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.
The FCC is starting to see a wave of comments supporting proposed changes to its wireless emergency alert (WEA) rules, in response to a notice approved by the commission at its November meeting (see 1511190053). Comments aren't due until Jan. 13. Initial comments are mostly grassroots and appear to support the changes. The FCC proposed to allow longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts. The comments were in docket 15-91.
Industry expectations of an upcoming FCC rulemaking stemming from the final report of its Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee are behind a recent flurry of filings in the DSTAC docket from EchoStar, NCTA and TiVo, industry officials told us. The report contained opposing recommendations from a group of pay-TV carriers and the TiVo- and Public Knowledge-backed Consumer Video Choice Coalition. The multichannel video programming distributors have taken the stance that the FCC should take no action toward creating a downloadable security solution -- so an FCC item would be seen as a blow to the MVPDs.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions issued a series of new studies to identify the feasibility and standardization/implementation considerations for multiple possible wireless emergency alert (WEA) enhancements, a news release from ATIS said Wednesday. The studies aimed to address recommendations from the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) and investigated enhancing cell broadcast geo-targeting for WEA alerts; providing supplemental information for a WEA alert; and increasing the WEA alert message length. The first study looked into methods for the delivery of geo-targeted WEA messages to a given geocode, circle or polygon, and concluded that the current wireless infrastructure-based geotargeting continues to be the recommended solution for WEA geotargeting. ATIS also studied the practicality, limitations and effects of providing supplemental information for a WEA alert to a mobile device and enabling a mobile device to display supplemental information. The study said multimedia content can't be supported in today's cell broadcast-based WEA system. The study of WEA message length confirmed that an increase in the maximum displayable characters is technically feasible for an LTE WEA message.
Recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, “tragically [put] an exclamation point” on the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council work on telecom infrastructure security and reliability, said CSRIC Chairman John Schanz, Comcast Cable chief network officer. CSRIC's work on reliability of 911 systems is critical to police having situational awareness “that will make possible big data added to emergency response,” said Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson after a presentation at the group's meeting by Working Group 1. It's working on recommendations for rerouting 911 calls between public safety answering points and on recommendations on aspects of location-based routing that use latitude and longitude information and other information.
The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council meets Dec. 3, the agency said in Friday’s Federal Register. The meeting will be CSRIC’s third as part of its fifth charter. CSRIC working groups are examining the emergency alert system, emergency alerting platforms, evolving 911 services and security by design (see 1509210049). The FCC failed to publish the CSRIC meeting notice within the 15-day threshold but said it couldn’t find an acceptable alternate date for the meeting because “a significant number of CSRIC members have made business and travel plans to attend” the Dec. 3 meeting and there's no other date within one month of Dec. 3 “that will accommodate CSRIC members’ schedules.” Delaying the CSRIC meeting “will also cause undue financial burdens on many of the CSRIC members who have made travel arrangements,” the FCC said. CSRIC’s meeting is set to begin at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters.
The FCC proposed rules intended to improve wireless emergency alert (WEA) effectiveness in informing the public about urgent matters. At their Thursday meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 to approve an NPRM. It sought comment on allowing longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts, as was expected (see 1511170049).