have compliance as soon as possible with an expected enforcement date of June 1st, 2019. Our Police Officers take a tremendous amount of pride in the service they are able to provide to our community and we hope that this added level of verification will not only help them continue to provide a rapid response time to residents but also help residents avoid incurring false alarm fines.

 

For detailed information, email AlarmOpsTeam@paradisevalleyaz.gov or go to the Alarm Monitoring page on the Town of Paradise Valley website https://paradisevalleyaz.gov/421/Alarm-Monitoring.

BILL ACTION ALERT

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The Texas Legislation is trying to pass a bill that will require populations under 5000 within the state to self-monitor or be monitored by a larger communications facility.  The False Alarm Reduction Association (FARA) is working in partnership with the Texas Burglary and Fire Alarm Association (TBFAA) to try and dissuade the mayor that is spearheading this bill.

To be successful, FARA and TBFAA seek to demonstrate that alarm systems do much more than report alarm signals. TMA had been asked to assist with this effort.

VIEW THE BILL – HB538

Data from alarm dealers and monitoring centers that clearly documents and quantifies the full scope of monitoring services provided to their customers is needed. Services beyond alarm signals may include, but are not limited to:

  • Troubles
  • Supervisory
  • Low Battery
  • Signals

Please send the requested data to:

Brad Shipp
Director
False Alarm Reduction Association (FARA)
Email: bradshipp@4yoursolution.com
Tel: +1.301.519.9237