Wireless Carriers Must Provide Clear Notice if They Don’t Send Emergency Alerts
Wireless carriers choosing not to send emergency alerts to subscribers must warn customers of that with “clear and conspicuous notice” at the carrier store, kiosk or any other place service is sold, the agency said late Thursday. The FCC will hold carriers responsible for ensuring that distributors who sell their service indirectly likewise post notice, it said. Carriers can’t impose a separate charge to offset the costs of the warnings, but can charge more for service, the agency said. The FCC action was required by the WARN Act.
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Carriers will have to use language developed by the broad-based Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC), which recommended rules for the new emergency alert system, the agency said. “A one-size-fits-all approach to notification may not adequately address the range of methods by which service providers communicate with their customers,” the order said. “Nevertheless, the CMSAAC has crafted plain language notifications that we believe are consistent with the intent of the statute and which convey concisely a service provider’s non-election or partial election at the point of sale.”
For example, a carrier opting out of the program must post a notice that it “presently does not transmit wireless emergency alerts.” Carriers who offer the service, but only to some subscribers, must declare that: “Wireless emergency alerts may not be available on all devices or in the entire service area, or if a subscriber is outside of the [CMS PROVIDER’s] service area. For details on the availability of this service and wireless emergency alert capable devices, please ask a sales representative, or go to [CMS PROVIDER'S URL].”
The FCC won’t mandate the size of the poster displaying the warning, minimum type sizes or other details, as the California Public Utilities Commission had wanted, it said. Instead, carriers must post notices “consistent with the marketing and service notification methodologies in use at any given time by the service provider.” The FCC won’t require that new subscribers acknowledge in writing they've gotten a warning or that carriers include the warning in their service contracts, it said.
Carriers will have to give notice they don’t participate in all or in part in notices to customers, similar to the way they communicate changes to subscriber terms and conditions of service. “We agree with commenters who suggest that service providers should be given discretion in determining how to provide such notice to existing subscribers,” the order said. “Service providers regularly use various means to announce changes in service to subscribers, including, for instance, direct mailing, bill inserts, and other billing-related notifications.”
The FCC won’t allow separate commercial mobile alert system line charges, but the WARN Act does not bar carriers from raising their prices to offset the cost of the program, it said. “Congress is well aware of this Commission’s Title III regulation of wireless carriers, which provides for flexible recovery of costs through assessed rates and other means,” the order said. “We conclude that, if Congress had wanted to preclude cost recovery, as opposed to merely prohibiting separate or additional charges for alert transmission or alert transmission capability, it would have said so.”