FCC EAS CAP Waivers Will Go to Participants Lacking Broadband Access

EAS participants who can’t access fast Web service won’t need to follow the new rules, because CAP alerts are transmitted by FEMA using the Internet, the commission said. CAP compliance starts June 30. That’s following delays caused partially because the Part 11 rules weren’t finished as early as some at the commission hoped (CD Sept 19 p9). The order set a three-year transition period during which EAS participants can use intermediate types of gear to get and receive alerts in CAP, before they must also pass along visual warnings.

The commission declined the American Cable Association’s request to exempt all systems with fewer than 501 subscribers. It also declined to grant a blanket exemption from the Part 11 rules. “Waivers or exemptions from these requirements are best suited to a case-by-case analysis under the waiver standard,” said the order (http://xrl.us/bmofqq) approved by commissioners Monday. That was less than three weeks after the document circulated. EAS participants check a FEMA website to get CAP warnings. The FCC didn’t require a certain way to get those warnings, such as by a RSS feed. “We are persuaded by the majority of commenters that it is unrealistic to require that EAS Participants adhere to a specific technical standard for CAP monitoring,” given the “technical parameters” of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System “are still evolving,” the FCC said.

Those entities not served by broadband are likely smaller entities, “for which obtaining CAP capable EAS equipment would be a relatively larger financial commitment than for a larger provider,” the order said. “We do not believe that it would be appropriate to require EAS Participants to purchase and install equipment that they could not use.” Those who face hurdles besides service availability to buy broadband can seek waivers, too. “As for whether the cost of broadband Internet access in a given geographic area (or other potential substitute CAP alert distribution mechanisms) would constitute grounds for a waiver of the basic CAP-related obligations, any such determination would be relative to the facts and circumstances of an individual case,” the order said.

The FCC set six months as the maximum time a waiver can be effective, and exemptions can be renewed. The physical unavailability of high-speed Internet service is considered a presumption in favor of a waiver. “Broadband Internet access may become available at some point after a waiver has been granted, and that alternate means of distributing CAP alert messages, such as satellite delivery, may also become available, thus obviating the basis for granting the waiver,” the commission said. It said waiver recipients would need to continue to operate legacy EAS gear.

Intermediary devices need not provide a “visual display” until June 30, 2015 -- three years after EAS participants must be CAP ready, the FCC said. “It will likely be technically unfeasible for universal intermediary devices (and possibly some component intermediary devices), as well as the legacy EAS devices with which they are configured to meet this requirement, which means that such equipment would have to be replaced.” The expenses to replace that gear shouldn’t exceed what EAS participants would “expect in the normal course of business,” the agency said. It said that’s “particularly” so “as much of the underlying legacy equipment upon which intermediate devices depend is old and will soon need to be replaced.”