The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Assn.(NOAA) agreed Thurs. on a new method for issuing local and national warnings and to increase the effectiveness of Public Alert devices. The agreement was endorsed by the CEA, group executives said. Under the agreement, DHS will have round-the-clock access to the NOAA All-Hazards Network, allowing emergency alerts related to homeland security to reach the American public through the alert devices. Public alert technology is an outgrowth of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). EAS warnings are voluntarily aired by broadcasters, but Public alerts are triggered by warnings received from govt. sources. The warning signals can be received on radio, TV and mobile phones. Meanwhile, a glitch in Comcast’s EAS caused Washington subscribers to see only the Disney Channel on all of the company’s channels for about an hour Mon., a Comcast spokesman said. The problem occurred when the system was mistakenly activated, but without an emergency broadcast message, so all that viewers saw was Disney programming. The alert system is carried on the Disney Channel because of its strong signal in the area and wide reach, the spokesman said.
Authorizing full-time use of in-band on-channel (IBOC) technology on AM and FM stations not only would provide listeners with the “digital experience they have come to expect from satellite radio” and other digital sources, but “will enable significant advances in alerting and warning technology through the use of the digital data stream on AM and FM HD Radio stations,” Sage Alerting Systems told the FCC. Sage -- which helped develop the Emergency Alert System (EAS) the FCC approved in the mid-1990s -- urged the Commission to require EAS compliance in the IBOC domain “from the very beginning to insure that listeners tuned to the digital data stream do not miss potentially life saving messages and announcements.” It also asked the FCC to begin probing new and improved alerting techniques made possible through digital broadcasting. For example, IBOC technology can beam “specific and localized” emergency announcements to the front-panel displays of HD Radio receivers in cars and homes, but the capability also exists to turn radios on and off selectively using that data stream, Sage said. “Addressability down to a much smaller area than is currently possible in the EAS protocol would facilitate reaching only those who would be directly effected by severe weather, chemical [spills] or terrorist activities. These capabilities would be a vast improvement over the existing EAS system and could be implemented either voluntarily or by FCC mandate in all new AM and FM receivers equipped with HD Radio.” Sage said it believes the cost of implementing such “digital-interrupt” technology would be “no greater” than the current cost of deploying EAS capability at an analog station, and products could be brought to market “very quickly.”
FCC Comr. Adelstein said he was concerned about an apparent willingness by some lawmakers to impose indecency standards on cable. In a speech to the American Cable Assn., Adelstein noted that the cable industry is willing to provide blocking technology for consumers who don’t want certain channels. Although he acknowledged that children can’t distinguish between broadcast and cable, he said it would be hard for the govt. to force family tiers onto cable. “Families are different,” Adelstein said. “My family’s interests might be different than yours.”
Despite the growing popularity of digital TV (DTV), the U.K. isn’t likely to meet its goal of a 95% switchover from analog to DTV by 2010 if it relies solely on the market, the Office of Communications (OFCOM) said Mon. “It is time for all interested parties -- the Government, OFCOM, the broadcasters, manufacturers and retailers -- to change gear” from planning for switchover to implementing it, OFCOM said in a report to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport. The report follows a survey showing U.K. consumers wary of the govt.’s motives for switchover, and a Council of Europe investigation into the need for regulation to ensure access to DTV in the face of increasing media concentration.
Verizon told N.Y.C. officials that it will add a layer of review before starting any network changes that might affect 911 service, to avoid a 911 service interruption like the one on March 26. That failure knocked out 911 service to large parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island for 2 hours on a Fri. evening. Verizon said a data entry mistake by a Verizon technician doing a network upgrade misrouted 911 traffic to a bank, which was closed. No loss of life or property was attributed to the 911 failure, because city emergency officials activated a backup plan immediately on noticing a sudden sharp dropoff in 911 call volume from the 3 boroughs. Among other things, the city put notices out via the city’s radio and TV stations about a 911 failure and gave alternate emergency numbers. The city also alerted the operators of its 311 system, normally for non-emergency public safety calls, to watch for emergency calls. It also worked out temporary arrangements with Verizon so that callers in the affected area who dialed “0” for operator were transferred to the Manhattan 911 center, which wasn’t affected by the glitch. After service was restored, however, Mayor Michael Bloomberg demanded an explanation for the mishap and how a repeat would be prevented. A Verizon spokesman said that network changes being made in areas where 911 facilities might be affected will be subject to additional cross-checks by co-workers and supervisors, to ensure against adverse impacts on 911. Verizon said it will make a full report on the incident to its regulators. Bloomberg said no technology is perfect: “You have to have backups and I think we did have backups.” But City Councilman Pater Vallone, chmn. of the public safety committee, said the failure has heightened concerns about the need for a modern backup 911 facility, adequate system funding and Verizon’s performance as 911 carrier.
National broadcasters are more effective in communicating a national emergency to the disabled than the FCC-administered emergency alert system (EAS), said Susan Fox, Disney vp-govt. affairs. “EAS -- the sense that I got from the folks in my own company -- is not the answer,” Fox said during a panel here on defining emergency at FCC’s Emergency Communications and Homeland Security: Working With the Disability Community Summit. “I think what we do, the information that we provide, is greater and broader than EAS,” she said.
Nortel Networks said Tues. it had submitted a proposal to the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) for an architectural framework to enable Enhanced 911 (E911) access on VoIP networks. Nortel Senior Consulting Engineer Mark Lewis told us the proposal, submitted last week, addressed “key technology challenges,” including: (1) Routing a 911 call to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP). (2) Transmitting caller’s correct location information. He said Nortel’s “technical, open-standards proposal” demonstrated “how leveraging existing wireless infrastructure can be used” to address E911 issues in relation to VoIP and “how industry can adopt it.”
ATLANTA -- Top FCC officials at the CTIA Wireless 2004 show here Mon. held up the agency’s relatively hands-off wireless regulatory regime as an example that could be followed in the VoIP arena. Citing the benefits of a “light regulatory touch” on VoIP, Chmn. Powell also told a standing- room-only opening session: “This industry has to wake up to the fact that it [VoIP] can be an incredible innovation to the wireless side.” He noted that by some estimates there’s more VoIP running over wireless networks than on wireline.
The FCC issued a rulemaking that would revise rules governing the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to allow wireless cable TV systems to provide EAS alerts to their subscribers in a “more efficient and less burdensome manner.” The proposal, which came in a petition from the Wireless Cable Assn., would change the rules to allow wireless cable operators to “force tune” subscriber equipment to a system channel dedicated to EAS alerts and messages instead of providing an EAS decoder for every channel. The rules currently say wireless cable providers with more than 5,000 subscribers must install special equipment to display the audio and video EAS message on every channel. Systems with fewer than 5,000 must display the audio and video EAS message only on one channel, but must provide a video interrupt and an audio alert on every channel. Under the proposal, the operator would install EAS equipment for one channel only at the headend of the system. If there were an alert, the system would automatically force each subscriber’s set-top box to tune to the channel carrying the EAS alert. Comments are due 30 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register and replies 45 days later.
NBC TV Affiliates Assn. and Telemundo executives met with FCC commissioners earlier this week on their multicasting initiatives, as the debate over multicast must- carry resurfaced. “[NBC and Telemundo] talked about the importance of multicast must-carry to the programming they're trying to get on and the impact that could have on the Hispanic community and the importance of them having it,” Martin told reporters Thurs. Increasing programming for Hispanics “could be an important issue,” he said: “But I think it goes beyond just that. I think consumers in general have a high expectation of the types of broadcasting that will be carried on basic cable systems.”