New FCC rules creating a Blue Alert emergency alert system code take effect Thursday, with the order’s publication in the Federal Register. The order (see 1712140045) requires delivery of Blue Alerts over the EAS to be implemented by Jan. 18, 2019, and over wireless emergency alerts by July 18, 2019, the FR said.
The FCC will push for the development of best practices for calls to 911 and work to speed transition of public safety answering points to next-generation 911, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said during a speech at the NG911 Institute Wednesday. The program also included 911 officials from three of the areas hardest hit by last year’s wave of storms -- southern Florida, Houston and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Lawmakers in both houses are gearing up to scrutinize the false alarm about a possible ballistic missile headed for Hawaii that caused panic there Saturday. Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told us Wednesday he's strongly considering legislation aimed at fixing faults in the emergency alert system. The Senate Commerce Committee is aiming for a hearing next week focused on the incident, two Capitol Hill aides said. The House Communications Subcommittee also is planning a to-be-scheduled hearing that will examine the false alert in the context of other public safety telecom issues. The FCC is investigating, as are Hawaii officials (see 1801160054).
New York City needs to be able to attach images to wireless emergency alerts it sends to the public, said Police Commissioner James O’Neill in a letter posted Tuesday by the FCC in docket 15-91. O’Neil noted that in September 2016 when the New York Police Department got a photo of Ahmad Rahimi, later convicted of guilty of eight federal charges Monday in connection with a September 2016 bombing in Chelsea, it had to send out an alert advising the public to check the media for the image. “We cannot continue rely on the public taking this extra step,” he said. Microsoft said additional WEA requirements could have some effect on how smartphones operate. “Microsoft has not performed device testing but expects that the addition of an additional data page to a wireless emergency alert to accommodate polygon geocoordinates should impose a minimal impact on device performance and message delivery latency,” the company filed. “The potential for increased alert delivery latency or device performance degradation (specifically, battery drain) would be more likely to occur with a significantly greater number of polygon coordinates, due to the increased magnitude of calculations that the operating system would be required to perform.” Commissioners are scheduled to vote a draft order Jan. 30 (see 1801090050).
The FCC is investigating a false alarm warning about a possible ballistic missile headed for Hawaii that caused panic there Saturday. The warning was sent as a wireless alert to cellphones in the state as well as by broadcasters and wasn’t retracted for 38 minutes. Chairman Ajit Pai said Sunday the FCC is investigating and called the false alarm “unacceptable.” Public safety officials told us Tuesday other that states are likely to look at their alerting protocols. Wireless customers got the following warning at just before 8:10 a.m. Hawaii time: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” The House Communications Subcommittee said Tuesday it plans a hearing.
The FCC plans to act this month to create an economics office, hold a July Connect America Fund Phase II fixed broadband subsidy auction, improve wireless emergency alerts, and take modest broadcast and media deregulation steps, as expected (see 1801080058 and 1801080057). The agency released draft items Tuesday that Chairman Ajit Pai circulated and put on the preliminary agenda for the Jan. 30 commissioners' meeting, which also includes an enforcement action.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is promising more precise geo-targeting of wireless emergency alerts, with a WEA proposal he said circulated Monday to be included on the Jan. 30 meeting agenda. Pai said Monday that wireless carriers in the WEA program delivering better geo-targeted alerts would encourage more use of the alerts during emergencies and lead to the public taking such alerts more seriously. The agenda is expected to be released Tuesday. CTIA, in a statement in response to Pai's announcement, said it backed the chairman's efforts to enhance the WEA system’s geo-targeting capabilities through device-based solutions, and the agency "should adopt new rules that are technically feasible along an achievable timeline.” Separately, in a docket 15-91 ex parte filing posted Monday, CTIA recapped meetings with aides to Pai and other commissioners at which it said device-based geo-targeting will take at least 36 months to implement after the effective date of new FCC rules. It said the kind of "fundamental shift" in WEA capabilities that such geo-targeting requires incudes new mobile wireless network and device standards, and the agency needs to adopt "a reasonable timeline" for achievement. It said testing new WEA enhancements with a prototype device using device-based geo-targeting methods could happen by the end of 2019. In a separate filing posted Monday, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee listed 15 standards that would need to be modified or developed for device-based geo-targeting. It said such standards work would take 12-18 months. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency said for geo-targeting alert messages, it saw little need for coordinate precision beyond the fourth decimal point of degree, which works out to about 11 meters or 36 feet. The agency said this doesn't conflict with efforts to have WEA-driven device-based geo-targeting with a one-tenth mile accuracy.
The Blue Alerts report and order -- creating a dedicated emergency alert system code to be used on a voluntary basis for law enforcement officers in danger -- was released Friday. It was approved 4-1 at Thursday's FCC members' meeting (see 1712140045).
Representatives of the ATIS Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee said they briefed staff from the FCC Public Safety Bureau on technical questions on wireless emergency alerts. Among topics was geo-targeting, said a filing in docket 15-91. “Device-based geo-targeting would require fundamental changes to existing cell broadcast technology," the filing said. “The determination of whether and how device-based geo-targeting could be accommodated in existing handsets will be examined by the industry, although ATIS noted that it is likely that some legacy devices will not be able to support the changes via a software upgrade.” Microsoft also reported on a meeting with bureau staff. The bureau "sought input on the impact that different means of transmitting geo‐coordinates in conjunction with emergency alert text to mobile devices would be likely to have on mobile device performance," the company said. "Microsoft offered to explore those questions and will provide a substantive response at a later date."
All commissioners spoke in support of the FCC’s order creating a dedicated Blue Alert code, but Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was a lone partial dissent, voicing objection to the cost-benefit analysis. That analysis “puts a price on the death of first responders and then nets it out against industry expenses,” Rosenworcel said. “There is a way to do cost-benefit analysis thoughtfully and with dignity for those who wear the shield,” she said. “This isn’t it.” With Rosenworcel’s partial dissent, the order was approved 4-1, as some expected (see 1712130055).