The FCC is examining some changes in light of the lessons learned during the 2017 hurricane season with its succession of powerful storms, said a Public Safety Bureau report released Friday. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the report falls short. “Let’s not kid ourselves -- releasing this report 85 days into the current hurricane season and as an historic storm gets closer to Hawaii’s shores, is simply too little, too late,” she said. After Katrina, the FCC “established an independent panel that brought to bear a broad background of public safety and industry experiences, including first-hand knowledge of the devastation wrought,” she said. “We didn’t do that here. After Hurricane Sandy, this agency convened a series of field hearings to help inform recommendations and action to improve network resiliency. Again, we didn’t do that here.” The report notes that high cost and severity of last year’s storms. “All told, it was the most expensive hurricane season in United States history, almost doubling the cost of the 2005 hurricane season that included Katrina,” the bureau said. “According to initial estimates, the combined storms caused over $200 billion in damages in the United States and its territories.” Among its recommendations, the report called for “increased engagement” between the FCC and critical infrastructure players. “Cross-sector dependencies greatly affected communications services, which are often highly dependent on electric power, fuel distribution (in the absence of electricity), and transportation at the local level (for access to sites and facilities) and regional level (for transportation of restoration crews and equipment),” the report said. The bureau said the FCC also should encourage backhaul providers to participate in the carriers’ wireless resiliency cooperative framework. The availability of wireless service is sometimes difficult to gauge and the report backed more use of a third-party smartphone app that senses the presence of RF signals in commercial wireless bands. “While initial distribution would be limited to authorized emergency responders deployed to a particular disaster area, the app could ultimately be made available via application stores so that it can be distributed widely,” the bureau said. The report also stressed the importance of over-the-air (OTA) information collection during disasters. Last year, the FCC used “over-the-air technologies such as the National Shared Remote Equipment Network and its High-Frequency Direction-Finding network to collect situational awareness information about emergency communications, including alert system operations,” the report said. This information was then shared with other federal agencies. The bureau “is now considering developing more integrated reporting from the various OTA observation systems which might increase reporting speed and free Roll Call teams for additional scans, analysis and reporting.” The FCC uses Roll Call equipment to examine the spectrum and identify disaster-related communications outages.
The FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Hawaii broadcasters and carriers were gearing up Thursday for landfall of Category 4 Hurricane Lane, we found. Though the storm isn’t expected to cause the same level of damage as Maria and Irma did last year to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, broadcasters and emergency alert officials are making extensive preparations, said Hawaii Association of Broadcasters President Chris Leonard in an interview. “We don’t take any of these things lightly.” Lane "will bring life threatening conditions across Hawaii through Saturday with damaging winds, dangerous surf, coastal storm surge and INTENSE FLOODING RAINS,” tweeted the National Weather Service.
More-specific criteria for determining when emergency alert system obligations come into play for certain fixed satellite service licensees take effect Sept. 24, says an FCC notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Those criteria are part of partial approval in July of a 2005 petition for reconsideration by satellite operators (see 1807250005).
Comments are due Sept. 10 on a Further NPRM (see 1807160050) on a reporting system for false emergency alerts, wireless alerts sent to mobile phones, and amendments to state emergency alert system plans, said the Federal Register. Replies are due Oct. 9.
The FCC granted two waivers to allow wireless emergency alert (WEA) tests in Denver and Sonoma County, California. The Public Safety Bureau granted one Tuesday to the Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department. The Sept. 12 test is a combined live emergency alert system and WEA test. “The purpose of the test is to ensure that emergency management officials in Sonoma County have a clear understanding of how alerts would perform in their varied topography,” the bureau said. The bureau Monday granted a similar waiver to the Denver Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, which sought the green light for a Sept. 5 WEA test (see 1807270013).
Changes creating the FCC online reporting system for emergency alerts take effect Sept. 4, says a Federal Register notice set for Thursday. The reporting system replaces paper filing and is intended to make state EAS plans more uniform and more accessible to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (see 1804100043).
Denver is seeking an FCC waiver to do a wireless emergency alert for the city and county, said the Denver Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in a letter posted Thursday in docket 15-91. The test would be Sept. 5 at 11 a.m. MDT, with a backup date of the same time Sept. 13. It would be Denver’s first live WEA test: “It is imperative to test the system now, rather than wait until May 2019 when the FCC’s end-to-end testing rules become active.”
Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Colleen Hanabusa, both D-Hawaii, filed a House version of the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (Readi) Act (HR-6427) in a bid to further address emergency alert system issues highlighted by a January false alarm in Hawaii (see 1801160054). HR-6427 and Senate version 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 1804050055). Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., filed S-3238 earlier this month (see 1807180053). HR-6427 “will fortify and improve the federal Emergency Alert System and expand the reach of emergency alerts on phones, [TV], radio, and online,” Hanabusa said Thursday. “It will create effective policies and procedures for issuing alerts and the ability to immediately retract misinformation. We must help restore the public’s trust in government and ensure that we have an effective alert system in place.”
The FCC partially rejected and partially granted a 2005 petition for reconsideration by satellite operators on the agency's emergency alert system report and order (see 0601040124). In an order in Wednesday's Daily Digest, commissioners rejected the ask by Intelsat, SES and the former PanAmSat, which was acquired by Intelsat, that EAS obligations for Ku-band fixed satellite service licensees move to the video programming distributors that lease transponder capacity from the licensees. It rejected an alternative ask that it not apply FSS EAS rules to FSS operations covered by lease agreements already in place when the EAS requirements took effect. It said over the past decade in which the rules have been in effect, it hasn't heard from FSS licensees about big problems with rules implementation. But the agency said it adopts more specific criteria for determining when EAS obligations are triggered for FSS licensees whose satellites provide programming aimed primarily at consumers outside the U.S. The FCC said another pending petition for partial reconsideration of the EAS order by the former XM Radio seeks reconsideration of unrelated issues and will be addressed separately.
Key Republicans backed and Democrats attacked deregulatory FCC policies under Chairman Ajit Pai at a House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing Wednesday. GOP leaders lauded commission actions to improve emergency communications, update media regulations and promote broadband deployment. Democrats blasted the agency's net neutrality rollback and other deregulatory moves as favoring big industry players and even complicating national security. Pai and other commissioners had provided prepared testimony (see 1807240056).