Citing AT&T and Verizon's acknowledgement implementation of device-based geotargeting of wireless emergency alerts could be faster, the National Weather Service, Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency are pushing for that sped-up time frame. The agencies in an FCC docket 15-91 filing posted Wednesday said talks with state and local public safety agencies indicated a wide belief such geotargeting can be achieved in less than the 42-month minimum implementation recommended by the wireless operators. The companies in September said that in meetings with agency staff, they backed the recommendations of a Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council working group that a minimum 42-month timetable is needed for implementation, but said an expedited process is doable. Verizon said that expedited process would first require working group consensus on an appropriate accuracy threshold and if there were sufficient willingness to incorporate geo-fencing capabilities by device manufacturers and operating system providers. AT&T said the coordinate data being sent in the same WEA message would help in expediting implementation. Representatives of CTIA and members are complaining about a recent order upholding a Nov. 1 deadline for the nation’s five largest carriers to be able to provide “clickable” embedded references in WEAs (see 1711020054). The representatives met with Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes, an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai and a staffer from the Office of General Counsel. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular had reps there. “The net effect of the Commission’s new interpretation will cause many mobile devices capable of receiving WEA messages to alternate between being considered ‘WEA capable’ depending on the deadline of the Commission’s required WEA enhancements, a device’s ability to be updated through software, and whether consumers choose to exercise the software update,” CTIA said in a document in docket 15-91. “The Commission’s new interpretation risks extensive consumer and public safety community confusion, and unnecessarily complicates … providers’ efforts to inform consumers about WEA capable devices in a nearly continuous fashion.” Carriers “have limited visibility into whether mobile devices are or could be ‘WEA capable’ under this interpretation,” the association said.
Twelve months is enough time for Sage Alerting Systems to create software upgrades that will allow its customers to use the proposed Blue Alert emergency alert system code (see 1706220045), Sage President Harold Price said in response to questions from FCC Public Safety Bureau staff Monday, said an ex parte filing posted the next day in docket 15-94. That’s also enough time to integrate the code into equipment that hasn’t been sold or manufactured, Price said.
The FCC reaffirmed its schedule for geo-targeting of wireless emergency alerts to “best approximate” the target area, and said the nation’s five largest carriers have to provide “clickable” embedded references by Nov. 1. It said smaller carriers must still meet the same geo-targeting requirement as their larger peers but will get an extra 18 months to meet the embedded messages requirement. The order was released about 8 p.m. Wednesday, the deadline day.
That the FCC isn't seeking new comments ahead of the vote on its draft media ownership order on reconsideration is unlikely to present a problem in approving the rules or defending them in court, supporters and opponents of the proposed changes (see 1710260049) told us. The agency received public input on the original 2014 quadrennial review order and on the petition for reconsideration that's the basis for the draft recon order, said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman. The agency can make rules based on that record, said Schwartzman, who's involved in litigation against FCC ownership rules. Demonstrating a basis for the rule changes and that they represent a logical outgrowth from the original order and petition for recon likely will be part of the FCC’s defense against a very likely court challenge, said an official formerly in the Office of General Counsel.
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.”