FCC commissioners made numerous tweaks to a wireless emergency alerts Further NPRM on the way to approval last week (see 2304200040), based on a side-by-side comparison with the draft. The FNPRM was published in Monday’s “Daily Digest.” Comment deadlines will be set in a Federal Register notice. Commissioner Brendan Carr warned last week that revised rules shouldn’t prompt providers to opt out of the WEA program.
Despite considerable lobbying from some satellite operators for a different time frame, the FCC stuck with a 10-year sunset for interference protections in its order and NPRM passed 4-0 Thursday regarding spectrum sharing procedures among non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed satellite systems (FSS) approved in different processing rounds. The commissioners at their open meeting also unanimously adopted a framework for requiring companies to renew their Section 214 authorizations to provide international telecommunications services to and from the U.S. and an order expanding its access stimulation rules to traffic that terminates through IP enabled service providers, as well as receiver standard and wireless emergency alert items (see 2304200040).
The FCC approved 4-0 Thursday “high-level principles” for spectrum management, focused on receivers. Industry observers say the effects could be limited (see 2304050046). Commissioners at the open meeting also approved a Further NPRM looking at more requirements for wireless emergency alerts, as expected (see 2304190027), which has proven more controversial.
An FCC Further NPRM examining numerous enhancements for wireless emergency alerts is expected to be approved with limited tweaks at the commissioners' open meeting Thursday (see 2303300070), agency and industry officials said. Other wireless items, including receiver principles, are expected to be approved with minimal changes.
LAS VEGAS -- ATSC 3.0 could be used to create the only viable backup for GPS and address a major U.S. national security vulnerability, said broadcasters and experts at this week's 2023 NAB Show. The U.S. power grid, financial markets and telecom industries rely on precise timing based on GPS to function, and would grind to a halt within days if it were rendered inoperable, said Key2Mobile founder Patrick Diamond, a member of the National Space Based Position, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (FEMA IPAWS) staff endorsed an NAB proposal to allow broadcasters to replace physical emergency alert system equipment with software, NAB and broadcasters New York Public Radio, iHeartMedia, Cox Media Group, Graham Media and Capitol Broadcasting told the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a meeting Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 15-94. The shift to software would reduce the time to repair equipment and install security patches, NAB said. The software "would still operate if Internet or cloud connectivity is interrupted,” the filing said: “NAB is not advocating a fully cloud-based approach.” The broadcasters also told the agency they're “agnostic” on the development of such software. “We anticipate, and would likely prefer, that the current vendors of EAS equipment take the lead in such an effort, because this would allow industry to reap the benefits of their experience and expertise in this somewhat niche area of technology,” the filing said.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint at the FCC Saturday against the state Republican Party for allegedly distributing a video promoting Supreme Court candidate Daniel Kelly using a text message that looks like an emergency alert. The election has been hotly contested and has gotten national coverage. “The audio began with a series of tones substantially similar to the Common Audio Alert Signal as defined in 10 CFR § 10.520” and transmittal of such audio is a “violation of 10 CFR 10.520(d)(2), which not only prohibits unauthorized use of the Common Audio Alert Signal, but unauthorized use of a ‘simulation’ of such a signal,” the complaint said. False use of emergency alert system codes or wireless emergency alert attention signals “may be considered a ‘false distress signal,’ which is prohibited under 47 U.S. Code § 325,” the complaint said: “The FCC has broad jurisdiction to investigate and remediate offenses under both of the sections cited above, and has proposed or imposed substantial forfeitures for those violations.” The state Republican Party didn’t immediately comment Monday.
The FCC’s proposed policy statement on receivers lays out core principles to “help inform the Commission’s future actions and stakeholder expectations about interference from spectrally and spatially proximate sources,” according to a draft released Thursday for the commissioners’ April 20 open meeting. The draft draws on recommendations in a 2015 report by the FCC’s Technology Advisory Council.
The FCC is taking next steps on receivers, proposing a policy statement with "high-level principles" rather than rules or standards, which some industry observers had expected (see 2301180046), at commissioners' April 20 open meeting, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday. The meeting is another busy one for the agency. The agenda includes a draft order on spectrum sharing rules among non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed satellite service (FSS) systems, which has gotten little consensus among satellite operators (see 2204270015). Commissioners will also take on additional rules to get tough on Chinese carriers still operating in the U.S.
Providers signaled a note of caution in response to letters from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asking the nation’s nine largest providers of wireless emergency alerts about sending alerts in languages beyond English and Spanish (see 2302140059). “If alert originators and FEMA originate and hand off multilingual alert information in a format consistent with Commission rules and relevant technical standards, Verizon could support them,” the carrier said, posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. Revisions in the alerting process “will require collaboration and consensus among stakeholders responsible for originating, delivering and presenting alerts to consumers, and a feasible period of time to incorporate the new capability into networks and handsets,” Verizon said. “Any modifications to the current, broadcast-based model of WEA must be made under structured conditions and rigorously hashed out through technical standards bodies, otherwise the FCC risks fragmenting a well-functioning international alerting system,” AT&T said: “Further, the more significant the modification, the less likely that current and legacy handsets will be able to support it.” T-Mobile urged the FCC to work with its Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) and the ATIS Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee (WTSC) on any changes. “With regard to potential modifications to the WEA system and WEA-capable wireless devices referenced in your letter, T-Mobile supports CSRIC and WTSC evaluating whether these solutions are compatible with the cell-broadcast technology that underpins the successful WEA system,” the company said. “While technical evaluations about the issues raised in your letter are on-going” the FCC and FEMA “should encourage alert originators to use the embedded link capabilities of WEA to ensure that emergency information is accessible to as many language communities as possible,” T-Mobile said. The FCC must “engage device manufacturers to effectively enhance WEA messaging,” C Spire said. The company “is not aware of existing machine translation technologies that are sufficiently reliable for use in emergency situations,” it said: “To make such functionality a reality, C Spire believes that the FCC must initiate a proceeding prompting a designated standards body, … vendors, and device manufacturers to develop standards for such technologies.” Google Fi said as an mobile virtual network operator it “relies upon underlying network partners to provide WEA capabilities. The network partners push WEA notifications directly to Fi users without any modification by Google Fi.”