The FCC Public Safety Bureau seeks comment on communications service outages caused by Hurricane Michael and the FCC’s response, said a public notice Friday. With 36 questions on several areas of focus, comments are due Dec. 17. The PN seeks comment on how service providers, 911 call centers and broadcasters prepared for and responded to the hurricane, and how FCC actions affected matters. The PN specifies areas of Florida that were slower to have their service restored, an issue previously highlighted by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1810160056). “While the restoration of communications services in most areas affected by Michael proceeded at a normal speed, the recovery was much slower in Bay County and Gulf County,” the PN said. “One week after Michael made landfall, more than one-third of cell sites in those two counties were still out of service.” The PN asks if service providers implemented best practices, and for details about fiber cuts, and the wireless resiliency cooperative framework. The PN seeks comment on how the storm affected public safety answering points, and whether wireless and broadcast emergency alerts were effective. It asks about the agency’s use of the disaster information reporting system during the storm: “What DIRS information proved most useful to first responders? Are there extraneous or unnecessary data points contained in DIRS that detract from its overall usefulness?” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel previously sought hearings on the FCC’s hurricane response, and said in a statement that the PN is a good start, though not enough by itself. “Seeking comment is a correct first step,” Rosenworcel said. “We also need for the FCC to make a commitment to do a timely report. It took a year for this agency to issue a report on the 2017 hurricane season. That’s unacceptable,” she said. “We have to do better.” The FCC didn’t comment on that.
Communications resiliency, infrastructure, cybersecurity and the 2017 hurricane season are areas of concern in emergency preparedness, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported. “Challenges remain” in addressing infrastructure resilience, the report said, saying the failure of communications systems in Puerto Rico caused “limited situational awareness” after Maria and Irma. “Interdependencies between energy and other infrastructure systems present challenges in response and recovery; efforts to mitigate disruptions and to help communities learn from and plan for these challenges are growing.” Though the agency describes efforts to address those issues by the Department of Energy, Small Business Administration and FBI, it appears to contain no references to the FCC. It also doesn’t mention FCC-related actions on emergency preparedness such as the investigation into the false missile alert in Hawaii, efforts to restore communications in Puerto Rico or the nationwide emergency alert tests. FEMA focused on cybersecurity and IoT as areas of concern. “Insufficient information sharing between the public and private sectors has hindered the Nation’s effectiveness in defending against cyber threats,” the agency said.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services sought FCC waiver to test the wireless emergency alert system to transmit early earthquake warnings, scheduled for Dec. 11. The application was posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. “There is up to a 99 percent probability that a magnitude 6.7 or higher earthquake will occur within the state anytime within the next 30 years,” the state said. “Without this waiver, critical live testing cannot be conducted to evaluate the current capability and future feasibility of end-to-end earthquake early warning transmissions over WEA.” The state said the test's text will read: "TEST of the ShakeAlert CA Earthquake Warning System. No action required. THIS IS A TEST."
Comments are due Nov. 27, replies Dec. 7, on SiriusXM seeking clarification of emergency alert system rules or, alternately, waiver to transmit EAS header code tones in a compressed audio format over the four channels on the legacy XM platform that use audio compression, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 15-94. The requests responded to the FCC seeking comment on a 2005 then-XM Radio still-pending petition (see 0601040124).
ATIS said much work remains on more accurate geo-targeting of wireless emergency alerts by carriers. Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee members spoke with Lisa Fowlkes, FCC Public Safety Bureau chief, and an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. “The industry is advancing several standards required to implement new WEA capabilities,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. “One of the challenges … is the need to define the behavior of devices as they move from outside the polygon to inside the polygon during the WEA broadcast,” ATIS said. “This is a complex issue and a significant number of proposals have been contributed, each of which has different potential impacts to standards, networks, and devices, and require more time to develop a consensus with the alert originator community.”
Most commenters welcome moves to open the 3.4-4.2 GHz C-band for 5G, as some question the FCC’s proposed market-based approach to making licenses available. Questions remain how to create a smooth glide path there for satellite operators. Tuesday, some said the FCC appears to want to move quickly on the band, but final rules are unlikely until late 2019.
The FCC greenlit a wireless emergency alert and emergency alert system test in Routt County, Colorado. The Public Safety Bureau Thursday granted a limited waiver in dockets 15-91 and 15-94 allowing broadcasters and mobile providers participate in the combined test scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. MDT. It conditioned the waiver on enough public outreach.
Most cellphones appeared to get wireless emergency alert test messages and most broadcasters appeared to transmit emergency alert system messages, but a number did not, based on a survey of our operations, some others, social media and events we attended during the simulation. On Twitter, #PresidentialAlert trended after the first nationwide test of the WEA system Wednesday. Early results of the fourth nationwide test of the broadcast EAS went largely as expected and mirrored past tests, said EAS officials and broadcasters. The WEA test started at 2:18 p.m. and lasted for 30 minutes, while the EAS test began at 2:20 p.m.
Wednesday’s wireless emergency alert test “will not adversely affect your service or device,” Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman said Tuesday. Silliman posted information about the test due to "controversy on social media” about the alert (see 1809210032). The alerts are “really critical, lifesaving information” that citizens should want to receive, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said Tuesday on a media call with FCC and FEMA officials who spoke on background, not allowing their names to be used. A journalist and two small-business owners in New York City sued (in Pacer) the government last week at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming the presidential alerts violate First and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from government-compelled listening and warrantless trespass into cellular devices. People mightn't get the alert if their device is configured incorrectly or if they are on a phone call or have an active data session ongoing throughout the 30-minute window, the official said. The wireless industry is working on standards to address those issues, said another FEMA official. The first nationwide WEA test will start at 2:18 p.m. EDT and last 30 minutes, and the fourth nationwide emergency alert system exercise starts at 2:20 p.m., the agencies said. The WEA message will carry the header “Presidential Alert” and read, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” The EAS simulation will read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Emergency Alert System. This system was developed by broadcast and cable operators in voluntary cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communication Commission, and local authorities to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency an official message would have followed the tone alert you heard at the start of this message. A similar wireless emergency alert test message has been sent to all cell phones in the nation. Some cell phones will receive the message. Others will not. No action is required.” The FCC looks forward to more dialogue and lesson sharing with stakeholders after the test, Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes blogged Tuesday. The agency plans to engage with FEMA and wireless providers, and welcomes public feedback, she said. D.C. text alert subscribers received a notice about the WEA and EAS tests Tuesday. The test was previously postponed due to response efforts to Hurricane Florence.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials expect the same kinds of problems to be uncovered during the first national test of the wireless emergency alert system as during a Washington-area test in April, they told reporters Friday. Preliminary results likely won’t be released immediately, an FCC official said. The test was delayed until Oct. 3 because of Hurricane Florence (see 1809170035). The April test saw many subscribers not getting the alerts (see 1804050053). Industry observers expect similar glitches Oct. 3. “The test will assess the operation readiness of the infrastructure,” a FEMA official said: “We expect there to be fairly similar results” to the April test. Government officials spoke on a conference call with reporters on the condition they not be identified. “Almost all [wireless] phones across the country” will receive the warnings, “but we know there are some anomalies in the network,” a FEMA official said. More than 70 percent of the cellphones will likely “receive and display” the message, the official said. The FCC will work closely with FEMA and industry to assess the test, a commission official said. FEMA officials noted 2016's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act requires the system be tested every three years. WEAs can warn of severe weather, active shooters and Amber alerts. WEAs fall into three categories -- warnings of imminent threats from severe weather to active shooters, amber alerts for missing children and the presidential-level alert, a FEMA official said. The national presidential-level alerts are only issued during extreme emergencies, such as a declaration of war or if there were coordinated terrorist attacks in major cities, the FEMA official said. Those concerned about the test continue tweeting, now using a new hashtag: #GoDark103. “What are you solving by participating in #GoDark920 or #GoDark103?” @realchrishanken tweeted Friday. “You don’t like Trump. I get it. I don’t like him either. But these presidential alerts have been around for longer.”