The Harris County (Texas) Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management urged the FCC to encourage carriers to make more use of satellite connections in wireless emergency alerts. With “vast swaths” of the U.S. “either sparsely inhabited or completely uninhabited, the Commission should seek to encourage telecommunications providers to leverage different technologies, such as satellite, to augment terrestrial communications systems and extend the reach of WEA,” said a filing Thursday in docket 25-224.
Comments are due Sept. 25, replies Oct. 10, on the FCC’s NPRM on reexamining the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alerts, said a public notice Friday in docket 25-224. The NPRM was unanimously approved at the agency’s August open meeting (see 2508070037).
CPB said Monday it can no longer administer the next-generation warning system (NGWS), which, America’s Public Television Stations said, could threaten public safety. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a $40 million NGWS grant to states and tribal nations earlier this month. “With CPB’s closure imminent, FEMA should assume responsibility for disbursing the funds as Congress intended,” said a CPB release. If FEMA doesn’t assume the program, “most of the FY 2022 funding -- and all funds from FY 2023 and FY 2024 -- will go undistributed,” CPB added. That would leave communities, “especially those in rural and disaster-prone areas, without the upgrades Congress intended.”
FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty said in a speech Thursday that the agency will use its returned auction authority and other initiatives to make the U.S. an international leader in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), the technology that combines tracking and data transmission. It lets mobile communications networks be used to sense and track non-connected objects, similar to radar. “ISAC is not just a technical evolution; it is a strategic leap,” Trusty said at the ISAC Strategy Summit in Arlington, Virginia, Thursday. “It gives us a chance to fuse our economic and national security goals into a common platform.” The international race for ISAC leadership “is already underway,” Trusty said. “Just as with 5G, those who move first will shape the technical rules, secure the supply chains, and capture the economic benefits. The question is not whether ISAC will be deployed; it is who will deploy it first, at scale, and on their own terms.”
A Texas bill would establish the Texas Interoperability Council to address communications gaps between first responders and emergency alert systems. An earlier version of the bill, HB-13, was introduced during the last legislative session in response to the devastating 2023 wildfire in the panhandle region. State Rep. Ken King (R) refiled the new bill, HB-2, last week with no major edits. It would task the council with developing and coordinating a statewide plan for the interoperability of emergency communications systems and incorporating any necessary technologies into the state's emergency communications network. The bill would also create a grant program for local governments to buy or construct emergency communications infrastructure and train employees on how to use the equipment during an emergency. It remains unknown how much funding would be made available for the grant program.
Items on emergency alerting, business data services (BDS) and satellite licensing saw some changes of note before they were approved by FCC commissioners last week. The items were posted in Monday’s Daily Digest. The next FCC meeting won't be until Sept. 30.
The FCC hacked away at licensing requirements for satellite and earth stations and slashed an array of broadcast rules in its August meeting Thursday. Four of the five items -- orders on submarine cable licensing and satellite and earth station licensing and NPRMs on improving emergency alerts and reviewing the commission's National Environmental Protection Act rules (see 2508070052) -- were approved unanimously. Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez partially dissented on an order repealing 98 broadcast rules and requirements.
Public Knowledge urged the FCC to safeguard consumers' privacy as it considers rules for next-generation 911, the group said this week in comments on a Further NPRM that commissioners approved in March. Most comments called for the FCC to move with caution as it considers updated rules (see 2508050042).
Emergency Alert System Test Reporting System (ETRS) Form One filings are due Oct. 3, said the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a public notice Monday. The ETRS is open for filings, it said. Form One “includes identifying and background information such as EAS designation, EAS monitoring assignments, facility location, equipment type, contact information, and other relevant data.”
Upcoming FCC items on revamping emergency alerting and outage reporting are expected to be approved unanimously at Thursday’s open meeting, while a direct final rule item on eliminating broadcast regulations is likely to draw a dissent from FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, industry and FCC officials told us.