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.

The FCC was asked to delay further the emergency-alert system deadline for all multichannel video programming distributors and radio and TV stations to be capable of transmitting EAS warnings in a format developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Associations representing cable operators big and small and commercial and public radio and TV broadcasters asked for another delay in the effective date of common alerting protocol (CAP) rules. The commission has been taking longer than industry and some agency officials anticipated in finalizing gear certification rules so that broadcasters and MVPDs can comply with CAP. In seeking comment on the Part 11 equipment certification rules, the commission asked about a further delay (CD May 27 p4). A major maker of EAS equipment told us it still opposes a further delay.

Congress should reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety as part of a debt limit agreement next week, said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. He spoke Wednesday at a committee hearing on emergency communications, as Congress continued to wrangle over reducing the deficit and raising the debt ceiling. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., proposed giving public safety $7 billion and the D-block in a debt proposal earlier this week (CD July 27 p2). The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the Reid plan would cost much less than the Senate Commerce Committee’s proposed Spectrum Act (S-911).

The FCC asked whether it should again delay mandated compliance with FEMA’s Common Alerting Protocol for EAS (CD May 27 p4), and the answer from most parties was yes. Cable operators, phone companies and broadcasters all told the FCC to push back its Sept. 30 deadline by at least 6 months and some sought an extra year. But EAS equipment maker Sage Alerting Systems said the deadline shouldn’t be pushed back and that most of the broadcast industry is ready. “Another extension will simply delay orders until near the end of the new limit, much as the extension in November 2010 halted orders for a few months,” it said. The FCC should keep the deadline for making sure EAS participants have the equipment in place to receive CAP alerts, but give them another 90 days after FEMA starts distributing emergency messages to “actually begin receiving messages” from FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System servers, it said. That way they can learn how to use the equipment, it said.

Toyota urged the FCC to change the limits for radiated emissions in the 76-77 GHz band to allow more use of “stop and go” adaptive cruise control (ACC) and rear pre-collision (RPCS) systems in the cars it manufactures for sale in the U.S. (http://xrl.us/bk2qij). In a May 25 rulemaking notice, the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment on whether the commission should modify its rules for the band with an eye on improved collision avoidance and driver safety (http://xrl.us/bk2qje).

EAS participants are DBS, all broadcasters and satellite radio, and all cable systems.

The FCC should write a fallback plan in case some wireless carriers refuse to support mobile alert technology, Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said at a Friday hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications. Richardson is the subcommittee’s ranking member. But FCC and CTIA witnesses said market forces are pushing carriers to voluntarily support the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). The service, designed to send text-message alerts to people in disaster areas, is scheduled to rollout nationwide next April. Legislators also raised concerns about privacy and training issues related to mobile alerts.

U.S. officials asked emergency alert system vendors to take security safeguards as they equip customers to handle new warning messages that can be more easily transmitted across multiple media. “Responsibility does not go away with delivery to vendor,” said a slide from a government webcast Wednesday on the integrated public alert and warning system’s open platform for emergency networks. “Detection of unauthorized use will cause access to IPAWS-OPEN to be removed.” Such users “are decertified immediately,” system architect Gary Ham said on the webcast. “Be careful of the use” of certification, he added. The webcast was hosted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Last year it finished work on Common Alerting Protocol, which the FCC is implementing for all radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers.

Comments on changes to FCC emergency alert system rules for a new common alerting protocol are due July 20, replies Aug. 4, in docket 04-296, the commission said in a notice in Monday’s Federal Register. Commissioners approved a rulemaking notice in May on the alerts, which apply to satellite video and radio and cable and broadcast TV (CD May 27 p4).

The FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency will conduct the first “top to bottom” nationwide test of the emergency alert system on Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. EST, both agencies said Thursday. The test is expected to last up to three and a half minutes. The government will base the national test on two EAS tests the government recently conducted in Alaska (CD Feb 3 p5).