APCO supported a proposal to require wireless carriers to disclose to potential customers at the point of sale whether they provide wireless emergency alerts, while public broadcaster representatives worried about costs. The FCC sought comment on additional changes as part of an NPRM approved in September, which accompanied an order making changes to the rules (see 1609290060). “Promoting consumer choice and providing better notice regarding WEA at the point of sale could lead to increased use of the system, which would benefit public safety,” APCO commented in docket 15-91. “Point of sale disclosures should include information such as how WEA capabilities vary by device, network technology, or geographic area. This is especially important for providers who elect to participate ‘in part.’” APCO also supported in general an FCC proposal to require carriers to file annual WEA performance reports. They would address geo-targeting, latency, availability and reliability. “Testing is fundamental to public safety communications, and the annual performance reports will increase transparency and improve the system’s trustworthiness and effectiveness,” APCO said. “For similar reasons, APCO supports the creation of a uniform format for alert logging and the collection of more detailed system integrity data.” Noncommercial broadcast stations can require updated or new equipment to continue receiving WEA messages if specifications change, said from PBS, CPB and America's Public Television Stations. The FCC should work to make sure federal funding remains available to cover "any reasonable costs" that public TV stations incur "to accommodate further changes to the specifications for WEA messages," the comments said. "PTV stations depend on funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce to cover the costs of updating their equipment or software to implement new capabilities required by the Commission with respect to the processing and transmission of WEA messages." Without the updates and the funding to make them, the public stations could be unable to receive WEA messages, they said.
The FCC added five items to the agenda for the Dec. 15 commissioners' meeting to go along with orders and Further NPRMs on both real-time texting (RTT) and the emergency alert system (EAS). The latter two were on a Nov. 22 tentative agenda, which said the other five were also possibilities if not approved on circulation (see 1611220064). The five new items on the agenda issued Thursday are: an NPRM to update rules to ease the deployment of recently proposed nongeostationary-satellite orbit and fixed-satellite service orbit systems; an order evaluating a "Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework" submitted by wireless industry members; an order updating Freedom of Information Act regulations under a 2016 FOIA law; an order addressing a petition of reconsideration of a slamming and deceptive marketing fine of Long-Distance Inc.; and an item combining two orders regarding the assignment of licenses held by Maritime Communications/Land Mobile. The items that already were on the agenda before Thursday, on EAS and RTT, could be controversial (see 1612080054 and 1612070065).
Similar to the draft emergency alert system order scheduled for a vote at next week’s commissioner meeting (see 1612070065), the outlook also remains unclear for the second big item -- an order on a common standard for the transition from text technology (TTY) to real-time text (RTT), industry and FCC officials said. Last month, Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated he wouldn’t seek a vote on any items that had commissioner objections (see 1611170054). Agency officials said it's unclear if that's anything like a new rule and whether Wheeler would still move ahead as long as he can get three votes in support. The FCC didn't comment.
Though the draft emergency alert system order set for next week's FCC meeting agenda is largely free of provisions that were opposed by Republican commissioners and the pay-TV and broadcast industries, internal tensions on the eighth floor could keep the item from being approved, agency and industry officials told us. The item still includes the provisions that would make state EAS plans more uniform that were proposed in the NPRM, but reporting deadlines and cybersecurity requirements would be relaxed, and a controversial proposal to change the rules for pay-TV “force tuning” would be shifted to a Further NPRM, they said. That still may not leave the item with a clear path to being approved, an FCC official said.
The Trump administration should preserve the FCC Lifeline program, create multilingual emergency alert system warnings and address employment discrimination in the communications industry, according to a list of 12 "imperatives" from the Multicutural Media Telecom and Internet Council to the president-elect's transition team Friday. Other imperatives included appointing an FCC that includes diversity concerns in its rulemakings, maintaining free data programs, and banning prison phone rate overcharging. Acting on the imperatives is "vitally important" to fixing the "dismally disproportionate levels of participation among diverse groups" in the communications industry, said MMTC in a release Monday. The group also wants a '"Glide Path' for the Short-Term Survival and Long-Term Humane Decommissioning of the AM Band in a Manner that Preserves Minority Ownership."
The Stage 3 forward auction concluded in just one round Monday, as some had expected (see 1612010072). It was more than $20 billion short of the $42 billion that would have been needed to trigger the final round of the incentive auction, said the Public Reporting System. Though numerous broadcasters and analysts are still predicting the auction will close in Stage 4, several auction watchers were confused or angry about the auction's results.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler thinks “much work remains” on wireless emergency alerts, he told incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a letter dated Nov. 17 and released Monday. “As you correctly point out, much work remains to modernize the system,” Wheeler said. “The Commission continues its work to strengthen WEA, and, as an example, has an open proceeding to determine how to include thumbnail-sized photos and symbols in WEA. I appreciate your leadership on the issue, and I am particularly pleased that we were able to answer your call to expedite enhancements to the WEA system.” He was referring to the Commission's September vote on the topic, which Schumer backed.
The FCC plans to consider real-time text and emergency alert system items and possibly others at its Dec. 15 commissioners' meeting, said the tentative agenda released Tuesday. Both the RTT and EAS items consist of a combined draft order and Further NPRM. The items circulated Tuesday, a commission official told us. The tentative agenda is due 21 days before a meeting, but was released early because of Thanksgiving on Thursday.
Sinclair CEO David Smith, perhaps the broadcast industry’s strongest individual booster of seeing ATSC 3.0 commercialized sooner rather than later, wouldn't support an ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate to drive the transition to the next-generation DTV standard, he said on a CEO panel at the NAB Show New York about ATSC 3.0's potential return on investment.
Rules requiring emergency alert system participants to report to the FCC about any efforts to provide non-English emergency alerts took effect Thursday, said the agency in that day's Federal Register. That means participants have a deadline of Nov. 3, 2017, to provide such information to State Emergency Communications committees to be included in their state EAS plans, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Harry Cole in a blog post Thursday. “Thus far there does not appear to be any officially-endorsed template for the required 'description', but it’s possible the Commission may flesh that out sometime in the next year.” The rules don't require participants to offer foreign-language alerts, and explicitly say participants can report they took no such steps, Cole said. At their March meeting, commissioners approved the rules 4-1 (see 1603300064).