Grove City, Ohio, Mayor Richard Sage said the city will offer a Smart911 service to benefit citizens and first responders, said Rave Mobile Safety, a public safety software partner, in a news release (http://yhoo.it/1gpkI3u). Smart911 allows households to create a safety profile with information for 911 and response teams to have in the event of an emergency, said Rave. Users of the service will have their information automatically displayed to the 911 call taker when they make emergency calls, said the company. Smart911 information is made available to 911 operators only when the resident dials 911 from a number associated with their profile, it said. Smart911 has been adopted in 32 states and more than 400 municipalities since it was introduced nearly three years ago, said Rave.

The Senate will again consider S-1197, the National Defense Authorization Act, when it resumes Dec. 9, according to the Senate floor schedule. The session will allow Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., to provide updates. Senators tried to peg hundreds of amendments to the bill in November -- more than 500, including a handful pressing the government for more transparency on surveillance and other changes. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., attached her FISA Improvements Act legislation. On Nov. 21, Levin called for passage of the bill this year and complained of being “thwarted” in a battle over amendments. “So over and over again, we got objections to considering amendments based on the accusation that we were not considering enough amendments,” Levin said in a floor speech then (http://1.usa.gov/IwbiqD). “Already we have been blocked in our effort to clear a package of managers’ amendments.”

Several industry voices backed changes to the wholesale reseller certification form of the FCC Wireline Bureau. AT&T, BT, CenturyLink, Orange, Sprint, Verizon and XO Communications filed joint comments with the FCC last week outlining several proposed edits to the Draft 499-A Instructions, which the Wireline Bureau had released as a redline document open for comments. “If a wholesale provider’s customer (or another entity in the downstream chain of resellers) actually contributed to the Universal Service Fund ('USF') on revenues from offerings incorporating particular services, there should be no double collection of USF contributions from the wholesale provider, even if the wholesale provider cannot demonstrate that it had a reasonable expectation that the customer would contribute when it filed its Form 499-A for the relevant calendar year,” the industry filing said (http://bit.ly/1c1dIW6). The joint comments ask for a footnote added to the form to clarify this point. It also asked for language “explaining how providers should account for services purchased after the date that the annual certificate is signed,” among other changes.

LTE-Advanced upgrades and small cell deployments will drive the next round of microwave equipment market growth, Infonetics Research said Wednesday night. The microwave market is set to see an overall decline through the end of 2013, with Q3 representing the second straight quarter of marginal growth in the market, Infonetics Research said. The market totaled $1.16 billion in Q3, up 2 percent from Q2 but down 7 percent from the same period in 2012. Both LTE-Advanced and small cell deployments “require very low latency solutions,” said Richard Webb, Infonetics Research’s directing analyst-microwave and carrier Wi-Fi, in a news release. “This will begin to make an impact from 2014 and boost the market for a few years” (http://bit.ly/1jS0LlP).

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed a Dish Network complaint and Media General’s request for sanctions following the resolution of the companies’ carriage agreement. The companies jointly requested “that the commission dismiss the pleadings and terminate the proceeding,” the bureau said in a letter to the companies (http://bit.ly/IkRpU2). The companies reached a carriage agreement in November (CD Nov 19 p21). That month, Media General and Dish asked the FCC to dismiss their requests (CD Nov 21 p23).

The American Cable Association urged the FCC to do a review of license applications involving shared services agreements (SSAs) in permit-but-disclose proceedings, “rather than have them acted upon by the Media Bureau under delegated authority,” ACA said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1cOoFvO). Only by doing so can the FCC “ensure that the public values of competition, localism and diversity are fully served by its reviews of transactions involving U.S. broadcast licenses,” it said. The association also supported a letter from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that recommended the FCC avoid making decisions on pending transactions on SSAs until the GAO finishes its review on such transactions, it said. Rockefeller sent the letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler this week (CD Nov 27 p3). GAO started the study on SSAs and hasn’t determined when the report will be issued, a GAO spokeswoman said.

Despite widespread EU access to broadband services at the end of 2012, “significant challenges still remain in delivering high speed broadband” to all of the EU, said a European Commission report released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1cv6eg7). The report, by broadband market research company Point Topic, showed 93 percent of EU households had DSL Internet (standard broadband) coverage, but only 12.4 percent of rural EU households had access to next-generation broadband at the end of 2012. The EU has made it an agenda item to spread next-generation broadband access to all citizens by 2020.

FirstNet issued a request for information on application platforms Wednesday. “We want to hear from all interested stakeholders on their creative and innovative ideas on how this platform should operate,” said General Manager Bill D'Agostino in a written statement. Responses are due Jan. 17, and any questions or clarifications are due Dec. 3 (http://1.usa.gov/1aZ7zfB). FirstNet wants to hear from stakeholders that have helped develop mobile device application solutions and app stores and have worked with big and public safety data. It also wants to hear from stakeholders with experience in developing application security requirements as well as in app testing and certification.

The challenge process for the latest round of Connect America Fund Phase I support has been burdensome for cable companies, Cox, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and NCTA representatives told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Monday (http://bit.ly/1aZ4trP). Cable operators “have nothing to gain” from the process except “protecting their service areas” from USF-subsidized competition, they said in an ex parte filing. The cable companies asked the bureau to focus on availability of service, not provision of service, because a provider may have no customers in a particular census block even if it offers service there. The companies also asked the bureau to not award support to a price cap LEC to overbuild a competitor “based on the title or status of the individual that certifies an area is served.”