The draft order and Further NPRM on emergency alert system tests and preventing false EAS alerts set for commissioners' Thursday meeting isn’t expected to run into opposition, FCC and industry officials told us Monday. The draft contains rules for authenticating EAS alerts, testing EAS equipment and informing the public, many involving processes and procedures already in use in some capacity by broadcasters and EAS equipment manufacturers, said Sage Alerting Systems President Harold Price. The draft item seeks comment on proposals similar to those advanced by Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in reaction to the Hawaii false missile alert (see 1804050055), and is expected to be widely supported, an official told us.
EAS participants should be given 30-days notice of upcoming live code emergency alert system tests “to allow for planning and coordination,” the American Cable Association said in meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, plus Public Safety Bureau staff, an ex parte filing in docket 15-91 posted Friday said. “We agree that this modest step would encourage wider participation in live code tests and help minimize disruptive side effects,” ACA said. Authorities should obtain contact information from EAS test participants that may have limited visibility within State Emergency Communications Committees (SECCs) or other planning bodies,” ACA said. The FCC “should work with State and local authorities as appropriate to help these authorities identify and acquire contact information for such participants.”
The FCC Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council approved working group reports on the "Transition Path to NG911" (here) and "Re-imagining of Emergency Alerting" (here) at a meeting Friday. Working Group 1's next-generation transition report includes analysis and recommendations of best practices for enhancing the migration from legacy 911 systems, said Budge Currier, branch manager of the California Governor Office of Emergency Services, presenting highlights. He said the report also deals with cybersecurity issues. "Read the report -- there's a lot of good information in there," he said. Working Group 1 received FCC approval to continue to review best practices and identify gaps that could be filled, with a target of reporting back by December, and no later than spring 2019, he said. Dorothy Spears-Dean, public safety communications coordinator of the Virginia Information Technology Agency, said the group is developing a report on the small carrier NG-911 transition for the Sept. 28 CSRIC meeting. Working Group 2's report made a series of recommendations for emergency alerting mechanisms, including on technical enhancements, improved geographic targeting to devices, and improving alert usefulness for people with hearing or vision disabilities, said Farrokh Khatibi, Qualcomm director-engineering, showing highlights. "It's really important we take care of everyone." Drew Morin, T-Mobile director-federal cyber security technology and engineering programs, presented an update on Working Group 3's efforts to deliver in September best practices and recommendations to secure wireless 5G networks.
The Senate passed the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats (Alert) Act Tuesday under unanimous consent. S-2385 would give the federal government the sole authority to issue missile threat alerts and pre-empt state and local governments' role in issuing such warnings. The bill would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency National Advisory Council's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System subcommittee “make recommendations on the best practices that state and local governments should follow to maintain the integrity of IPAWS.” Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, filed S-2385 to address issues highlighted in the Jan. 13 false missile warning in Hawaii (see 1802060055 and 1802070052). Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, led filing of House companion HR-4965, with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii (see 1804050055). “The people who know first should be the people who tell the rest of us,” Schatz said. “This legislation makes it clear that the authority to send missile alerts rests with the federal government.” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted that it “makes clear the responsibility to send missile alerts rests with the federal government.”
The FCC released draft items for commissioners' July 12 meeting (see 1806200058), including an NPRM on C-Band spectrum at 3.7-4.2 GHz. Also on the tentative agenda for the meeting are drafts on wireless emergency alerts (WEA) and the emergency alert system (EAS), changes to cellular, children's TV programming (see 1806210021), nationwide number portability and enforcement proceeding rules for complaints.
The FCC July 12 agenda will tackle C-band spectrum for 5G, an NPRM on children’s TV rules as expected (see 1806180055), and false emergency alerts, but not the national TV ownership cap, said industry attorneys and Chairman Ajit Pai's blog. Though the FCC was seen last week as aiming to take on the cap in July (see 1806140055), the agency is now seen as shooting for the August commissioners’ meeting. “It’s imperative that we remain at the front of the pack,” for 5G, Pai said. The July meeting also will include proceedings on nationwide number portability, 800 MHz spectrum and handling of formal complaints, he wrote.
PBS and America's Public Television Stations support improvements to the wireless emergency alert system that would allow delivery of multimedia content, but are concerned about increases to bandwidth requirements, they replied at the FCC in docket 15-91. Since public TV stations are using their spectrum to aid in public safety communications, they “must carefully guard bandwidth to ensure that these vital services remain available to communities and first responders,” APTS and PBS said. Multimedia content should be incorporated into WEA messages to “improve life-saving capability,” the National Weather Service said. Digital Broadcasting Technologies rejected arguments from CTIA (see 1806120043) that adding multimedia content would endanger the text portion of WEA alerts. Such alerts can be fully delivered using DBT's technology even if the packets in the messages are received out of order, DBT said. “The packets in DBT’s messages do not have to be received in sequential order, nor do they have to be contiguous.”
The FCC shouldn’t rush a requirement that carriers be able to include multimedia in wireless emergency alerts, CTIA and T-Mobile said in replies on a Public Safety Bureau record refresh (see 1805290059 and 1805300010). “The record suggests that alert originators are not consistently or widely using embedded references to expand the capabilities of WEA to support multimedia content within the intended design and purpose of WEA,” CTIA said in docket 15-91. “The record demonstrates the significant technical and operational challenges of directly supporting multimedia content within WEA messages that would require fundamentally restructuring the WEA system.” Though other WEA features “may ultimately prove beneficial and viable, further study is required to evaluate the impact of such changes to the existing WEA infrastructure and ensure that good intentions do not jeopardize the stability of this valuable alerting tool,” T-Mobile said.
The Public Safety Bureau approved limited waiver of FCC emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert rules to let carriers to participate in a test by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. MSHP's exercise will be a “combined live EAS and end-to-end WEA test” on July 17, with a backup date of July 19, the bureau said. A May letter said “the record of success of previous WEA alerts sent by the state has been sufficiently inconsistent that MSHP believes that, given recent events across the nation, ‘it is imperative the MSHP test its ability to send WEA alerts … and expose the public to the type of messages they may receive during times of crisis,’” the order said. “We are persuaded by the MSHP Letter that the proposed test of the EAS and WEA will help educate the public, and ensure that MSHP personnel are sufficiently well trained in how to use the EAS and WEA.”
CTIA warned the FCC on potential technical concerns with requiring carriers to transmit multimedia files in wireless emergency alerts, responding to a Public Safety Bureau notice to update the record (see 1803280029 and 1805290059). The commission should "recognize the significant technical and operational limitations -- both with wireless networks and WEA-capable devices -- that would be very challenging to overcome,” said comments in docket 15-91. CTIA noted the FCC now requires carriers to support the transmission of embedded URLs and phone numbers in alerts: “The WEA system was intentionally designed to transmit only very small amounts of text data to ensure the timely delivery of WEA messages.” Even with successful tests January and April in the National Capital Region (see 1804050053), WEA requires multimedia enhancements, commented the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. “While both of these tests demonstrated our ability to provide key information to Washington, DC's residents, commuters, and guests, our WEA messaging was limited by the technical constraints of the WEA system.” Support for images would “provide instant recognition and speak a universal language,” while making WEA more accessible to people with disabilities, it said. Other commenters also asked the FCC to move forward. Despite recent enhancements, “significant gaps remain between what today’s technology can offer and what the WEA System supports,” said New York City’s Emergency Management Department. “Chief among these gaps is the inability to incorporate multimedia (e.g., images, maps, infographics, etc.) into WEA messages. The need for this capability within the WEA System has been thoroughly documented in the public record.” The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management said the lack of multimedia capability made WEAs less effective during recent wildfires and flooding in California. Multimedia WEA messages “would be of tremendous benefit to the deaf and hard of hearing,” said groups representing that community, led by Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. “While multimedia capabilities provide significant benefit to all recipients, they offer special and unique benefits to the deaf and hard of hearing population many of whom rely on visual information for emergency and nonemergency information.” Other industry commenters share CTIA’s concerns. ATIS said it remains “concerned with the congestion-related impacts” of URLs now required by the FCC. Industry needs time to see how including embedded URLs work, the group said. “The use of URLs with appropriate best practices (e.g. well-designed website links) is the only effective means of providing multimedia in WEA today,” ATIS said. AT&T raised technological concerns. “The arrival of 5G will not alter the WEA technology roadmap -- cell broadcast is and will remain the primary way to send WEA messages,” AT&T said. “Cell broadcast technology, which is optimized for text messages, will be extremely challenged to support multimedia messages -- even smaller files like static photos, much less video files.” Proposals have emerged that images be converted to binary data and sent over multiple cell broadcast messages, the carrier said. “This would require significant standards development, for both the network and handsets, and would require new handsets, introducing backwards compatibility and roaming challenges.”