Delay Enforcing CAP Compliance to Jan. 1, FEMA Asks FCC
The agency that developed a new alerting standard sought a delay in the FCC enforcing compliance with it among radio and TV stations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked the FCC to hold off for four additional months in enforcing compliance with FEMA’s Common Alerting Protocol for emergency alert systems. The current EAS deadline, which a wide array of multichannel video programming distributors and commercial and nonprofit broadcasters want extended (CD Aug 2 p12), shouldn’t be enforced until Jan. 1, FEMA said. The industry entities want the deadline that’s now set at Sept. 30 extended by at least six months after the commission comes up with certification standards for CAP. Google said more time than the current deadline may be needed.
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FEMA sought “allowance” for a 120-day “period of configuration” for emergency alert systems able to receive and pass onto viewers and listeners messages in CAP format, in a filing in docket 04-296. Replies in the rulemaking on establishing Part 11 rules for CAP were posted Thursday and Friday. “During the first 90 days of the proposed Period of Configuration FEMA proposes to generate, process and serve four (4) CAP messages per day per US time zone,” that agency said (http://xrl.us/bk5ptb).
"FEMA is encouraging the FCC to give broadcasters a grace period for implementation and testing,” a spokeswoman for the first agency told us Friday afternoon. “That is installation, configuring the device to operate in the unique environment of each broadcaster facility and testing.” FEMA’s filing at the commission didn’t specify the nature of the delay it was seeking, or whether the enforcement delay should only apply to broadcasters or to all EAS participants. They include all wireline MVPDs, radio and TV stations and satellite radio.
NAB again said a delay is needed, while some equipment makers including Monroe Electronics said more time isn’t necessary because most EAS participants have either bought CAP equipment or have already installed it. FEMA “only recently announced its intent to include the existing EAS as an ongoing part of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System,” the NAB said (http://xrl.us/bk5pur). “NAB believes that Commission equipment certification process for intermediary devices is unnecessary and the Commission should recognize and rely on FEMA’s equipment conformance testing program.”
Google, filing for the first time on the issue, said a delay may be needed. It “acknowledges the valid concerns of many commenters in this proceeding who seek an extension” of the Sept. 30 deadline, the company said (http://xrl.us/bk5pue). “Although further delay is not desirable, it nonetheless appears necessary, at a minimum, for the Commission to establish a certification regime for EAS equipment before it can establish a meaningful deadline for EAS participants to comply with CAP obligations, so that EAS participants are able to integrate CAP-compliant equipment into their networks.”