DHS Funds National Rollout of Public TV Digital EAS
Public TV stations nationwide will form the “last mile delivery system” for federal emergency alerts, according to a Wed. announcement of a phased rollout of a digital emergency alert system (DEAS). Aided by the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), the Assn. of Public TV Stations recently completed 2 successful DEAS pilots using stations’ digital infrastructure. The rollout will cover 9 Gulf and Atlantic coast states in 2006 and the rest of the U.S. by Dec. 31, 2007, said APTS and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials.
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At a DEAS demonstration at public broadcaster WETA’s Arlington, Va., studio, FEMA Under Secy. David Paulison said $4.5 million in DHS grants will go into the deployment. “The money is already budgeted,” he told us, calling the outlay “pretty cheap” considering what’s being done. Money is allocated to maintain the system, a cost pegged at $1 million yearly, he said. Using $1 million in public and private funds, the pilots began with 5 D.C.-area stations, eventually involving 18 more stations, APTS Pres. John Lawson said. Commercial broadcasters, cable, cellphone, paging and radio companies participated in the trials, he said.
Calling DEAS a move to the 21st century, Paulison said it will speed communication with the public and first responders, offering a means of sending text messages to cellphones and computers via Internet, and serving citizens with special needs, he added. The system can work in geographically targeted areas by isolating transmitters, said Lawson, noting that besides messages from the President, the system could carry alerts originating at the state and local level. As for redundancy, Lawson said, there’s enough satellite capacity and “diversity of sites for uplink.”
The rollout is a “milestone” and a model for homeland security projects, said Kenneth Rapuano, the President’s homeland security deputy asst. The DEAS pilots are a “looking glass” into capabilities that can be tapped to alert citizens in a crisis, he said. The U.S. response to Hurricane Katrina bared communications and emergency notification deficiencies, spurring the administration to seek an integrated public alert and warning system, he said.
The DEAS will let other networks extract and resend parts of data it transmits, Lawson said. For instance, XM could select and retransmit only a feed’s audio, he said.
DEAS outreach via cellphone needs work. Though wireless providers were in on the pilots, “none of them have committed to participate in a federal emergency alert system,” Lawson said. None have ruled out participation, but “none of them have said at this point they have the capability of passing a text message along to every cellphone at the same time,” he said, acknowledging “technical” and “policy” issues.
DEAS will be able to provide “conditional access” to cellphones - “We have ability. The application and the software is there” -- but more buildout is needed, Lawson said. Funding of that buildout could come via passage of the Warning, Alert & Response Network (WARN) Act, approved by the Senate Commerce committee, he said.
The WARN Act characterizes wireless carrier participation in DEAS, Lawson said. “It basically says you don’t have to participate,” he said, but companies opting out would have to tell customers signing up for new service or buying new phones that they won’t be getting federal emergency alerts. The bill also would exempt wireless companies from civil liability in the event of a system failure, he added. CTIA didn’t comment by our deadline.