WCA March 2016

From the Americas

‘Close encounters’ Study over a 20-month period in the USA finds 327 incidents in which drones presented a hazard to manned aircraft Founded in 2012 at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York), the Center for the Study of the Drone is a research and education initiative that looks to expand understanding of unmanned technologies. In “Drone Sightings and Close Encounters: An Analysis”, published 11 th December, the centre referenced data from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Interior to explore 921 incidents in the national airspace from December 2013 to September 2015. Co-authors Dan Gettinger and Arthur Holland Michel identified 327 close encounters in which drones presented some level of hazard to manned aircraft, 90 of which involved commercial multiengine jets; and 594 sightings in which drones were spotted within or near manned aircraft flight paths but did not pose immediate danger of collision. The study found that incidents were more likely to involve multi-rotor unmanned aircraft than fixed-wing drones, and principally occurred far above the FAA’s 400-foot ceiling for unmanned aircraft, often within five miles of an airport. The analysis takes into account altitude, distance from airports, drone-to-aircraft proximity, manned aircraft type, drone type, and time of day. In addition to the authors’ findings, the Bard report presents extensive background and details the potential consequences of collisions between manned aircraft and drones. Mr Gettinger, a co-director of the centre, wrote, “We are looking to furnish stakeholders and the public with a reliable, data-driven guide to the potential risks posed by drones to manned flight.” The full report is available free online at http://dronecenter. bard.edu/drone-sightings-and-close-encounters  With hundreds of thousands of drones having been sold in the USA, the FAA on 14 th December announced a mandatory registration programme for the remote-controlled aircraft. As of 21 st December, owners across the country were required to provide the agency with a name, a physical address and an email address associated with every drone weighing at least nine ounces. Current owners were given until 16 th February to comply, while newly acquired drones had to be registered before being flown for the first time. The $5 fee will cover an unlimited number of aircraft for three years. The registry grew out of the recommendation of a task force of pilots, hobbyists, manufacturers and retailers whose input was sought by federal regulators striving to keep the skies safe as drones increasingly share airspace with passenger planes.

Telecommunications Miami is poised to make additions to its familial and social ties with Cuba: telecom and Internet connections “Ninety miles away from the fifth-most connected city in the world is the second-worst connected country in the world.” The places cited in the National Law Review (Western Springs, Illinois), a database of legal and business articles, are Miami, Florida, and the island nation of Cuba. And the comparison drawn by José M Ferrer and Yasmin Fernandez-Acuña is indeed very striking. As noted by the NLR staffers, Miami’s growing telecommunications industry has earned it the sobriquet Silicon Beach. Some 90 per cent of data traffic from Central and South America passes through Verizon Terremark’s Network Access Point (NAP) facility, located in downtown Miami. The city’s development as a technology hub for Latin America has prompted major industry players, including Facebook and Apple, to open regional offices there; and civic leaders are investing in Miami’s telecom infrastructure to prepare it to better support the industry. In stark contrast is Cuba, where only three to four per cent of residences have Internet access. Ostensibly a technology failure, this is considered by many to have more serious implications. Mr Ferrer and Ms Fernandez-Acuña noted that the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba has launched a Connect Cuba initiative, claiming that the lack of telecom connectivity constitutes a human rights violation. The reporters pointed out that the prospect of a more open Cuba has wide appeal, irrespective of political conviction. While other American industries face political resistance from legislators who oppose any investment in or business dealings with Cuba for fear of enriching its communist government, the telecom industry is different. Its traditional association with the free exchange of information makes it a logical facilitator of Cuban exposure to, and contact with, the world outside. (“Cuba’s Telecommunications Industry and Miami’s Expanding Silicon Beach,” 1 st December) This partiality to telecom was not lost on President Barack Obama, whose administration in April 2009 announced a series of policy revisions that authorised US telecom network providers to enter into agreements to establish fibre optic cable and satellite links with Cuba; to sell consumer communications devices there; and to work on projects to improve the island’s outdated telecom infrastructure. Even with the USA trade embargo of Cuba still in place, the liberalised rules seemed set to usher in a new era of communication with a vastly more accessible near neighbour. However, despite the legal clearances, the American telecom companies hung back. The problem, according to the National Law Review, was an absence of clarity in the new regulations. For example, the providers were not certain exactly how close to Cuban territory an American

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2016