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.
Emergency alert system participants must register with the EAS test reporting system and file ETRS Form 1 by Aug. 28 to be ready for the required Sept. 27 nationwide test (see 1707180042), said FCC Public Safety Bureau reminder public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Participants have until the day of the test to update information and correct errors on their Form 1 filings, and 24 hours from the 2:20 p.m. EDT exercise to file day of test data, the PN said. Detailed post-test data must be filed within 45 days afterwards.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency placed “non-functional sound-alike” emergency alert system audio files on its website to be used in educational public service announcements, FEMA said in a filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 15-94. The filing was an update to a Nov. 9 conference call with the Public Safety Bureau where making the files available online was discussed.
FCC implementation of a Blue Alert program should include a training program for message originators similar to that used for Amber Alerts, NAB commented in docket 15-94 (see 1708010065). The training associated with Amber Alerts improved “investigative responses” of law enforcement agencies in incidents involving abducted children, NAB said. It also weighed in on whether the FCC should create a new code or use the existing Law Enforcement Warning code: “A dedicated BLU code may more accurately alert the public regarding police-related incidents.” NAB supports voluntary Blue Alerts with clear criteria for use, and a six month implementation timeframe with a waiver process. NCTA also indicated support for the Blue Alert proposal. The commission should consider that implementation of a new emergency alert system code could take longer than the NPRM suggests, and take a longer time frame into account in any final proposal, NCTA said. The FCC also should ensure the criteria for a Blue Alert are firm, to cut down on overuse of the code, NCTA said: "The issuance of Blue Alerts outside the federal government’s specific guidelines risks desensitizing the public to their significance through unnecessary interruptions of television programming."
Emergency alert system entities, EAS participants and law enforcement organizations divided over whether incidents involving danger to police should have their own EAS code, in comments in FCC docket 15-94 by Monday’s deadline. Most commenters -- including APCO, DOJ (see 1707310045) and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) -- support creating the alert code. Others believe existing codes can serve the same function, and adding another will further dilute effectiveness of the EAS system or increase expense. The proposed BLU event code is “another vanity Event Code intended to meet the needs of the one/few at the expense of further eroding the intrinsic value of mass alerting for more significant and substantive mass call-to-action notifications,” said broadcasting technical service provider McCarthy Radio Enterprises.
A “perceived lack of urgency” is associated with the law enforcement warning (LEW) code used on emergency alert systems systems for incidents involving danger to the police, said DOJ's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in comments on the FCC Blue Alert NPRM in docket 15-94. COPS supports blue alerts, and Chairman Ajit Pai announced the proceeding at a joint news conference with DOJ officials (see 1705190048). “Despite its serious sounding name, the LEW event code is often used for routine informational purposes such as hazardous road conditions and road closures,” DOJ said. The NPRM included the possibility of using the existing LEW code instead of creating a new EAS code. The FCC should recommend a best practice for configuring EAS systems to search for a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alert when a legacy broadcast EAS alert arrives first, Sage Alerting Systems commented. A stakeholder technical committee could also generate such a procedure, Sage said. “Legacy EAS messages do not have access to all of the rich media from the CAP message.”
The FCC should use its existing law enforcement warning (LEW) event code for emergencies involving danger to law enforcement officials instead of creating a new BLU event code as proposed in an NPRM (see 1706190080), said emergency alert system equipment manufacturer Monroe Electronics in comments in docket 15-94. “The addition of a new EAS event code may involve various costs and operational considerations for EAS and public warning stakeholders which may not have been adequately factored in.” The two states that incorporated EAS into Blue Alert processes already use LEW, and the code could be redefined to only be used for the scenarios described in the NPRM, Monroe said. Because the LEW code is already present on all current EAS devices, new rules for blue alerts could take effect immediately, Monroe said. Creating a new event code would require “a substantially extended timeline for both EAS and WEA [wireless emergency alerts], additional costs to EAS Participants and manufacturers, and the need to revise some Blue Alert plans and all state EAS plans,” Monroe said. The Blue Alert system and the upcoming nationwide EAS test (see 1707240042) also would be better served by the FCC taking action on a Monroe proposal to transition the EAS system to “Triggered CAP [common alerting protocol] Polling” (see 1701090043), the company said: EAS equipment would poll the system to check if the more informative CAP alert was also available, and if so, run with that instead of the less useful old-style alert.