Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on cellphones should be a “bell ringer” service that alerts users to seek more information about imminent threats, AT&T representatives said in a call with officials from the FCC Wireless Bureau. “WEA is not a purpose-built alert system … and as such policymakers should accept the limitations inherent in the cellular system,” AT&T said in a filing posted in docket 15-91. “The carrier obligations of WEA can only be met by the native broadcast capabilities defined in the standard.” Carriers can offer longer warning messages through LTE, but doing so will take time, AT&T said. “The updated message length for WEA messages will require new handsets and it will take time to standardize, deploy in the core network, modify the interface to [the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System], and get quantities of handsets out to wireless users.” AT&T said that a message length of 280 characters does “seem achievable.”
The Senate Homeland Security Committee cleared an amended version of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act (S-1180) during a markup Wednesday. Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., introduced the bill earlier this week. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a Homeland Security Committee member, is its one co-sponsor. Johnson posted a copy of the 17-page bill text on the committee website. The legislation, which would direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to revamp the integrated public alert and warning system, “will support our national security,” Johnson said in prepared remarks for his opening statement Wednesday, saying the bill “authorizes a ‘next generation’ system that enables the president to quickly alert the public during a national emergency.” McCaskill said “this legislation would result in more families and businesses across the country receiving lifesaving information quickly and effectively, and ensure our government has the flexibility it needs to evolve with future changes in technology,” in a statement, noting its backing from NAB. The legislation would create an Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Subcommittee that would include the FCC chairman. Two pieces of companion legislation, both with the same name but introduced by different committee lawmakers (HR-1738 and HR-1472), have been introduced in the House. The Broadcast Warning Working Group said the Senate legislation “will further modernize the public alert warning system of the United States to ensure that warnings about natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other disasters or threats are disseminated quickly and effectively.” The Warning, Alert and Response Network Act "that authorized creation of the Wireless Emergency Alert system harnessed the creativity of the wireless industry and leveraged ... the ubiquity of the mobile platform to augment the existing emergency alerting system," CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter said. "The program is working as Congress intended. CTIA is pleased that Senators Johnson and McCaskill recognize this success and seek to modernize IPAWS without conferring upon FEMA or DHS authority to regulate wireless carriers or altering a WEA system that is working effectively for Americans."
Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., introduced the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act (HR-1738) Monday. Bilirakis and then-Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, introduced legislation of the same name in the last Congress that never advanced. Bilirakis is a member of the Homeland Security Committee and the Communications Subcommittee. The legislation would “amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to modernize and implement the national integrated public alert and warning system to disseminate homeland security information and other information,” the latest bill text said. The system would be “designed to improve the ability of affected populations in remote areas and areas with underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure to receive alerts,” it said. The legislation also would create the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Advisory Committee, which would include the chairman of the FCC as a member. Bilirakis’ co-sponsors include Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, and Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., who chaired the Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee last Congress. It has been referred to Homeland Security and the Transportation Committee. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., a member of the Transportation Committee, introduced legislation of the same name (HR-1472) on March 19, also referred to those two committees. Barletta’s co-sponsors include Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., ranking member Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., another Transportation member.
LAS VEGAS -- LG, GatesAir and Zenith are using the NAB Show this week to showcase how their year-old Futurecast physical layer proposal for ATSC 3.0 has been expanded to encompass a “complete, end-to-end sort of a system,” said Wayne Luplow, vice president at LG’s Zenith research and development Lab in Lincolnshire, Illinois, Monday in a media briefing at the GatesAir booth. “We’ve gone beyond where we’ve been before,” Luplow said.
The FCC should rule that nonemergency, service-related phone calls and text messages to customers who have provided a phone number don't violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, said the Alarm Industry Communications Committee in comments posted Friday in docket 02-278. AICC supported a petition for expedited declaratory ruling sought by Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association (see 1503270020). Calling the proposed exemption a “common sense approach to customer relations,” AICC acknowledged TCPA exempts communications made for emergency purposes, but “alarm companies may also benefit by being able to use the contact number provided by their customer … to contact that customer about their account and alarm system status and to verify installation/maintenance appointments.” Other notifications “can best be quickly distributed to alarm subscribers by auto-dialer and/or text message," the group said, citing alerts about the need for an equipment upgrade, an equipment recall, alerts regarding a system security risk, suspicious activity like someone is knocking on doors, or about home invasions in the area. Customers who give a vendor or creditor a phone number expect “to be contacted on that number in connection with its relationship with that vendor,” AICC said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a request for waiver by ACR Electronics for the ACR SARLink Combined 2-Way Communicator Personal Locator Beacon, used to locate people in remote areas. ACR needs a waiver because the device doesn't conform to FCC rules, the bureau said Tuesday. Rules require that emergency radio beacons transmit a distress signal on 406.0-406.1 MHz, to communicate with the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system and a lower-powered signal on frequency 121.5 MHz, used by search-and-rescue (SAR) personnel as a homing beacon. The SARLink doesn’t include the latter capability, the bureau said. Instead, the SARLink “incorporates two-way text messaging capability through the Iridium satellite system,” the bureau said. “ACR asserts that this capability will provide better distress alerting and locating assistance than a 121.5 MHz homing beacon because SARLink users will be able to text SAR personnel directly and provide location information in addition to the Global Positioning System data encoded in the COSPAS-SARSAT message, such as physical landmarks and obstacles.” Comments are due May 7, replies May 22.
The Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) unanimously voted Wednesday to approve Working Group 4’s report on recommendations on communications sector cybersecurity risk management, which was meant to adapt the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. Working Group 4 released its report almost a year after CSRIC formed the working group as part of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s push for the agency to increase its focus on cybersecurity as a public safety issue (see report in the March 21, 2014, issue). Wheeler said Wednesday, at what he called CSRIC IV’s “graduation ceremony,” that Working Group 4’s report would be “crucial to where we as an agency and we as industries and government have got to go” on addressing cybersecurity risk management. Wheeler continued to emphasize what he sees as the importance of the private sector leading on cybersecurity but noted that the FCC will continue to coordinate and play an oversight role. CSRIC also adopted Working Group 3’s report on expanded security best practices for Emergency Alert System stakeholders and Working Group 7’s report on updates to the prioritization of earlier CSRIC best practices.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert & Warning System will send a common alerting protocol message containing the national periodic test event code along with geocodes for four participating states March 18 at 2:30 p.m. EDT, said Al Kenyon, FEMA’s IPAWS national test technical lead. He spoke on an IPAWS north central regional emergency alert system (EAS) participant webinar Thursday. The test will be done for about 2,000 EAS participants in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, he said. “This is above and beyond the day-to-day requirements of EAS,” Kenyon said. “We’re doing what we can to make it better.” Representatives from Digital Alert Systems, Monroe Electronics, Sage Alerting Systems and Trilithic Emergency Alert Systems discussed how to configure their devices for the upcoming test. In a Sept. 17 IPAWS test, about 90 percent of the participating stations successfully transmitted the test message, Kenyon said. “A 90 percent success rate where you don’t have the opportunity to pretest the test is very good.”
The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council meets March 18 for the last time under its current charter, the FCC said Monday. Three working groups are to offer reports: Working Group 3 on Emergency Alerting Systems, Working Group 4 on Cybersecurity Risk Management and Best Practices and Working Group 7 on Legacy System Best Practices, the agency said. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. EDT in the commission meeting room.
The repacking process for the FCC incentive auction will potentially affect stations in every designated market area, since the commission expects to repurpose channels 51 and below, said Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake in a low-power TV LEARN webinar Tuesday. The commission is on schedule to hold the auction in early 2016, he said. Other officials have said similar in recent days (see 1502240035). "The reorganization of the broadcast band will have a significant impact on translators and LPTV stations, especially in urban areas," said Lake. Replacement translators aren't protected in the repacking, but will have a priority in the post-auction displacement window, he said. Class A stations and full-power stations are entitled to protection under the Spectrum Act, he said. The pre-auction licensing deadline is May 29, relevant only to Class A and full-power TV stations, he said. A proposal to extend the Sept. 1 deadline for LPTV and TV translator stations to transition to digital avoids requiring stations to double-build, he said. Channel sharing will add more broadcast hours and broaden a user base, Lake said. Commenters urged the commission to allow more than two partners to share a single channel, like some full power stations, he said. Another proposal is to have full-power stations replace digital service areas that will be lost after the repacking, a digital-to-digital replacement translator, he said. The commission wants to preserve one channel in the UHF band in all areas of the U.S. that aren't assigned to a TV station in the repacking process for shared use by white space devices and wireless mics, based on consumer need, Lake said. An alternative delivery method LPTV might consider is multicasting on digital stations, he said. LPTVs that are primary emergency alert system facilities are subjects of petitions for reconsideration and comments, which the commission will decide on, he said. A window for new stations might be opened after the repacking process and the displacement window, he said. “We hope very much that viewers in the heartland and elsewhere continue to receive the programming they need and want, and we will work with the low-power community to try to ensure that that happens."