The FCC Public Safety Bureau will allow emergency alert system participants unable to update certificate information for their EAS devices for the Integrated Public Alert Warning System by the Friday expiration to continue operating their equipment through Jan. 7 without additional FCC authority, said a public notice Tuesday. Though a replacement certificate was issued Oct. 28, the Federal Emergency Management Agency "and EAS Participants are concerned that this may not provide sufficient time to update all EAS devices,” the PN said. EAS participants that can’t complete installation of the new certificate by Jan. 7 must request additional time, the PN said. The certificate issue doesn’t affect reception of alert messages using the legacy, daisy chain system, the PN said.
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wants the FCC to "reckon with how rolling back regulations and not requiring back up power have made it harder" to communicate in natural disasters such as the recent California wildfires. She tweeted Friday that "phones are not working. It's time for the FCC to start investigating."
T-Mobile asked for waiver of FCC wireless emergency alert rules so it can do testing. A new geo-targeting requirement for WEA messages becomes effective Nov. 30, T-Mobile said in docket 15-91, posted Friday. “T-Mobile wishes to engage in live testing of network and device geo-targeting capabilities prior to the … deadline.”
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., refiled the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act Thursday to further address emergency alerts system issues highlighted by a 2018 false missile alert in Hawaii (see 1801160054). Communications Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., is the main Senate co-sponsor. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Pete Olson, R-Texas, signed the House companion. The bill would eliminate the option for people to opt out of receiving certain federal alerts on cellphones and require active alerts issued by the White House and Federal Emergency Management Agency to be repeated. It would update the process for creating and approving state plans and examine the feasibility of expanding EAS to also distribute warnings to online streaming services (see 1807180053). “The missile alert exposed real flaws in the way people receive emergency alerts,” Schatz said. “Our bill fixes a number of important problems.” CTIA and NCTA lauded the refiling. The Senate in June passed a separate bill from Schatz addressing the Hawaii incident -- the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats Act (see 1906270051) -- via its FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (S-1790). The Alert Act would give the federal government sole authority to issue missile threat alerts and pre-empt state and local governments' role (see 1802070052). Lawmakers are working on a compromise between S-1790 and the House-passed FY 2020 NDAA (HR-2500) (see 1909180048).
California launched an earthquake early warning system combining a smartphone app with wireless emergency alerts, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Thursday. It uses ground motion sensors to detect earthquakes, then sends alerts through the app to provide “seconds of warning,” which is “enough time to drop, cover and hold on to help prevent injury,” the governor’s office said. The app will deliver alerts for earthquakes exceeding magnitude 4.5.
South Korea launched an emergency alert system using ATSC 3.0, similar to enhanced alerts advocated by the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance, said executives from South Korean firm DigiCap and AWARN Executive Director John Lawson at NAB New York. The system has been in place for a month and so far transmits emergency messages similar to those using established technology. Lawson and DigiCap CEO Peter Han were optimistic it will lead to further developments in the U.S. and South Korea. “Beginning is halfway done,” said Han, quoting a Korean proverb. “If you never start, you never finish.”
Commercial mobile service providers may join an end-to-end wireless emergency alert test by the El Segundo, California, Office of Emergency Management, the FCC Public Safety Bureau decided Monday. El Segundo plans an Oct. 17 test, 10-10:30 a.m. PDT. The FCC conditioned the waiver on adequate public outreach. The test “will enable the city to test its emergency operations plan, earthquake plans, and crisis communications plan and … help it to better understand the capabilities and geographic range of WEA to further integrate its mass notification systems,” as required by state law, the bureau said. Also, the bureau cleared mobile providers to participate in a WEA test by the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA) on Oct. 17 at 9 a.m. throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands. The test "will be helpful and timely as VITEMA navigates hurricane season, particularly in light of the severe damage caused to the U.S. Virgin Islands by hurricanes in 2017," the bureau said.
Crosscut Strategies hires Charlie Meisch, ex-SKDKnickerbocker and ex-FCC, as senior vice president; Simon Brown, from Small Business Majority, as director; and Caitlin Krutsick, Bipartisan Policy Center, as account specialist; promotes Courtney Lamie to chief operating officer ... In closing buy of Tribune (see 1909200048), Nexstar appoints from there as executive vice presidents Sean Compton, for WGN America and WGN Radio, also director-content acquisition; Dana Zimmer, also chief distribution and strategy officer; and Gary Weitman, chief communications officer.
Addressing better emergency alert origination and possible security risks 5G networks might inherit from previous communications networks, the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will issue reports next year and into early 2021, said CSRIC working group chairmen Tuesday. The 2018 false emergency alert in Hawaii (see 1801160054) shows there's no good emergency alert system differentiation between tests and actual alerts, said Craig Fugate, former Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator. Broadcasters voluntarily carry alerts, and without a strong working relationship between them and originators, there's a risk of fatigue, especially for amber and silver alerts, he said. Fugate said focus also is needed on cybersecurity and spoofing, to be sure alert originators are authenticated. He said the working group plans to produce recommendations by September 2020. Broadcasters increasingly use social media to communicate when they lose power to transmitters, newsrooms or towers due to disasters or major weather events, and social media will be a focus of reports on improving broadcast resiliency, said Florida Association of Broadcasters President Pat Roberts. It will look at updated best practices for prepping for natural disasters, he said. Its draft is due in January and final report in March, he said. Two working groups are looking at 5G security. Nsight Chief Technical Officer Lee Thibaudeau said network architectures sometimes incorporate security risks from other networks, and in 5G's case that could lead to confidentiality and network availability issues. He said the group looking at 5G vulnerabilities possibly carried forward from other wireless networks expects to have a report in June on those risks, followed by December 2020 recommendations on updates to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards. Qualcomm Director-Engineering Farrokh Khatibi said his group's related reports on risks potentially introduced by 3GPP standards will come in September 2020, and on ways of mitigating those in March 2021. The 911 move from legacy to IP networks carries potential security risks, especially when those networks are blended, said Mary Boyd, West Safety Services vice president-government and regulatory affairs. A working group report identifying the security risks in legacy, transition and next-generation 911 networks is expected in June, she said, followed by a December report measuring the risk magnitude and remediation costs. Verisign Chief Security Officer Danny McPherson said a report on session initiation protocol security vulnerabilities that could affect communication service provision is expected by March 2021.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau recent advisory on misusing emergency alerting raises the question whether false alert penalties could apply to streaming, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Wednesday. The advisory asks the public to report false uses of emergency alert system tones and wireless emergency alerts, he noted. Since streaming programming is accessible on wireless handsets -- phones -- rules could be seen as applying to streaming services and podcasters, “even if Internet programmers are not otherwise subject to FCC rules,” Oxenford said. “These warnings suggest that online programmers should be warned that use of EAS or WEA tones in their programming could receive the unwanted attention of the FCC.”