Problems finding a federal body to be the gatekeeper for emergency alerts to cellphones and other wireless devices may derail a warning program before it begins, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps warned. Copps criticized as “disheartening” a Federal Emergency Management Agency refusal to be gatekeeper (CD Feb 22 p1). FEMA participated in the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee that drafted the alert rules.

The Senate Commerce Committee asked the FCC and NTIA to work together to submit monthly status reports on the digital transition. At an oversight hearing Tuesday, Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said the reports should summarize activities and “challenges” the agencies face. “I have deep reservations about the FCC spending its limited time and resources in media areas unrelated to the transition,” Inouye said.

The FCC hasn’t suspended an inquiry into complaints that Comcast blocked peer-to-peer file transfers via BitTorrent, said four agency officials. A Thursday settlement between the cable operator and the P2P content distribution Web company hasn’t prompted Chairman Kevin Martin’s office to tell other commissioners of any changes to the inquiry, said agency officials. “The complaint against Comcast is pending,” said an FCC spokesman. “We are following that complaint as we do any other.” But Commissioner Robert McDowell said the settlement “obviates the need for any further government intrusion into this matter.”

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (D) signed a 911 bill creating an emergency alert system advisory committee to review and update state plans for warning people of widespread hazards and emergencies, and make recommendations on how to ensure alerts reach all Indianans. HB-1204 requires VoIP providers to collect E-911 fees. It creates a body to study the pros and cons of consolidating current state and local 911 fees into one statewide fee applied equally to all forms of two-way voice telecommunications. A report is due Dec. 1. The law requires counties having more that two 911 public safety answering points (PSAPs) to reduce the number to two by the end of 2014. It bars counties with just one PSAP now from establishing more. Counties with excess PSAPs may not raise local 911 fees until excess PSAPs are gone. The law calls for an audit of state and local spending since 2005 to implement wireless E-911. Daniels signed another telecom bill (HB-1159) creating a committee to study whether and how creation of a statewide 211 human services referral number will improve public access to human service agencies. The report is due Dec. 1.

AT&T’s U-Verse pay-TV service was excused from following FCC emergency alert system rules, in an order issued Wednesday by the Public Safety Bureau. The new rules took effect Dec. 3 and require AT&T, Verizon and other wireline companies selling subscription TV to pass along EAS warnings to video subscribers. But AT&T told the commission Nov. 14 it wouldn’t be able to do so until July 31 because the company was upgrading the Internet Protocol service. Bureau Chief Derek Poarch granted AT&T’s request. “Given the important role that EAS serves in the nation’s public safety awareness and response, we emphasize that, based on the detailed and specific assurances made by AT&T in its waiver petition, we will not look favorably upon any future request for additional” delay, he wrote. Poarch conditioned the waiver on AT&T telling subscribers about the limits of its emergency notifications. By March 31, the company must be able to send alerts to its super hub office for all standard definition and 1080 interlace high definition national channels. By July 31, AT&T must be able to transmit alerts to all video hub offices in every city where U-Verse is sold, said the order. If AT&T fails to meet its benchmarks, the order said, “the Bureau will consider all appropriate action, including recommendations regarding enforcement.”

NTelos Media asked the FCC to let it out of Emergency Alert System obligations until year-end, saying software it uses to offer IPTV services still can’t handle the duties. NTelos planned to have an EAS compatible version of Microsoft IPTV software it buys from Alcatel-Lucent installed by April 1, but learned recently from vendors that it’s behind AT&T in line for the upgrade. That could mean months, the company said. “It is unrealistic to think that a company as small as NTelos with limited technical resources and a small number of IPTV customers can expedite this upgrade if AT&T has failed to do so,” it said.

The FCC fined the Hispanic-Multicultural Broadcasting Association $6,400 for lacking an emergency alert system decoder at its WJRN-LP Summerfield, Fla. station. The FCC Tampa office initially set an $8,000 fine.

Broadcasters should make a voluntary practice of carrying emergency alert system warnings in more languages than English when bad weather knocks out foreign-language stations in their markets, a proponent of that approach said Monday at the EAS Summit. Minority Media and Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig said he’s aware the industry is concerned the FCC may impose such a plan on broadcasters. “Hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary, but it would be up to you,” he told the conference in Washington, D.C., according to prepared remarks. “If broadcasters in a community arrive voluntarily at a reasonable [multilingual EAS plan], the FCC could certify it and the plan would take effect.” It’s been three years since 300,000 New Orleanians who speak Spanish and Vietnamese got little advance warning of Hurricane Katrina for lack of a multilingual alert plan, Honig said. “Six rounds of pleadings later, the FCC still doesn’t have a multilingual EAS program, and only one state broadcasting association -- Florida’s -- has come most of the way toward designating a modern” system. Participants in FCC-brokered talks on the alerts voice optimism of a deal being reached and reflected in an order the FCC plans to issue on the subject in the next few months (CD Nov 7 p4).

New Motorola technology lets Sprint Nextel push-to-talk users talk directly to a first responder who uses a Project 25 land mobile radio, Sprint Nextel said Tuesday. The Motobridge gateway creates interoperability for disparate networks using different bands, system types or vendors, Sprint said. It can be scaled to support “numerous agencies, users and dispatch locations” and supports group calls, emergency alerts and other Nextel features, the carrier said.

The FCC should publish a Spanish-language version of its Emergency Alert System handbook, recently released in English, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to Public Safety Bureau Chief Derek Poarch. “Many broadcast employees who could happen to be on duty during an emergency are not fluent in English,” he said. “Without a Spanish language version of the Handbook, a portion of our population is left vulnerable.”