Broadcasters need to be more aware of their vulnerability to hacking and cyberattacks, said panelists on an NAB webcast on cybersecurity. Broadcasters are considered “critical infrastructure” by the federal government because of their role as “first informers,” and have a responsibility to maintain their ability to transmit emergency alert system messages and information, said Kelly Williams, NAB senior director-engineering and technology policy. It's “vital” that broadcasters prevent attackers from taking over or shutting down “broadcast resources,” said David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau.
Smartphone makers Apple and BlackBerry and public safety group APCO followed carriers and other industry stakeholders (see 1603210037) in lobbying the FCC on concerns about proposed changes to rules for wireless emergency alerts. The FCC proposed at its November meeting to allow longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts (see 1511190053). Groups and companies were called in to meet with the FCC in recent days, said filings posted Tuesday and earlier in docket 15-91.
AM broadcasters, engineers, professional sports teams and associations don’t agree on whether the FCC should alter some protections that prevent Class B, C and D radio stations from interfering with the more powerful Class A stations, in comments filed in docket 13-249 in response to a Further NPRM and notice of inquiry on AM revitalization. Dual-band broadcasters also opposed an FCC proposal to require them to surrender one of their licenses, and NAB and the Society of Broadcast Engineers argued the proceedings should focus on reducing the growing interference from unlicensed devices rather than changing power levels in the AM band. It’s “discouraging” that the FCC “seems content to allow the ambient noise levels in the AM broadcast band” to continue to increase and accepts “the deteriorating RF environment as a given,” SBE said.
Allowing longer wireless emergency alert (WEA) messages could be technically tricky, representatives from the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee told FCC Public Safety Bureau staff, ATIS said in a filing posted Monday in docket 15-91. Industry attendees came from AT&T, Comtech and Qualcomm: "As each 90 character message is independent, the messages may not be received in the order they were intended, and would rely upon the user to try to put the messages together in the correct order." On including URLs in WEAs, ATIS said "this may result in a large number of users simultaneously accessing a URL, which could result in network congestion," among other issues. ATIS offered “additional information about issues raised in its comments” on proposed changes to alerts, the group said. Its January comments expressed support for the expansion of the maximum permissible length of WEA messages from 90 to 360 characters and numbers, but said industry may need longer than the year proposed by the FCC to comply. ATIS warned that adding URLs or phone numbers to messages “could result in issues within the service provider infrastructure network and may increase the likelihood of severe network congestion resulting in the inability of subscribers to make calls.” ATIS supported Spanish alerts but opposed any requirement for other languages because of “technical challenges.”
Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System don't believe the use of automated or mechanical parsing to compose 90-character messages is appropriate, they said about proposed FCC rule changes for wireless emergency alerts to mobile phones, during a meeting with officials from the FCC Public Safety Bureau, recounted a filing. “In no case should the IPAWS system be responsible for this function,” they said. “FEMA believes that parsing a 90 character message from a 360 character message should be done by the alert originator.” The IPAWS officials also said devices should continue the practice of identifying the message “by whatever means dictated by the carrier” to eliminate duplicate messages. Carriers' approach on 90-character versus 360-character messages depends on future rules, IPAWS said. “Carriers will most likely push 90 character messages to legacy networks and 360 character messages to 4G LTE networks.” The FCC proposed at its November meeting to allow longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts (see 1511190053). FEMA's filing was posted Friday in docket 15-94.
Public TV stations have the capacity to connect public safety officials with each other and the public, said America's Public Television Stations CEO Patrick Butler and officials from CPB and PBS in a meeting Thursday with Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson and bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday. Next-generation 911 should take advantage of this capacity, the officials said. APTS member stations “pledged in principle to devote 1 Mbps of digital capacity by public television stations for participation in the FirstNet public safety network,” the filing said (see 1602220069). Public media can play a role in “educating individuals in communities before and after EAS [emergency alert system] and WEA [wireless emergency alert] testing and in convening community entities who can contribute to the relevance of the testing.”
The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council unanimously approved recommendations from five working groups Wednesday on 911 call rerouting and the security of communications systems. FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson assigned CSRIC the task Wednesday of forming an additional working group on security best practices for services using the Wi-Fi spectrum band. Four other CSRIC working groups reported progress toward completing recommendations due before the current CSRIC mandate ends in March 2017.
Microsoft officials said they met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff, at staff request, about the logistics of wireless emergency alerts. The FCC approved a notice at its November meeting looking at potential changes to WEA rules (see 1511190053). “No efforts to improve the system, however well-intentioned, should in any way detract from or interfere with achieving the primary goal of the WEA system which is to alert users to imminent life-threatening circumstances without delay,” Microsoft said. “Minimizing delay is imperative because mere seconds can be critical in some emergencies.” Delays are possible if carriers transmit multi-segment messages, Microsoft said. URLs embedded in alerts also could cause problems, the company said. “If the alert contains an embedded URL, clicking on that URL will dismiss the alert,” Microsoft said. “Assuming the message history memory is not full, emergency alerts dismissed by Windows Phone users remain in their message history just like a text message and can be retrieved from that location for purposes of accessing the URL. We noted that consumers would need to know to look in their message history in order to return to the URL.” Microsoft filed a notice on the meeting in docket 15-91.
Broadcasters from 10 states on Thursday told FCC officials of the importance of activating FM chips in smartphones, a perennial issue for the industry, and about some emergency alert system (EAS) concerns. A meeting with Chief David Simpson and others in the Public Safety Bureau was part of NAB's fly-in to lobby (see 1602260038) the FCC that day (see 1602250038), an association spokesman confirmed. At the EAS/FM chip meeting, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State broadcaster association representatives said Simpson's backing of industry negotiations "led to the activation of FM chips in mobile phones offered by three of the four major wireless carriers, and continued industry efforts toward further increasing the availability of radio-enabled smartphones." AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile offer or are moving to offer devices with the chips activated, Commissioner Ajit Pai has said. Verizon didn't immediately comment Monday. On efforts to allow access to emergency information in languages other than English, broadcasters said there are "various risks concerning technology, accuracy and liability that raise obstacles to translating EAS alerts at the EAS Participant-level," said an NAB filing on the meeting, posted Monday in docket 04-296. It said those concerns are "as opposed to passing through multilingual EAS alerts that are created and disseminated by EAS alert originators." More such ex parte filings will be made in coming days on the broadcaster fly-in meetings, said the NAB spokesman.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and its Integrated Public Alert and Warning System division are working toward a national test of the emergency alert system to take place Sept. 28, said an FCC ex parte filing documenting Monday's 2016 EAS forum and posted Wednesday in docket 15-91. The forum included representatives of state broadcasting associations and Public Safety Bureau staff including Chief David Simpson. The National Weather Service is close to being able to receive non-weather emergency alerts, the filing said. The NWS could do such alerts now, but is concerned about duplicate EAS alerts, the filing said. At the forum, Simpson discussed the recent FCC NPRM on improving EAS, and told the group that the proposed rules had the support of all four regular commissioners. The forum also discussed further modifications to state EAS boards, and a multilingual EAS pilot program.