Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Dave Reichert, R-Wash., are circulating a letter among colleagues pressing for support of the FY 2018 funding for the CPB, Ready to Learn program and the public TV interconnection system. The closing date for the letter to House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee leaders is March 31 and its expected send date on the current draft is April 6. That subcommittee plans a hearing on the CPB budget Wednesday (see 1703080031). The appropriators should “strongly support” the funding for the CPB in FY 2018, the draft letter said. The draft devotes sections to the value leveraged in public broadcasting. The draft refers to the importance of the Warning, Alert and Response Network and the Wireless Emergency Alert message system. The subcommittee leaders have provided “steadfast support” for local broadcasting, and Congress has backed public broadcasting for years, it said. A House aide told us the lawmakers had 132 co-signers to a similar letter last year and expect similar support this year. Some anxiety has grown that the Trump administration may oppose funding CPB (see 1702240070). The White House is expected to release a broad FY 2018 budget proposal later this week.
The Trump administration hasn't contacted FCC Inspector General David Hunt and Commerce Department IG Peggy Gustafson about the possibility of removing them from their positions, they told Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in letters dated from this week and provided to us Wednesday by a Nelson spokesman. But the administration told some IGs they would be held over only temporarily, some IGs told Nelson. Senate Commerce held a hearing focused on IGs Wednesday, with testimony from Gustafson, confirmed to the position in December, as well as Homeland Security Department IG John Roth, Transportation Department IG Calvin Scovel and National Science Foundation IG Allison Lerner.
The FCC will advance broadcasters closer to a new standard by considering a draft NPRM in docket 16-142 on ATSC 3.0 at commissioners’ Feb. 23 meeting, Chairman Ajit Pai announced Thursday. The FCC also will consider a draft order in docket 13-249 that would remove the 40-mile limit on where FM translators can be placed by AM stations. Though both items are still on circulation, Pai released the full text of the items as part of a “pilot program” intended to increase FCC transparency, he said. (see 1702020051).
President Donald Trump’s inauguration and the Women’s March on Washington placed big demand on wireless networks in the capital over the weekend, carriers reported. Some reported service problems. All four big carriers upgraded network capacity in preparation for big-league service usage (see 1701050059). Public safety didn’t use the wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system during the event, but the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency sent nine messages from Thursday to Friday to about 17,000 attendees who opted in for informational alerts, a DC HSEMA spokeswoman said.
The District of Columbia’s test of the wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system increased confidence in the critical communications system, said D.C. and industry officials last week. On the Sunday afternoon prior to Friday’s inauguration of President Donald Trump, the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (DCHSEMA) tested the WEA message system and city official email list portion of the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). The FCC Public Safety Bureau gave DC HSEMA a waiver to do the test, which included cooperation from various federal agencies including the Secret Service (see 1701130066). Everbridge, a cloud-based communications software vendor that got a contract with the National Capitol Region in 2014, provided technical support during the test and in the District’s emergency operations center during Friday’s inauguration.
Cox Enterprises promotions include: Joey Lesesne to senior vice president-public policy and government affairs; for environmental sustainability Keith Mask as vice president and Steve Bradley for assistant vice president; Scott Leazer to assistant vice president-information technology business solutions; Barry Campbell is vice president-aviation; and Don Stryszko named vice president-risk management ... Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council adds author/lawyer Ananda Leeke, ex-Digital Sisterhood Network, as director-digital policy and engagement ... Aspen Institute names John Carlin, ex-DOJ who recently joined Morrison & Foerster (see this section of the Jan. 11 issue of this publication), chairman, cybersecurity and technology program.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau gave the District of Columbia’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (DCHSEMA) a waiver so it could test wireless emergency alerts before the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. The test, in cooperation with various federal agencies including the Secret Service, was to be conducted at 3 p.m. Sunday on the National Mall, said the Friday order. The D.C. agency told the FCC it wanted to test the WEA message system and city official email list portion of the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System before the inauguration. DCHSEMA will broadcast a message that reads: “This is a test of the District of Columbia Emergency Alert System. No action is required.” The bureau said in an order it saw ample reason to grant a waiver. More than a million visitors are expected on or near the National Mall during the inauguration, the bureau said. “In the event of an emergency, DCHSEMA and its federal partners must be able to communicate quickly and effectively to the crowd. WEA offers this unique capability, and its use could be essential to ensure public safety in the event of an emergency. A live test would ensure that WEA can reach the entire National Mall yet be ‘geo-fenced’ to minimize any extension beyond this intended area.” Carriers undertook extensive preparations for the inauguration and accompanying protests (see 1701050059).
Apple advised the FCC against adopting a requirement that all service providers implement a standardized opt-out menu for wireless emergency alerts, in replies to the FCC in docket 15-91. Commissioners approved revised rules for alerts in September, over a partial dissent by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, and sought comment on additional rule changes (see 1609290060). Instead of mandating what the opt-out menu will look like, the FCC should “allow the best consumer experience based on different companies’ hardware, operating systems, and user interfaces,” Apple said. The maker of the iPhone also said the FCC shouldn’t rely solely on third-party applications to implement additional alerting functionality. The National Weather Service said geotargeting of alerts isn’t accurate enough and must be improved. “The NWS supports the public safety agencies who overwhelmingly agree on the need for device-assisted geo-targeting that matches the geocode, circle, or polygon defined by the alert,” the agency replied. The NWS also reminded the FCC it repeatedly has urged a requirement that carriers include an interactive map showing the recipient’s location relative to the alert originator’s defined threat area. A coalition of groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing said alerts should be made available in American Sign Language (ASL). “For many individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, and deaf with mobility issues, there simply is no adequate substitute for ASL,” the coalition said. “Contrary to popular public perception, ASL is not derived from English, nor any spoken language. Instead, it is an independent linguistic system with morphological and grammatical complexity comparable to or exceeding that of spoken languages.” Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network and Association of Late-Deafened Adults were among those who signed the comments. Wireless carriers urged the FCC to proceed with caution. The “proposed improvements” are “premature in many instances and unworkable in others,” AT&T wrote. “Imposing upon the voluntary WEA participants a set of requirements that they cannot satisfy can only cause the Participating Cellular Mobile Service Providers to reexamine the nature of their commitment to the system.”
Monroe Electronics plans to introduce a new feature in its emergency alert system equipment that could allow more stations to broadcast more informative alerts and possibly solve a problem (see 1612280045) that prevented some stations from issuing Spanish-language alerts during the September nationwide EAS test, it said. The plan was revealed in comments by Monroe in FCC docket 15-94. To address that problem and allow more stations access to the increased information available via Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS) alerts, Monroe wants to implement a mechanism that would trigger EAS devices that receive an alert from a broadcast source “to immediately seek whether there was a matching CAP (common alerting protocol) message” available through IPAWS, the filing said. If no electronic message is available, the equipment would proceed with the broadcast alert. During the nationwide test, the EAS alert was transmitted both electronically through IPAWS and in the traditional way through other broadcast stations. Stations had to retransmit whichever of the two forms of alert they received first, and since under current EAS procedures stations check for new CAP alerts every 30 seconds, many stations' alert systems were activated by other broadcasters before they could receive the IPAWS alert, which contains more detailed information. Only stations that first received the IPAWS alert had the option to broadcast the Spanish-language alert, and some stations with many Spanish-speaking viewers couldn’t do so during the test because they received the broadcast alert first. Monroe’s proposal “gives preference to the more informative CAP message but allows the broadcast EAS system to maintain its critical role if there is no corresponding CAP message, or if the Internet is temporarily unavailable,” the filing said. The company said it plans to introduce these features in its equipment in an upcoming release. The feature won’t be applied to nationwide alerts such as the emergency action notification, since rules require such messages to be retransmitted without delay, even the scant one proposed by Monroe, the filing said. “FCC clarification will be required in order to determine whether this same automatic polling methodology can and should be” applied to the nationwide codes, the firm said.
The record in the wireless emergency alerts proceeding “demonstrates a consensus that several of the Commission’s proposed rules pose technical and economic challenges that render implementation infeasible or premature,” CTIA replied, posted Monday in FCC docket 15-91. The association objected in initial comments, too (see 1612090012). “While strongly supportive of efforts to enhance and improve the WEA system, commenters suggest that many of the Commission’s proposed rules either require additional study or could lead to unintended consequences that undermine the functioning of WEA,” CTIA said. Some commenters support proposed changes to the rules, such as requiring multimedia capabilities for alerts or mandating that earthquake alerts be transmitted in three seconds or less, the group said. “Missing from this general support, however, is any record evidence that these new functionalities are deployable by the existing WEA infrastructure or are economically achievable.”