The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved limited waiver of wireless emergency alert rules to permit carriers to participate in a March 4 Dallas test, with a March 8 backup. This will be the “first live test” of the WEA system there and will target a message “to a targeted polygon encompassing the Central Business District,” the bureau said Tuesday in docket 15-91. “We are persuaded by Dallas [Office of Emergency Management] that the proposed WEA test will help educate the public about WEA and improve the proficiency of emergency managers in the use of WEA before the initiation of an actual alert during an emergency.” The 30-minute exercise starts at 10 a.m. CST. The bureau also approved waiver for a three-part test March 19 in Montgomery County, Texas. The backup is March 26.
AM broadcasters and engineers differ on specifics of how the FCC should change interference protections for AM stations but want fast action, in comments in docket 13-249. Comments originally were due Jan. 22. Now, the agency moved the deadline to Feb. 8 (see 1901290043), said a public notice Tuesday.
Three coordinators of state and local 911 systems said they didn't get warning or immediate direct information from CenturyLink as a network outage last month disrupted such systems nationwide. Officials in Washington state, Colorado and Wyoming's state capital told us they relied on their own information, news reports and Twitter in the early stages as they decided how to respond to problems including static, loss of automatic location data and, in Washington state, hours-long 911 outages.
State broadcaster associations representing all 50 states and Puerto Rico wrote Capitol Hill leaders to support the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (Pirate) Act (HR-583). The bill, refiled last week (see 1901170042), would increase fines for illegal pirate operations and streamline FCC enforcement to empower state and local law enforcement agencies. The House passed a previous version in July (see 1807230047). “For years unauthorized pirate radio stations have harmed communities across the country by undermining the Emergency Alert System, interfering with airport communications, posing direct health risks and interfering with licensed stations’ abilities to serve their listeners. The time has come to take significant steps to resolve this vexing problem,” the broadcasters wrote, released Tuesday. “We are reaching the point where illegal pirate stations undermine the legitimacy and purpose of the FCC's licensing system.”
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services renewed an FCC waiver request to test the wireless emergency alert system to transmit early earthquake warnings, after canceling a December test to focus on responding to wildfires (see 1811300008). The test is now planned for Feb. 6, between 11 a.m. and noon PST, in Oakland, in partnership with the U.S. Geological survey, said a Cal OES letter posted Thursday in docket 15-91: The test will assess the feasibility of "transmitting a ShakeAlert through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) WEA system to warn the public of imminent ground motion during an earthquake." If Feb. 6 isn't available, Feb. 13 at the same time would be a backup, the office said. Aliso Viejo and Laguna Beach, California, sought FCC waivers to allow commercial mobile service providers to participate in WEA tests on Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. PST. The tests are to ensure local officials understand how alerts will perform in their cities, which face natural hazards, including wildfires, said their requests (here and here).
The FCC will investigate the nationwide CenturyLink outage that disrupted 911 service for many Americans, Chairman Ajit Pai said Friday. At our deadline, the carrier was still working to resolve the multistate outage that began Thursday (see 1812270050). The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) said the outage shows urgent need to fully deploy next-generation 911. NARUC and state consumer advocates applauded FCC action.
Early results of the first nationwide test of the wireless emergency alert system show “uneven” reception, the FCC Public Safety Bureau found from the October test of WEA and the emergency alert system (see 1810030051). Friday's public notice had more details for the EAS test, which wasn't a first, than for the WEA one because wireless test reporting isn't required, unlike for EAS. After surveying emergency communications representatives for most states and national industry associations, we found that officials, too, had better success with EAS tests. The report also squared with government predictions.
SiriusXM asked FCC staff to OK the company's emergency alert system request (see 1811070047). The company says not all the satellite-radio provider's channels can carry such alerts "in a way that would trigger a downstream broadcaster’s own EAS alert," and EAS participants could monitor only the two SiriusXM free preview channels. It said the record appears complete after the Federal Emergency Management Agency OK'd (see page 3) use of SiriusXM satellites as alternative EAS monitoring sources for only those two channels, Sirius network Channel 184 and XM Radio network Channel 1, and the commission's comment cycle ended. A lawyer for the company reported in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-94 that he and others met Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief Nicole McGinnis and Policy and Licensing Division Deputy Chief Greg Cooke.
The Senate passed the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act Monday under unanimous consent. Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., filed S-3238 in July in a bid to further address emergency alert system issues highlighted by a January false alarm in Hawaii (see 1801160054). S-3238 would require the FCC set best practices for delivering emergency alerts in a bid to streamline the alerting process. 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 false missile alert “highlighted real ways we can improve the way people receive emergency alerts,” Schatz said. “Our bill fixes some of these issues and will help make sure that in an emergency, the public gets the right information they need as quickly as possible.” NAB praised passage.
The FCC is looking at all possibilities in the 5.9 GHz band, including reallocating it for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use, Chairman Ajit Pai said on an episode of C-SPAN's The Communicators, set for telecast over the weekend. Pai confirmed that, as expected, he plans to take a broader look at the band, which is now allocated to dedicated short-range communications (see 1811140061). Pai didn’t offer a time frame or other details. Industry officials said his comments go further than anything he previously has said on the topic.