Comments are due April 17, replies May 19, on the FCC's Further NPRM on wireless emergency alerts (WEA), in dockets 15-94 and 15-91. Commissioners approved the FNPRM 4-0 last month (see 2502270042). “The Commission proposes to broaden the circumstances in which alert originators may send WEA messages using the ‘Public Safety Message’ classification, which can allow consumers greater flexibility in how messages are presented on their mobile device, including the potential ability to silence alerts,” said a Wednesday notice from the Public Safety Bureau. “The Commission also seeks comment on whether subscribers should be empowered to further customize their receipt of WEA messages, as well as additional steps that wireless providers, equipment manufacturers, and operating system developers can take to reduce the rate at which subscribers opt out of WEA.”
CPB wants a federal court to force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remove a hold on paying reimbursement requests from public broadcasting stations connected to upgrades to emergency alerting, according to CPB filings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (docket 1:25-cv-00740-TJK). CPB administers grant funds from FEMA marked by Congress to help station upgrades connected with the Next Generation Warning System, but FEMA ceased paying the reimbursements to 42 stations after a White House executive order was issued to freeze grants, the filing said. “Not just future reimbursements for expenses not-yet-incurred, but also for reimbursements of expenses already incurred by these stations in reliance on the grant’s terms,” CPB said. FEMA didn’t inform CPB that the funds were on hold and is “refusing to provide any communications as to why the funds have been placed on hold, placing new restrictions on the grant, and refusing to provide any mechanism through which CPB can make any submissions in compliance with the grant,” CPB said. CPB can’t reimburse the stations but also faces potential liability over the unpaid funds, the filing said. The court should “enter a very focused and very feasible Temporary Restraining Order simply requiring FEMA to re-open the grant submission portal” and “return to timely processing and promptly paying requests to reimburse,” CPB said. FEMA didn't comment.
Satellite operators are “essentially flying blind” without an international protocol for sharing data about the location and position of objects in space and for planning maneuvers, said Kim Baum, Eutelsat/OneWeb vice president-spectrum engineering and strategy. Speaking at the Satellite 2025 show, she said there's a need for a universal directory of every satellite operator, including contact information, to deal with spectrum, as well as coordination of satellites possibly on collision courses. Multiple speakers mentioned the need for additional international coordination and agreement.
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and other users of the 1675-1680 MHz band raised interference concerns in response to a January notice from the FCC (see 2501080067). The agency is seeking to refresh the record on the future of the band for shared use between federal incumbents and nonfederal fixed or mobile operations. It initially received comment in 2019 on reallocating the band for 5G, as urged by Ligado (see 1905090041). Comments were posted Monday in docket 19-116.
Public broadcasting is facing the “most significant” funding challenge it has seen in 30 years, America's Public Television Stations President Kate Riley said Monday at the APTS 2025 Public Media Summit in Washington. Congressional efforts to defund public media are “predictable threats” but grant-freezing executive orders and the FCC's investigation of NPR and PBS stations are “unpredictable threats,” Riley told the “fly-in” gathering of PBS station managers.
The FCC’s draft notice of inquiry on opening the upper C band for commercial use acknowledges numerous incumbents using the spectrum and seeks “detailed and evidence-based comments” from all affected parties. Also on Thursday, the FCC released a draft NPRM on rules for the AWS-3 auction and other items, teeing them up for the FCC’s Feb. 27 open meeting, including new rules for wireless emergency alerts (see 2502050057).
New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s decision to pull all items on circulation for a vote by commissioners wasn’t a surprise, industry officials said. Since taking office a week ago, President Donald Trump has pushed a deregulatory agenda and issued a regulatory freeze among a slew of executive orders on his first day (see 2501210070). Among the FCC items withdrawn was a controversial NPRM that former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated in March on banning bulk broadband billing in multi-tenant environments (see 2408010064).
The full FCC has voted 4-1 to propose a $369,190 penalty for a broadcaster that used outdated emergency alert system messages recorded from the internet rather than actual EAS tones in multiple nationwide tests and submitted false information to the FCC, said a notice of apparent liability in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented from the NAL against Corridor Television, as he promised to do for votes involving monetary penalties in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s SEC v. Jarkesy decision (see 2409060054). Corridor’s TV station, KCWX Fredericksburg, Texas, didn’t transmit correct audio and other information in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 nationwide EAS tests, according to the NAL. The matter was brought to the FCC’s attention by a complaint, and Corridor “admitted that in 2018, it created EAS segments relying on a previous year’s test, and that in 2019 and 2021, it downloaded EAS headers, test script audio, crawls, and activation codes from the Internet to create its own test segment,” it added. Corridor blamed the error on its small staff, its inexperience and lack of knowledge about operating the station’s EAS equipment. Corridor “claimed that it made a ‘good faith effort’ to comply with its EAS obligations and thought it had done so,” the NAL said. “Corridor’s noncompliance over multiple years based on its staff’s claimed ignorance of the law shows minimal effort on the Station’s part and hardly constitutes a ‘good faith effort.’” Corridor didn’t file a 2018 emergency test system report and submitted false information on other nationwide test reporting filings certifying compliance with FCC EAS rules, the NAL said. Corridor’s “inaccurate reporting of its participation and performance during the 2018, 2019, and 2021 Nationwide Tests of the EAS undermined the Commission’s ‘ability to collect, process and evaluate data about EAS alerting pathways’” and “detracted” from the FCC’s public safety goals. The agency’s calculation of Corridor’s proposed forfeiture includes a 100% upward adjustment to reflect “particularly egregious conduct” involving emergency messaging and a $61,238 penalty for Corridor’s five incorrect test reporting filings.
Paramount Global agreed to a $244,952 civil penalty to resolve several enforcement proceedings against CBS over the broadcast of recorded or simulated emergency alert system tones on its programming, said an order and consent decree released Friday. The violations involved a May 2023 episode of the CBS sitcom Young Sheldon that ran on 227 stations, a CBS News radio report in June 2024 that had three seconds of EAS tones, and an Entertainment Tonight segment in October 2023 that included a one-second tone. The broadcaster self-reported the incidents, the consent decree said. Broadcasters are barred from transmitting EAS tones in circumstances other than a national or state emergency. Using simulated or actual EAS tones for non-authorized purposes can lead to alert fatigue in the public and result in false activation of the EAS that can spread false information, the consent decree said. Along with the penalty, the settlement requires Paramount to create procedures to ensure employees follow EAS rules, distribute a compliance manual to all employees, and file compliance reports with the agency for three years.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau has reached a $1.1 million settlement with Charter Communications over the company's temporary deactivation of several emergency alert system devices for upgrades to comply with new EAS requirements, said an order and consent decree Thursday. Charter took the devices out of service to meet a December 2023 deadline for the upgrades and notified the FCC Public Safety Bureau that EAS devices at three dozen cable headends, covering 1 million Charter viewers, would go out of service for the Oct. 4, 2023, nationwide EAS test. Charter “believed in good faith” that it was in compliance because of FCC rules that give a 60-day period for replacing defective equipment, the order and consent decree said. The Public Safety Bureau maintained that Charter’s devices didn't fall under the defective equipment rules because they weren’t defective, the order and consent decree said. Along with the forfeiture, the decree requires that Charter create a compliance training program and file regular reports with the FCC for one year.