USCG's Jorge Arroyo discusses AIS transmissions
In October 2001 uais.org's Fred Pot had an opportunity to discuss AIS transmissions with Jorge Arroyo, Regulatory Project Officer, Office of Vessel Traffic Management of the United States Coast Guard.Following is a summary of this discussion:FP: Do you consider the information that describes a radar (ARPA) target on a screen in a vessel traffic center to be 'public' information?JA: VTS ARPA targets are not "public information" per se, what is public information is the tracking information as conducted by a VTS, in other words you can take a photograph (or print screen capture) of the radar/operator screen and make that available--upon request.VTS's do not "collect information" (in the legal sense of this term) about it users, we do capture "data" for the purpose of statistical analysis, e.g. number of transits, vessel types, vessel dimensions, destination, etc. We also record "data" from our surveillance and communication sensors, i.e. radar, CCTV, VHF, telephone. We readily make this "data" available through the "Freedom of Information" process. Some VTS's also make some of their most requested data available in means more accessible to the public, e.g. faxed vessel arrivals lists, VHS tape of our CCTV and/or display monitors, etc. In other words, it's not an issue of whether ARPA and/or AIS target information is "public", it's whether we keep record of it, and if we do, by what means can we make it available. Obviously, with the advent and advances of the Internet, this will probably be the best vehicle in the future.
FP: Is the USCG considering making its VTS ARPA target information available even without requests from citizens through the Freedom of Information Act?JA: What we are considering is displaying the actual VTS operator screen on an Internet site; obviously a time lag will result dependent on the bandwidth, modem speed, refresh rates that are available.FP: Is the USCG considering broadcasting its VTS ARPA targets as AIS targets?JA: We've yet to determine whether we'll transmit ARPA info in real-time to other AIS equipped vessels; this is a decision we will make when AIS Base Station Standards are devised/implemented and we a have a better idea of the shore infrastructure required to do so.FP: If USCG decides to broadcast ARPA target information for ships and boats that do not carry an AIS transponder, will such broadcasts emenate from transmission towers in the general neighborhood of the the ARPA target?JA: Networking issues are under consideration in the AIS base Station standards development.FP: Would you agree that if broadcasting of ARPA targets via AIS will not require large infrastructure investments, that this would present USCG with an opportunity to provide the public with a relatively low cost service that enhances navigation safety, especially during the period when AIS is being introduced and few ships will carry AIS transponders. It would promote carriage of AIS on ships and boats that are not required to carry it. It would kick-start the 'Network Effect': The value of a network increases by the square of the number of participants (Bob Metcalfe).JA: You maybe right, however, until Base Station standards are agreed upon we will not know for sure.FP: You recently indicated that it would be illegal to use public information such as AIS transmissions over VHF for profit. Would this also be true for re-transmission of AIS target data on a different network such as Meteor Communications Corporation's 44.5 MHz via gateways as well as the reverse: transmission, via USCG towers, of MCC transponder target data on AIS1 and AIS2.
JA: What I stated is use of a communication broadcast for profit is illegal or unauthorized ( See Sec. 605. Unauthorized publication or use of communications). Whether the retransmission of AIS data is permissible as you propose is something that we will have to look into further, particularly if it is a means of improving navigation safety.