Emergency Communications

AT&T said most phone numbers connected to a Commerce Department-linked public safety network service relied on by U.S. first responders were compromised in a data breach. The new statement reverses course on how the breach affected FirstNet, a program managed by AT&T that’s relied on by federal, state, local and tribal governments for emergency public safety services like fire and police departments. “Our initial assessment of the percentage of FirstNet numbers in the compromised data was incorrect,” said an AT&T spokesperson.

A flawed software update sent out by a little-known cybersecurity company caused major computer outages around the world on July 19, affecting airlines, hospitals, emergency responders and scores of other businesses and services. How could that happen? The chaos stemmed from an update sent by CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, to businesses that use its software to protect against hackers and online intruders.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to expedite the transition to Next Generation 911, help ensure that the nation’s 911 system functions effectively, and support the deployment of advanced 911 capabilities— including video, text, and data—that will help first responders save lives. Each year, people in need of emergency assistance make more than 200 million calls to 911 in the United States.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the August Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 7, 2024: 

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the Commission will vote during its August Open Meeting to adopt a new event code that would deliver critical messages to the public over television and radio about missing and endangered persons.

Two of the nation’s major telecommunications companies are feuding over a plan to boost service for police, firefighters and other state and local agencies—a move Verizon Communications says would amount to a $14 billion gift to rival AT&T.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold an Open Meeting on the following subjects on Thursday, July 18, 2024, which is scheduled to commence at 10:30 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room of the Federal Communications Commission. 

Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season to hit the U.S, spiraled 80 mile per hour winds through Houston, Texas, and is now heading northeast and beyond. More than 2 million people in Texas are without power. There are reports of outages on the AT&T and Verizon cellular networks in Texas in the wake of storm, as well as disruptions to Internet service providers such as Xfinity. Here’s what’s going on with the big three mobile operators:

On February 22 AT&T had a massive cellular outage. Ookla’s service Downtector said it recorded over 1.8 million reports of customer problems during the outage event, making this the most widespread outage since a big T-Mobile outage in June 2020. The biggest immediate concern is always 911 and emergency services. Many local 911 centers issued an alert about the problem and warned people to use alternate ways to reach 911.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has shared with her fellow commissioners draft final rules that, if adopted, would strengthen the security of the nation’s public alert and warning systems—the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts—against emerging cybersecurity threats. The Emergency Alert System delivers warnings to the public thorough radio and television. Wireless Emergency Alerts deliver warnings to consumers’ wireless phones.