DirecTV and EchoStar told the FCC they're working on delivering l...
DirecTV and EchoStar told the FCC they're working on delivering local emergency alerts to customers -- but their efforts depend on the Dept. of Homeland Security’s future emergency alert portal. DirecTV and EchoStar have been meeting with DHS staff…
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to discuss plans, they said. Providing local alerts will require “significant” software design and development and possibly infrastructure changes by the DBS operators, and because DBS providers have a nationwide footprint and no presence in local communities, a centralized alert portal is key, the DBS operators said. DHS is planning such a portal -- where all emergency alerts will be aggregated for dissemination through all EAS outlets. EchoStar and DirecTV said they must know DHS’s exact plans before they can act. The DBS providers are contemplating using a pop-up overlay generated by a customer’s set-top box for emergency alerting, they said. DHS staff seem to understand “the technical limitations of providing regional or local messages on a DBS system, and they expressed a willingness to consider these limitations as they continue to work through the development of an aggregated emergency alert system,” DirecTV and EchoStar told the FCC. Once basic issues are resolved, DBS engineers can start to work on software necessary to send alert messages to individual set- top boxes, the firms said. After DHS defines its alert delivery and format parameters, it will probably take a year to develop any local and regional DBS requirements, DirecTV and EchoStar said.