The FCC is expected to proceed with its monthly meeting Thursday, assuming the government reopens in time after its closure due to Winter Storm Jonas, a knowledgeable source told us Tuesday. The Office of Personnel Management as of late Tuesday hadn't announced the status of government offices for Wednesday. The FCC is to vote on a broadband deployment report pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, an order to require cable and satellite TV operators and broadcast and satellite radio companies to post public inspection files on the agency's online database, and a rulemaking notice on strengthening the emergency alert system. The broadband report is expected to say advanced telecom capabilities aren't being deployed in a timely and reasonable fashion under Section 706 (see 1601070059). The agency's two Republican commissioners appear likely to dissent from the report, the knowledgeable source said. Meanwhile, the FCC appears unlikely to address rural rate-of-return USF reforms at its Feb. 18 meeting (the tentative agenda for that is due out Thursday) but seems more likely to act on that issue at its March 31 meeting, an industry source told us. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn also recently said the agency planned to address Lifeline USF reform this quarter (see 1601210031). Spokespeople for the commission and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai had no immediate comment.
Wireline and wireless companies and the FCC were prepared and putting in place strategies to deal with any outages or problems caused by what the Weather Channel calls Winter Storm Jonas, they told us Friday. The federal government, including the FCC and the D.C. Public Service Commission, which deals with local telecommunications issues, sent most employees home early Friday due to the coming storm.
A draft rulemaking notice on proposed improvements to the emergency alert system will seek comment on improving security for alerting systems, creating a standardized, uniform format for state EAS plans, and EAS test codes, said an FCC official.
Wireless companies and CTIA are counseling the FCC not to change wireless emergency alerts (WEA) rules in a way that could mean more network congestion. The FCC proposed at its November meeting to allow longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts (see 1511190053).
The FCC is circulating an order to help the agency achieve “fuller understanding” of what entities are doing and can do “to facilitate the distribution of multilingual alert content to their communities, and to further advance their abilities to reach populations where English is not well understood,” Chairman Tom Wheeler told several House Democrats in a letter dated Dec. 22 and released this week. Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., led a Nov. 2 letter pressing for an emergency alert system to make alerts available in languages beyond English and urging the FCC to “take the next step before the next disaster strikes,” citing “extreme weather events due to climate change on the rise” and intense and damaging storms in recent years. Thirteen Democrats signed the letter, including Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The FCC has taken several steps in recent months toward that goal, Wheeler told them, including the order (see 1601080047 and 1601070061) on circulation. The order “addresses the Petition for Immediate Interim Relief filed by the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association, the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc., and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council,” Wheeler said.
Since June, 46 additional state and local organizations obtained permission to send wireless emergency alerts, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Program Management Office in an FCC filing in docket 15-91. That makes 622 organizations with such permission as of Wednesday. Forty-eight organizations have actually sent the alerts, an increase of two since Nov. 18 and 14 since June, FEMA said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has sent 21,357 WEA alerts since 2012, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has sent 589, it said. The Jan. 28 FCC meeting will see a vote on an emergency alert system item on state and local EAS participation (see 1601070061).
A draft order that would expand online public file requirements to radio, satellite and cable doesn't include an exemption for stations with fewer than five employees, several communications attorneys said. Though currently on circulation, the draft order was included in Thursday's tentative agenda for the commission's January open meeting, which suggests that Chairman Tom Wheeler believes he has the votes to approve it in its current form, several broadcast attorneys told us.
The FCC will consider a report and order on expanding online public file requirements to cable, satellite and radio at its Jan. 28 meeting, said a tentative agenda released Thursday. Industry officials have told us the item is expected to apply only to top markets and include a phase-in period for smaller entities. The commission will also consider an NPRM on improving the Emergency Alert System by promoting state and local participation, supporting more testing of the system, and improving the security of the system, the tentative agenda said.
The New York City Department of Emergency Management (NYCEM) told the FCC it supports proposed changes to the FCC wireless emergency alert rules, in a filing in response to a notice approved by the commission at its November meeting (see 1511190053). The FCC is correct to recommend longer emergency messages, the department said. “It is NYCEM’s position that 90-character messages are wholly insufficient to provide the level of information needed by the public in order to understand the scope of the emergency and take necessary precautions,” NYCEM said. NYCEM cited two examples. “Due to an active shooter incident at 42nd Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan, all individuals between West 45th Street and West 35th Street between 6th Avenue and 9th Avenue should move indoors now and stay indoors until further notice,” is the kind of warning possible if the FCC allows up to 360 characters, the department said. It's clearer than “Shooter near 42St/7Ave, MN. People nearby should go indoors and wait for more info,” it said. NYCEM also supports a proposal to lift a ban on including phone numbers and URLs in emergency texts, but with a caveat: “The Commission should caution alert originators to ensure that the website and/or telephone number that they are directing people to for more information (e.g., government websites, 311 systems, etc.) are prepared to handle the rapid influx of network and/or telephony traffic.” NYCEM also said the FCC should require carriers to target their messages within a smaller geographic area. The filing was posted in docket 15-91.
FCC Public Safety Bureau staff suggested the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council present new proposals in MMTC's 2005 petition with others for ways that broadcasters can transmit emergency alert system content in languages other than English when EAS outlets broadcasting in those languages go off air during disasters, the group said. The staff said that could "include best practices that could be reported as part of State EAS plans," MMTC said in a filing Thursday in docket 04-296. The group had asked the bureau to work with the agency "toward a workable solution that would achieve the primary goals" of what it calls the Katrina petition (see 1511170048), after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina that caused widespread loss of life and damage. "Perhaps broadcast stations might be willing to voluntarily provide multilingual emergency broadcasts," and the FCC would consider offering some regulatory relief for the “Good Samaritans,” said the group. "MMTC and FCC staff discussed the role of essential emergency personnel with language skills who could be called upon to provide multilingual radio programming during an emergency," it said of the meeting that included Chief David Simpson and others in the bureau. The FCC confirmed it invited suggestions from MMTC on further measures that EAS participants could take to support multilingual alerting, an agency spokeswoman emailed us Friday.