The FCC received more petitions from broadcasters and cable operators seeking to be let out of new Emergency Alert System common alerting protocol (CAP) obligations that were set to take effect Saturday. Some parties told the commission they needed a waiver because of the lack of available broadband service at their operations. Others said they couldn’t afford the equipment and costs associated with maintaining it. Some parties have equipment ordered, but manufacturing backlogs mean they won’t receive the gear until after the deadline. The waivers are in docket 04-296 (http://xrl.us/bndbh7).
KJAY asked the FCC for a waiver from new emergency alert system rules set to take effect at month’s end that require the ability to receive common alert protocol-formatted alerts. There is “not any physical broadband Internet connection existing or available at the transmitter site” in West Sacramento, Calif., because no “regular” ISP is able to serve that region, the company said (http://xrl.us/bncygz). It’s “investigated satellite internet delivery, and learned that this is infeasible because of obtruction [sic] to the view of the geostationary arc.” It will “continue to determine whether broadband Internet access has become physically available at the transmitter site,” and if access remains “physically unavailable, Company will request a six-month extension of the waiver,” KJAY said. When access becomes available the company will alert the FCC that it plans to come into “full compliance” with the new rules, it said. KJAY(AM) Sacramento, Calif., is the only broadcaster with those call letters in the FCC’s licensee database. The KJAY filing, made by a lawyer in Oakland, Calif., didn’t say what broadcasters were involved. We couldn’t reach the lawyer for clarification.
Charter Communications asked the FCC for six-month waivers of new emergency alert system (EAS) rules for 32 of its “smallest, most remote cable headends” because they lack the broadband necessary to “reliably” receive alerts formatted in common alerting protocol (CAP). It said (http://xrl.us/bncmyd) it started buying new equipment last year, having “invested hundreds of thousands of dollars toward CAP-compliant hardware and software upgrades,” which will give access to CAP-compliant alerts to over 99 percent of its subscribers by the June 30 deadline. Several cable companies have filed waiver requests for similar systems in docket 04-296 this month as the deadline approaches (CD June 22 p15).
Comcast asked the FCC for a six-month reprieve from complying with new emergency alert system (EAS) rules taking effect at month’s end “for a handful of its smallest, most remote cable systems ... serving less than two tenths of one percent” of its subscribership (http://xrl.us/bncgdp). The systems can’t receive messages formatted in common alerting protocol (CAP) because they lack broadband connections, but the company is “aggressively pursuing an innovative plan” to comply through a “satellite-based delivery mechanism, and it is doing so notwithstanding the substantial ‘per subscriber’ implementation costs associated with that plan,” Comcast said. “Subscribers to Comcast’s Remote Systems already have access to timely and effective emergency warnings through legacy EAS equipment, and Comcast will continue to operate its legacy EAS equipment at the Remote Systems” while it works on CAP compliance. Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Turetsky separately granted (http://xrl.us/bncgd7) the American Cable Association’s request for withdrawal of its petition for reconsideration of the new EAS rules. The group had proposed a streamlined waiver process for cable systems that serve less than 501 subscribers, but in its withdrawal petition noted that the comment cycle for that proposal would end on July 3 -- after the new rules take effect (CD June 14 pX) -- and thus deprive ACA members of “meaningful relief."
Suddenlink Communications and Uno Radio Group separately sought FCC waivers of emergency alert system rules for the newer common alerting protocol (CAP), which all EAS participants must use to receive and pass along messages by month’s end (CD June 18 p10). Suddenlink said it’s already bought CAP-compliant equipment for 57 of its 62 smallest cable systems (http://xrl.us/bncdce), but needs 90 more days to “complete the installation and testing process.” The other five systems are among its “smallest, most remote cable headends,” and it requests six-month waivers because the sites lack the broadband “necessary to reliably receive CAP-formatted alerts,” Suddenlink said. The cable operator said it’s spent more than a half-million dollars since 2011 updating its “legacy” EAS equipment to CAP-compliant hardware and software upgrades, as a result of which 98 percent of its subscribers will be able to receive CAP-formatted messages by month’s end. Puerto Rico-based Uno asked (http://xrl.us/bncdc5) for waivers for its 14 stations because of “an unexpected delay in delivery of equipment necessary for compliance,” resulting in the original delivery date of June 15 being pushed back to late July or early August because of the vendor’s “shipping issues and overwhelming demand.” Uno will install, test and make the equipment operational “promptly” after it receives it, and then notify the FCC, it said.
*June 18 American Consumer Institute panel on “looming spectrum crunch,” noon, 2103 Rayburn building -- steve@theamericanconsumer.org
A telco-video provider and a radio station sought FCC waivers of emergency alert system rules for the newer common alerting protocol, which all EAS participants must use to receive and pass along messages by month’s end (CD June 13 p5). Windstream seeks a temporary, “brief” waiver because of an “unexpected delay in delivery of equipment necessary for compliance” until it gets the gear, tests and installs it. Windstream’s Lakedale, Minn., unit “exercised diligence in placing an order for the CAP-to-EAS converter that would be delivered prior to June 1, 2012 to allow sufficient time to install and test the new equipment prior to the implementation deadline,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbvnx). “Unfortunately, Windstream Lakedale recently learned that delivery of its order has been delayed until mid-July, reportedly due to the large number of other EAS participants ordering such equipment for delivery at roughly the same time so as to comply with the Commission’s mandate.” EAS participants and vendors told us of such delays due to some other orders they contend needed to have been placed earlier for gear that converts alerts in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s CAP format into EAS alerts that radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers send to customers. Kenai Broadcasting wants a waiver for KKNI Sterling, Alaska, because the FM station can’t get Internet service at its transmitter. “Even if KKNI were to acquire and install CAP capable equipment, it would not be able to communicate with the CAP system,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbvn5). The filings were posted Thursday to docket 04-296.
The American Cable Association withdrew a petition for the FCC to redo emergency alert system rules so small cable systems can get streamlined waivers of a requirement they be able to get EAS warnings in Common Alerting Protocol format by June 30. The April 20 petition for reconsideration of the CAP order “was not published in the Federal Register until June 8, 2012, initiating a comment cycle that ends July 3, 2012,” (CD June 11 p14) the association said in a withdrawal request posted Tuesday in docket 04-296 (http://xrl.us/bnboth). “It is now apparent that the comment cycle for the Petition for Reconsideration will extend beyond the June 30, 2012 EAS CAP compliance deadline."
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions released two additional standards that address the future support of multiple languages, including Spanish, to send emergency alerts to wireless devices through the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS). “The standards will allow users to select additional languages in which to receive CMAS alerts beyond English once a national policy is established and alert messages in additional languages are available and being broadcast in their geographic area to CMAS-compatible devices,” ATIS said (http://xrl.us/bnbodx).
Storm warnings and other government alerts could go to search engines, online news feeds, social media and other Web outlets, broadcast and other industry officials said. They said that will be made possible when the Federal Emergency Management Agency soon starts a website for anyone to get real-time emergency alert system messages. Companies that don’t participate in EAS could get alerts from federal, state and municipal agencies that write them in a new FEMA format. Those websites could then distribute them online as narrowly or widely as they wish.