Motorola Mobility agrees with the FCC's “tentative conclusion” that the ATSC 3.0 transition needs no tuner mandate, and so is “concerned about calls from some parties (none of them equipment manufacturers)” that the commission require 3.0 receivers in smartphones, the company said in an ex parte letter posted Wednesday in docket 16-142.
Friday heading into the three-day Labor Day weekend saw the FCC issue a slew of announcements, including one after business hours. Similar moves in the past drew fire as seemingly aimed at avoiding attention. Now, the actions raised the eyebrows of one open governance expert. Others defended the agency.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long names Field Operations Directorate Assistant Administrator Michael Byrne federal disaster recovery coordinator for Storm Harvey-hit (see 1709010042) areas ... Utilities Technology Council hires Rob Thormeyer, ex-aide to then-Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Colette Honorable and before that at NARUC, as its first director-communications and advocacy ... Last Mile Communications CEO Peter Kahelin, a founding partner, retires effective in Q4, and will be non-executive chairman ... Cox Media Group moves up Paul Curran to market vice president-Orlando.
Southeast Texas won't quickly recover after Tropical Storm Harvey damaged and flooded 911 facilities and utility infrastructure (see 1708290029 and 1708280049), emergency and utility officials said in interviews last week. Surging numbers of calls overwhelmed public service answering points (PSAPs) used to far fewer requests, said one official. Industry officials said providers are working together and continue to restore service and assist with relief. The FAA cleared drones to fly into the area.
If the FCC implements Blue Alerts into the wireless emergency alert system, it should do so in a way that minimizes technical changes and system modifications, said T-Mobile and CTIA in reply comments in docket 15-94. The FCC should integrate the BLU code into the existing “imminent threat” alert class to avoid having to create a new standard, CTIA said. Giving the alerts a new message classification would be “a lengthy process,” T-Mobile said. The FCC shouldn’t look at ATSC 3.0 as a solution for mobile alerts, T-Mobile said: “There are significant technical challenges to integrating ATSC 3.0 technology into mobile devices, and the benefits represented are either overstated, are already provided through WEA, or are not readily achievable.”
The majority of emergency alert system Law Enforcement Warnings were about notification of road closures and non-emergency traffic disruptions, making it unacceptable to use in lieu of creating a new Blue Alert code to warn about dangers to police officers, said the DOJ Office of Community Oriented Policing Services in reply comments in FCC docket 15-94. “There is often a perceived lack of urgency associated with the LEW event code,” the COPS Office said. “A dedicated EAS event code for Blue Alerts would streamline Blue Alert plans across the nation and will help to integrate existing plans into a coordinated national framework, the COPS Office said. "Such a code would also serve as the central and organizing element for Blue Alert plans coast-to-coast and greatly facilitate the work of the National Blue Alert Network.”
Harvey has generated more than 300 emergency alert system messages and wireless emergency alerts since Thursday, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Texas broadcasters -- generally sparing in putting out EAS alerts -- likely won't change that policy in the hurricane's aftermath. Harvey came ashore as a hurricane (see 1708280049) and later was downgraded to a tropical storm.
The Sept. 27 nationwide test of the emergency alert system (see 1612280045) is expected by FCC and state EAS officials and industry EAS experts to yield results similar to last year’s. The exercise will be done using very similar parameters to 2016, but unlike that test won’t debut new test codes or procedures, FCC and EAS industry officials told us.
CTIA said the FCC should extend the Nov. 1 deadline for carriers to meet new requirements for wireless emergency alerts. The Competitive Carriers Association also pressed for more time (see 1708160063). Carriers “are committed to working collaboratively with public safety and alert originators to develop the ability to receive and transmit WEA alerts with embedded references on their networks, and to work with mobile device and [operating system] vendors to implement embedded, ‘clickable’ references, but remain concerned about implementing such functionality without adequate time for development and feasibility testing,” CTIA said in a filing in docket 15-91. “To ensure that ‘clickable’ references are deployed in an effective manner, standards development and implementation are critical pre-requisites.” Timelines should be extended and should apply only to new devices, CTIA said.
Apple representatives said they were called in by officials from the FCC Public Safety Bureau to discuss proposed updates to rules for wireless emergency alerts. “iPhones do not support device-based geo-targeting for WEA messages," so the commission should "carefully assess the feasibility of this approach,” said a filing in docket 15-91. “Using device-based geo-targeting would likely significantly increase the latency of users seeing WEA messages.” Apple expressed concerns about any requirement devices translate alerts into other languages. Apple’s operating system “does not include an on-device functionality that automatically translates WEA messages,” the company said. Meanwhile, public safety and emergency management officials from Texas raised an alarm on a December CTIA petition asking the agency to rethink some of the emergency alert system rules approved last year. Granting the relief “would do great harm by setting back the extraordinary progress that was made this past fall,” the Texas officials warned.