A nationwide emergency alert system test is set for Sept. 28 (see 1607180062), at 2:20 p.m. EDT, the FCC Public Safety Bureau reminded EAS participants in a public notice Friday. Participants must register with the EAS Test Reporting System by Aug. 26, and file EAS Test Reporting System Form Two by Sept. 28, and Form Three by Nov. 14. “The nationwide test will assess the reliability and effectiveness of the EAS, with a particular emphasis on testing the [Federal Emergency Management Agency]’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS),” the PN said. “One of the main purposes of the test is to measure delays and latencies in the delivery of alerts through [IPAWS].” The bureau also released a new revised EAS operating handbook, the PN said. “A copy of the Handbook must be located at normal duty positions or EAS equipment locations when an operator is required to be on duty and be immediately available to staff responsible for administering EAS tests,” the PN said. “The Handbook will supersede all other EAS Handbooks, and must be in place in time for the 2016 nationwide EAS test.”
ORLANDO -- As public safety gets further along in building wireless LTE networks, an emerging challenge is swaying users to come aboard, said FirstNet early builder network officials on a panel at the APCO 2016 conference. But early tests showed the benefits of a dedicated public safety network, they said. Later, FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson said a recent police shooting of an African-American man in Minnesota showed the need for public safety communications technology to catch up with commercial systems.
New FCC emergency alert system codes for storm surges and high winds will take effect Sept. 12, said a notice in the Federal Register. Though use of the codes isn't mandatory, broadcasters replacing their EAS equipment will have to install devices that can use the new codes by the following Sept. 12, and EAS equipment manufacturers will have to include the codes in new equipment by March 12, said a blog post on the website of law firm Fletcher Heald.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said the FCC should err on the side of safety in the fight over sharing the 5.9 GHz band between Wi-Fi and proponents of dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) systems designed to curb vehicular accidents (see 1607080037). In reply comments, NPSTC supported the auto industry. It's an umbrella group that represents 16 public safety organizations. Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) operations already are allocated 580 MHz of spectrum at 5 GHz outside the DSRC band, NPSTC said. “In contrast, the 5.850-5.925 GHz band under consideration for sharing is the only spectrum allocated for DSRC operations.” There are use cases where public safety could make use of the band, the filing said. Public safety agencies could transmit a warning message to motorists to detour around a major accident, NPSTC said. “A public safety vehicle such as a fire truck, ambulance or police car travelling on an interstate or major highway to an incident could warn motorists in its path that it is approaching.” Or an emergency vehicle could use the band to alert other first-responder vehicles, such as an alert sent between two fire trucks approaching the same intersection from different directions. “DSRC technology has tremendous potential to enhance safety for the motoring public, including that of firefighters, law enforcement officials and emergency medical personnel heading to an incident to help save a life,” NPSTC said. “This potential can be realized only if the DSRC spectrum is not subjected to interference by unlicensed operations.” Replies were due Friday in docket 13-49.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions weighed in strongly against requiring wireless carriers to transmit wireless emergency alerts as part of an early warning system for earthquakes and tsunamis. The wireless industry in general argued that WEAs couldn’t be used for warnings when the FCC sought comment (see 1605100054). ATIS reported on a call between members of its Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee and Public Safety and International bureau staff. “It is unaware of any earthquake or tsunami alerts over WEA and ... there are no standards defined to support this approach,” ATIS said in a filing in docket 16-32. “WEA should not be used to transmit earthquake or tsunami alerts.”
A nationwide test of the emergency alert system planned for Sept. 28 is expected to show that problems revealed by the 2011 test have been addressed, said broadcast, EAS and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in interviews Monday. The FCC Public Safety Bureau and FEMA announced the test in a public notice Monday. Planning for it has been going on for years, officials told us.
County officials will investigate a two-hour 911 outage in Montgomery County, Maryland, the county said in a news release Monday. From 11:10 p.m. Sunday to 1:09 a.m. the next morning, callers received a busy signal. During the outage, fire and rescue units responded to two medical emergency calls involving fatalities -- a 91-year-old woman from Olney and a 40-year-old man from Twinbrook, the county said. The outage also affected dispatch console radios, but staff quickly switched to backup radios, it said. The county said it notified the public through public safety social media and the county emergency alert system. The outage occurred at the Alternate Emergency Communications Center in Rockville, which was activated three-and-a-half weeks ago while the county made hardware changes at the main center in Gaithersburg. County Executive Ike Leggett said he wants "a thorough evaluation of the systems that support 911 to make sure that the systems have the stability to withstand whatever power surges or blips that could cascade into even a partial system outage. County residents must be able to count on a prompt response to emergencies.” The county said it already ruled out an external power loss or failure of backup generators: “It is believed that it initially occurred due to an internal equipment failure of a cooling (air conditioning) system in the IT room of the AECC which then shut down the 911 system to prevent overheating.”
Many FCC proposals for improving the emergency alert system would be unduly burdensome, said the American Cable Association, Dish Network, NAB and NCTA in replies in docket 15-91. Also Monday, the FCC approved 4-1 new EAS codes for storm surges and high winds, an item originally slated for the commission's June meeting (see 1606240072). Pay-TV entities and broadcasters said proposed EAS security measures would be overly onerous and should be left up to EAS participants. They disagreed about proposals to change rules that allow cable carriers to “force-tune” viewers to a central channel displaying EAS information.
Overshadowed by a Tesla blog post Thursday disclosing a fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S in autopilot mode, BMW, Intel and Mobileye announced plans Friday to bring autonomous vehicles to streets by 2021. In a joint presentation in Munich, the three companies said they together will develop systems for “highly and fully automated driving to bring these technologies into series production” in five years.
The EAS Test Reporting System is “operational” and ready to accept filings, the FCC Public Safety Bureau said in a public notice Monday. Emergency alert system participants have to complete Form One of ETRS by Aug. 26 and update or correct their submission by Sept. 26, the PN said. It sought comment on recommendations by the agency's Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council to update the EAS Operating Handbook with “checkboxes and 'fill-in-the-blank' operational steps." Comments on the EAS handbook will be due 15 days after the PN is published in the Federal Register.