Ford Motor announced the company won’t remove AM radio from its cars in the U.S. after getting pushback from lawmakers and broadcasters. “After speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency alert system, we’ve decided to include it” in all 2024 Ford and Lincoln models, Ford CEO Jim Farley tweeted Tuesday. “In light of Ford’s announcement, NAB urges other automakers who have removed AM radio from their vehicles to follow Ford’s lead and restore this technology in the interest of listeners and public safety,” said NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt. Carmakers such as BMW and Tesla said AM won’t be in some models. “Broadcasters will continue to support this major legislation to ensure consumer access to AM radio in all vehicles," NAB said.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., led filing Wednesday of the AM for Every Vehicle Act to require automakers to maintain AM radio in new vehicles at no additional charge. The measure would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a rule mandating AM radio access in new vehicles. It would also require automakers that sell vehicles without AM radio before the NHTSA rule takes effect to clearly disclose that lack of access. Markey pressed automakers in December on whether they would include AM receivers. Other lawmakers have also weighed in on the issue recently, including a group of more than 100 House members led by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio (see 2305150063). Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas is the lead GOP sponsor of the bill's Senate version. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and three other Commerce members are co-sponsors. Four lawmakers are co-sponsors of the House version: Tom Kean, R-N.J.; Rob Menendez, D-N.J.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; and Bruce Westerman, R-Ark. NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said the measure “ensures that the tens of million Americans who depend on AM radio for news, entertainment and critical safety information each month can continue to have access to this reliable communications medium. As the backbone of the Emergency Alert System, AM radio is instrumental in promptly disseminating vital information across all mediums during crises, ensuring that communities remain safe and well-informed.”
NOAA needs to do more to ensure emergency alerts about tsunamis are reaching at-risk populations in Tribal, rural and remote areas, the GAO said Tuesday. NOAA relies primarily on its Weather Radio system to deliver warnings to listeners and the emergency alert system, the Federal Emergency Management Agency Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (FEMA IPAWS) and its website and social media channels to issue warnings, but the agency should assess the extent of NOAA Weather Radio coverage and ascertain whether those at-risk communities have access, GAO said. It said NOAA should work more with the FCC and FEMA to determine how to use IPAWS to deliver tsunami alert to EAS.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and 101 other House members wrote Ford and nine other automakers Monday urging them not to remove AM radio receivers from electric vehicles. Latta and the other House members sent the letters to automakers that previously responded to a December inquiry from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that they would be removing AM receivers and to those that didn’t respond. The other automakers are BMW, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo. Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., pressed the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week on how removal of AM receivers would affect the emergency alert system (see 2305110068). “AM radio has more than 45 million listeners each month, and our constituents rely heavily on it for emergency alerts and local news, information, and weather” forecasts, Latta and the other lawmakers said in the Monday letters. “For rural Americans, the importance of having access to AM radio in their car or truck is particularly important. When Internet connectivity and cell phone service is limited or unavailable, these residents do not have as many options to access emergency information as those living in more densely populated areas. AM radio stations are often our constituents’ ‘go to’ source for information in times of crisis. We cannot deprive them of that free, life-saving resource.” The lawmakers want the automakers to respond by May 26. NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said the House members "understand the critical role that AM radio plays in disseminating vital information to the public, particularly in times of emergency. Tens of millions of Americans listen to AM radio each month for its local and diverse content and we applaud these lawmakers for their commitment to their constituents who depend on AM."
There are wireless/satellite schisms as the FCC tries to put together a framework for supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service. The divisions are over whether a preexisting arrangement with a terrestrial mobile operator should be a prerequisite, per docket 23-65 comments that were due Friday. The wireless industry is pushing for SCS applications to be handled by waivers, calling a rules regime premature. Multiple commenters called for streamlining the blanket earth station licensing framework. The SCS NPRM was adopted 4-0 in March (see 2303160009).
Two House members wrote to Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell seeking answers about removing AM radio from electric vehicles. “We seek more clarity on the specific threats this poses” to the emergency alert system “and what FEMA is doing to ensure the EAS can continue to carry out its vital role,” said the letter Thursday from Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. “Especially given the growth in sales of EVs, it is vital for FEMA to make clear the negative impacts that lacking access to AM radio will have on public safety infrastructure.” The letter asks if FEMA did anything to dissuade removing AM radios, and how that removal would affect alerting systems. “America’s local radio broadcasters look forward to continued engagement with Administrator Criswell and her senior team to address this short-sighted decision by some automakers,” said an NAB news release on the letter.
FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Debra Jordan advised public safety agencies Tuesday to get ready as hurricane and wildfire seasons approach. Jordan noted the work the FCC did to improve the delivery of outage information to public safety answering points (see 2211170051), update wireless priority service (WPS), government emergency telecommunications service (GETS) and other rules (see 2205190057) and the “many recent” commission “actions to make the nation’s emergency alerting systems a stronger tool for public safety officials to warn and protect their communities.” Everyone should “prepare now for communicating during emergencies, especially when the power is out,” Jordan said.
CTIA urged the FCC to put the onus on covered service providers (CSPs) rather than originating service providers (OSPs) if the agency imposes 988 outage reporting obligations, the subject of a January NPRM (see 2301040056). “As 988 communications are routed centrally to a single, nationwide response point, unlike 911 communications, which are routed to local Public Safety Answering Points, it is unclear how OSPs could provide actionable information about local outages to the nationwide 988 Lifeline or other stakeholders,” CTIA said, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-5. AT&T agreed rules “must reflect the fundamental differences in service architecture between 911 and 988.” Competitive Carriers Association members don’t “oppose some level of 988 outage reporting and notification,” but also don’t “support duplicative or potentially confusing efforts,” CCA said: If the FCC imposes a 988 outage notification requirement on OSPs, “in many cases, a 30-minute timeframe would be unreasonable and unrealistic, particularly for OSPs utilizing vendors for 988 solutions. Any 988 outage reporting requirement should enable realistic compliance.” The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC rightly proposes rules based on 911 outage reporting requirements approved last year (see 2211170051). The FCC should also require that PSAPs be alerted of 988 outages, NENA said: “If 988 service is not available to a person having a mental health crisis, and they do not have knowledge of an alternative means such as dedicated online chat services, then they may decide to dial 9-1-1 instead.” The group said the 988 system should plan to eventually migrate to next-generation 911 technologies “as a matter of building a more reliable, equitable life-saving service for people with mental health crises.”
It’s getting more difficult for telecom companies to maintain cybersecurity insurance due to the constant barrage of ransomware attacks, NTCA General Counsel Jill Canfield said Tuesday. She highlighted some of the cyber hurdles telecoms face, during an FCBA webinar. If a company has more than one insurance claim a year, the insurance provider will start denying claims, and it’s not easy to find a new provider, she said. Itron Privacy Counsel Nicole Thomas agreed, saying threat actors are going to continue to attack due to the profitability of ransomware efforts.
FCC proposals for improving emergency alert system reliability “are not tailored to the size, resources, or capabilities of EAS Participants,” said NCTA, ACA Connects, National Public Radio and NAB in meetings this week with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-94. The FCC “relies on fairly scant evidence of cybersecurity incidents or EAS equipment failures to justify the far-reaching proposals,” the filing said. The agency also underestimated the resources required for entities to comply with the proposals, the filing said. “Most EAS Participants have no in-house cybersecurity expertise, and therefore would likely require extensive -- and expensive -- assistance from outside consultants to translate the FCC’s broad and vague requirements into an actionable plan,” the filing said. The recently enacted Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 designated the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) as the lead federal agency on cybersecurity incident reporting, the filing said. “It would be premature, and potentially duplicative and counter-productive for the Commission to create a cyber-related incident reporting scheme before CISA completes its proceeding,” the groups said.