The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of 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 Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
FCC
The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released certification and registration instructions for Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) seeking to request delivery of text-to-911 service from CMRS providers and other providers of interconnected text messaging services. See the Regulatory Mix dated 8/11/14; TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 9/15/14. Covered text providers must begin routing 911 text messages to requesting PSAPs by June 30, 2015 or within six months of a valid PSAP request, whichever is later. To constitute a “valid PSAP request,” (1) the PSAP must certify that it is technically ready to receive 911 text messages in the format requested; (2) the appropriate local or State 911 service governing authority must have authorized the PSAP to accept and, by extension, the covered text provider to provide, text-to-911 service; and (3) the requesting PSAP must notify the covered text provider that it is both technically ready to receive 911 text messages and has been authorized to accept such messages. The Bureau will maintain a centralized database that will list those PSAPs that have registered and certified their readiness to receive texts to 911, and will list the date of each PSAP’s request. The Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Text-to-911 Registration Form is available here.
Connecticut
The PUC Regulatory Authority will hold a technical meeting on January 15, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. regarding cybersecurity compliance standards and oversight procedures. The Authority said it intends to conduct a series of collaborative technical meetings, each with a focus on a specific utility industry. The goal of these meetings will be to define standards that enable the Authority to determine that the utility companies are taking steps to obtain a reasonable amount of cybersecurity to strengthen the State’s cybersecurity defense capabilities. The January 15, 2015, meeting will discuss the overall administrative process for future meetings and set objectives for creating a transparent and collaborative framework for cybersecurity compliance standards and oversight. The issues to be discussed at this meeting include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Developing a collaborative process that results in a cybersecurity plan that forms the basis for compliance assessment;
- Encouraging utilities to apply their knowledge of their infrastructure to best implement cybersecurity;
- Accommodating the different utility infrastructures and different cybersecurity experience levels of each utility and across utility sectors;
- Enabling the Authority to actively participate in establishing and monitoring utility cybersecurity plans; and
- Promoting a culture of security that transcends compliance with dynamic risk management and continual security improvement.
