Sirius XM urged the FCC to revise the 2005 emergency alert system (EAS) rules for satellite radio. The scope of the EAS testing required of satellite radio “is inconsistent with the operation of the platform and with the public’s needs,” Sirius XM said last week in an ex parte filing in docket 04-296 (http://bit.ly/1oWhHxV). Weekly testing of Sirius’ emergency alert capabilities is “unnecessary and duplicative,” it said. The FCC can further ensure the proper functioning of emergency alert equipment “through its logging requirements, as it does for DBS, rather than requiring transmissions to listeners,” it said. If weekly testing were necessary, the FCC would require weekly announcements to be carried by all comparable media, “rather than imposing that requirement disproportionately on satellite radio,” it said. Revising the rules will reduce the burdens on Sirius XM and its customers “while imposing obligations commensurate with those required of other communications providers,” Sirius said.
Comments on proposed changes to rules governing the emergency alert system are due Aug. 14, with replies due Aug. 29, in docket 04-296, the FCC said Tuesday in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1r2xZWs). The FCC released the NPRM last month (CD June 30 p14). The proposals in the NPRM are intended as first steps to fix the vulnerabilities uncovered in the national EAS test, Pillsbury attorneys said Tuesday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1apzXs4). The FCC proposes that a reasonable time period for participants to replace unsupported equipment, perform necessary upgrades and other tasks “be six months from the effective date of any rules adopted as a result of the NPRM,” they noted.
Access to emergency alert system (EAS) warnings isn’t just a Spanish-language issue, but talk about it “has basically been an English-Spanish conversation,” said Asian Americans Advancing Justice. The Asian nonprofit group, which also goes by the AAJC acronym, backed a Minority Media and Telecommunications Council FCC proposal for multilingual broadcast alerts. But “simply concentrating on Spanish” EAS alerts “or the number of markets with Spanish-language stations ignores significant limited English proficient (LEP) Asian American populations who do not receive in-language warnings about emergencies,” said AAJC. MMTC’s proposal for backup stations to transmit alerts in languages other than English when nearby non-English stations are off-air raised implementation questions for some industry commenters, while others backed much of the plan (CD May 30 p10). MMTC had cited problems with Spanish speakers not getting alerts in New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit, which AAJC said affected Asian-Americans, too. “Federal, state, and local authorities responsible for multilingual EAS alerts must use census data and other appropriate demographic surveys and conduct community outreach to assess the languages commonly spoken in any given community,” said an AAJC comment posted Monday in docket 04-296 (http://bit.ly/1tjwcPX). “With this knowledge, authorities at all levels can begin to ensure that language minority communities receive timely and accessible EAS alerts.” MMTC’s proposal “has always focused on all of those who speak languages other than English,” responded President David Honig in an email to us Tuesday. “Those populations sometimes have been misperceived as entirely Spanish speaking. We fully support AAJC’s observations and suggestions."
New Wave and Reach Broadband each requested a further six-month waiver of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) compliance deadline. New Wave requested a waiver for 21 of its cable systems, it said in its petition posted Tuesday in docket 04-296 (http://bit.ly/1sV4Kry). The company is working on “bringing its systems into compliance by interconnecting systems which lack broadband access to CAP-compliant headends, by purchasing equipment, and through system shutdowns,” it said. Requiring New Wave to buy and install CAP-compliant equipment in systems that it plans to interconnect to CAP-compliant headends “would be economically wasteful,” it said. Reach requests a waiver for six systems due to its lack of physical access to broadband Internet service necessary for the systems to receive CAP-formatted emergency alert messages, it said in its petition (http://bit.ly/1sV5Vaq). Reach also requested a financial hardship waiver for 15 systems, it said.
The FCC further ramped up pressure on its Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council Wednesday to take the lead on cybersecurity. David Simpson, chief of the Public Safety Bureau, led off the meeting, amplifying remarks FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made last week at the American Enterprise Institute, warning that if a private-sector-based initiative doesn’t work the FCC stands ready to impose regulation (CD June 13 p1).
A public notice proceeding on whether to establish an emergency alert system process for multilingual broadcast alerts aims to find a consensus, FCC officials said. The concept of establishing a broadcaster as a “designated hitter” to transmit EAS messages for non-English stations knocked off-air stemmed from a Minority Media and Telecommunications Council petition (CD March 13 p10). Circulating, meanwhile, is a Public Safety Bureau NPRM on issues that were identified after the first nationwide EAS test, the officials said.
Senators pressed telecom regulators, officials and consumer advocates Thursday on possible IP transition dangers and the need for reliable networks that don’t leave vulnerable communities behind. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also requested a GAO study of the resilience and reliability of IP networks.
The Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association, Utah Broadcasters Association and West Virginia Broadcasters Association support a proposal to establish a method for disseminating emergency alert system messages in non-English languages, they said. The associations were added to the joint comments filed by other state broadcasters associations in docket 04-296 (CD May 30 p10). With the addition of the three associations, all 50 state broadcasters associations are represented in the initial comments, the associations said (http://bit.ly/1nLCTFH).
State broadcast associations fully supported a proposal to establish a system for delivery of multilingual emergency alerts, while NAB, noncommercial broadcasters and pay-TV operators support it but cautioned against imposing unnecessary burdens on emergency alert system (EAS) participants. Comments in a public notice proceeding that stemmed from a 2005 petition from Minority Media and Telecommunications Council were due this week (CD April 28 p19). The proposal focuses on a “designated hitter” backup plan, which involves broadcasters helping to transmit EAS messages for non-English stations that are knocked off-air (CD March 13 p10).
The FCC Public Safety Bureau agreed to extend for 18 months a waiver to allow the broadcast of a simulated Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) attention signal in public service announcements developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The bureau acted at FEMA’s request. “We agree with FEMA that while the PSAs have been successful in educating the public about WEA, negative public reaction to the WEA Attention Signal has continued due to residual public confusion about how the WEA functions,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1kpxa71). “We also concur that, despite the WEA success stories, this public confusion could potentially lead some consumers to opt out of receiving most WEA messages -- a result that would undermine the goal of WEA to serve as a viable and effective means to alert the public of emergencies.” In 2008, the FCC issued a series of orders adopting requirements for a Commercial Mobile Alert System allowing carriers to transmit emergency alerts to their subscribers, if they choose to do so. The major wireless carriers all agreed to participate in the alerting program.