Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both D-Calif., pressed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday to execute revised rules for wireless emergency alerts that the commission approved last year. More than a year ago, the FCC voted 4-1 to adopt the revised rules, which increase the maximum length of WEA messages from 90 to 360 characters for 4G LTE and future networks and require participating wireless providers to support inclusion of embedded phone numbers and URLs in all WEA alerts (see 1609290060). “We are heartened that you and your colleagues voted in favor of that proposal,” Harris and Feinstein said in a letter to Pai. “You even wrote separately in a concurring opinion, emphasizing the importance of geotargeted alerts. We are disappointed, though, that under your leadership the FCC has not executed on its proposal with a final rule. We are also concerned that the FCC has granted a temporary waiver of the existing, imprecise geotargeting requirements for certain carriers.” The FCC granted the waiver in September in response to a petition from the Competitive Carriers Association (see 1709050053). Feinstein and Harris invoked recent fatal wildfires in California, saying “emergency services in Northern California were not able to transmit lifesaving WEA messages, because of significant technical deficiencies in the WEA system.” Without the geotargeting requirement in place for all carriers, “emergency services cannot send an evacuation message without reaching a large number of unaffected residents,” the senators said. “These emergency services are caught in a bind between notifying individuals in imminent danger and risking mass panic. As a result, these services are compelled to rely on emergency messaging systems with far less reach and far less capacity.” Feinstein and Harris asked Pai to tell them whether he plans to move forward with the WEA rulemaking. They asked Pai if he solicited feedback from emergency services in California and areas affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Jose to determine whether the WEA system “is meeting their needs and what improvements are necessary.” They gave Pai until Tuesday to respond. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel lauded Feinstein and Harris, tweeting that the California wildfires show how current rules for WEA alerts "can fall short." The agency didn't comment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit ruled Tuesday that FCC policy of collecting information on multilingual emergency alert system notices without requiring such alerts is reasonable, denying (in Pacer) a petition for review from public interest groups including the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (see 1705110061). “If Congress intended to require multi-lingual communications in general, and multi-lingual emergency alerts in particular, we would expect Congress to have spoken far more clearly than it has done” said the majority opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh joined by Judge Karen Henderson. Judge Patricia Millett agreed with the majority in ruling the FCC hadn’t violated anti-discrimination provisions of the Communications Act, but said in a dissent the agency’s 11-year delay in deciding on multilingual EAS messages was arbitrary and capricious. “The problem of ensuring effective communication to the public during crises is too grave to be ensnared in seemingly interminable bureaucratic limbo,” Millett said. Despite ruling in the FCC’s favor, Kavanaugh needled the agency for operating on “bureaucracy standard time.” Communications Act provisions against discrimination don’t specifically compel the FCC to require emergency alerting in languages other than English, Kavanaugh said. The commission isn’t being arbitrary in not acting on multilingual alerts because there are legal and technical issues with enacting them, such as the lack of FCC authority over alert originators such as local governments, the majority said. It “would be reasonable for the FCC to flatly say that the alert originators (the federal, state, and local government entities) are the parties responsible for deciding whether and when to issue emergency alerts in languages in addition to English,” Kavanaugh said. The FCC plan to seek more information from EAS entities is a repeat of its previous information requests, and the court shouldn’t allow the agency to use it as a delaying tactic any longer, Millett said. “Choosing to repeat an inquiry that has twice been asked and answered, the Commission identified no reason to believe that round three of reporting would reveal new ways to address the multilingual problem.” The majority opinion suggested the agency cease delays. “The FCC should move expeditiously in finally deciding whether to impose a multi-lingual requirement on broadcasters, or instead to leave the issue with alert originators and others,” the opinion said. “At some point, the FCC must fish or cut bait on this question.” The League of United Latin American Citizens and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council said the decision wasn’t a total loss. “One point of agreement by all three judges is that the FCC has taken far too long to act,” the groups said in a news release. “Calling the FCC’s delay ‘bureaucracy standard time,’ the panel majority called on the FCC to ‘move expeditiously.’”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai reassured the Disability Advisory Committee the agency is paying close attention to the communications needs and problems of those with disabilities. “The commission takes seriously its commitment to accessibility,” Pai told the group. DAC also got a briefing on communications for people with disabilities in the areas affected by the recent hurricanes.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai or his representative on the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System subcommittee to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Council will be exempt from ex parte rules for matters that occur as part of subcommittee business, said an FCC public notice Friday. Participation in the committee by Pai or Pai’s designee is required by statute, the PN said. “This treatment is appropriate since communications to the Chairman or the Chairman’s designee as Subcommittee members, like comments on a Notice of Inquiry, will not directly result in the promulgation of new rules.” Since the subcommittee may look at subjects that are also pending commission proceedings, the agency won’t rely on information gathered through the subcommittee unless it’s first placed into the record of the relevant FCC proceeding, the PN said.
Representatives of the ATIS Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee (WTSC) spoke on the phone with staff from the FCC Public Safety and Enforcement bureaus on the group’s work to advance wireless emergency alerting. “Completion of WEA specifications in support of the Commission’s existing rules is the main focus of WTSC efforts,” said a filing in docket 15-91. “WTSC has also started work on device-based geo-targeting to examine how such geo-targeting may be performed by a well-managed WEA application. ATIS noted that it is engaging with other stakeholders, including [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], which have significant roles in device-based geo-targeting.”
Apple should “step up to the plate” and activate FM chips in iPhones to promote public safety, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday. Broadcasters have long sought activation. “Apple is the one major phone manufacturer that has resisted doing so,” Pai said, and he hopes "the company will reconsider its position, given the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.”
Early results of the third nationwide test of the emergency alert system Wednesday indicate few problems and a response in line with expectations, according to interviews with officials from broadcast and pay-TV EAS participants, state EAS representatives and the equipment industry. Roughly half the participants received the alert through the internet-based Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and half through the older, broadcast-based system, as expected (see 1708250053).
The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had scheduled a nationwide test of the emergency alert system at 2:20 p.m. EDT Wednesday, said FEMA and the FCC in a joint reminder Monday. "Periodic testing of public alert and warning systems helps to assess the operational readiness of alerting infrastructure, and to identify any needed technological and administrative improvements," FEMA said. Broadcasters will have to file a quick report within 24 hours of the test, and a more-detailed report by Nov. 13, reminded Davis Wright in a blog post. The FCC said broadcasters affected by recent hurricanes have until then to file both reports (see 1709220061).
The FCC said Friday 95.4 percent of cellsites were still out of service in Puerto Rico, though downed cellsites in the U.S. Virgin Islands dropped to 68.9 percent from 76.6 percent. Puerto Rico's two public safety answering points were functioning normally according to the primary service provider, and in USVI, the St. Croix 911 call center is apparently down, reported the FCC. "Since there are widespread power outages in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the FCC has received reports that large percentages of consumers are without either cable services or wireline service (one company reported that 100% of its consumers are out of service due to lack of commercial power). There are at least 10 switches that are out of service due to either SS7 or toll isolation." One Puerto Rico TV station reported being off-air; others haven't yet reported, nor have radio stations. The Public Safety Bureau granted Puerto Rico's request to accept its late-filed renewal application for its 700 MHz state license under call sign WPTZ852. The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency plan to conduct a nationwide test of the emergency alert system Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. EDT, noted a commission public notice. The bureau gave EAS participants affected by 2017 hurricanes an extension from Sept. 27 to Nov. 13 for filing corrections to EAS test reporting system Form 1. Thursday, the Wireline Bureau waived a numbering reassignment rule for providers affected by hurricanes Maria and Jose.
Conducting the nationwide emergency alert system test following hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria “will provide insight into the resiliency of our national-level alerting capabilities in impacted areas,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a news release Tuesday. The test is set for Sept. 27 at 2:20 p.m., but could be moved to Oct. 4 if the September date is canceled because of another emergency. The EAS test also will provide data on how the Integrated Public Alerts and Warning System performs “during and following a variety of conditions,” the agency said. “With two major hurricanes already making landfall, and a potential for two more impacting our nation, we need to have the ability to maintain the continuity of critical infrastructure under various conditions.”