FCC Prepares For New Public Safety/Security Bureau

FCC PREPARES FOR NEW PUBLIC SAFETY/SECURITY BUREAU
[SOURCE: TelecomWeb]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appears close to staffing its new Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau conceived in the wake of last year's Hurricane Katrina and other several Gulf Coast storms. The new bureau is designed to address a range of communications emergency-response contingencies pursuant to natural disasters or infrastructure attacks. Wireline and wireless carriers, and other federal agencies as well as police, fire, public-safety and emergency-response officials on local, county and state levels reportedly are looking forward to viewing the implementation goals and schedules for what they regard as a critical new bureau, although it admittedly adds another bureaucratic layer to the FCC. As envisioned by the FCC, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau will be organized into three divisions -- Policy, Public Communications Outreach & Operations and Communications Systems Analysis -- and it will have a front office consisting of the bureau's senior leadership and management staff. All told, the new bureau would handle a wide range of functions -- including network reliability, resiliency and security issues -- that have been dispersed among seven different bureaus and offices.
http://www.telecomweb.com/tnd/19338.html