The FCC should learn from the problems of the DTV transition and set a “date certain” for the end of the public switched telephone network regime, Consumer Federation of America Research Director Marc Cooper said Wednesday. “The big mistake [with DTV] was we let the holdouts set the date and set the time,” Cooper said in a series of panel discussions at the FCC. “There are people who will be reluctant, there will people who will need protection during the transition, but they shouldn’t be allowed to set the date. That date is a drop-dead date. That’s what we need in this space."
Wireless carriers participating in the wireless emergency alerting system shouldn’t be subject to any new requirements as a result of pending Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) legislation, Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA, told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Emergency Management in prepared testimony. The subcommittee held a hearing Tuesday on the effectiveness of the U.S. public alert system. “While IPAWS may help modernize the distribution of alerts on other communications platforms, CMAS [Commercial Mobile Alert Service] is the proper path to deliver and modernize emergency alerts provided over wireless networks,” he said. “We hope you will keep this in mind as you consider legislative efforts” to update the alert system, he said. Mobile DTV broadcasts will be a good way to reach mobile devices with emergency alerts, said Suzanne Goucher, president of the Maine Association of Broadcasters according to a copy of her remarks. “Unlike the still nascent CMAS, which provides only short text messages via cell phones, a mobile DTV EAS system would provide a far more comprehensive and informative experience,” she said. Her recommendation for the pending IPAWS bill, HR-2049, was to eliminate the sunset provision associated with the IPAWS advisory committee it would establish. Making the committee permanent and requiring it to meet on a regular basis would “ensure that the lines of communication remain open and ideas for continuous improvement to the system have a forum in which they can be heard. Meanwhile, as the committee considers IPAWS legislation, it should keep in mind the costs and potential delays associated with changing plans that are currently being implemented, said Bill Check, senior vice president of science and technology for the NCTA. “Any common alerting and warning protocols, standards technology and operating procedures that FEMA would be required to adopt pursuant to new legislation should recognize and incorporate the work that has already been done and should be consistent with existing regulatory directives which have driven our efforts over the past several years,” he said. New legislation should also recognize that distributors aren’t capable of translating alerts into multiple languages, he said. “Legislation should make clear that the obligation to make messages accessible should rest with the message originator,” he said.
Verizon customers in three counties in New Jersey received a CMAS (commercial mobile alert system) alert Monday from the carrier warning of a “civil emergency” and telling people to “take shelter now.” Verizon later apologized and said the alert was meant to be a test though it wasn’t labeled as such. The alert triggered the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness to issue a tweet stating there’s no emergency. The counties are Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean, all of which reported increased volume of 911 calls on Monday.
A thousand-plus telecom attorneys were treated to the comedic stylings of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday night at the FCBA’s annual Chairman’s Dinner. Genachowski’s routine centered on three set pieces: A montage of clips from Saturday Night Live, standup comedian Louis C.K., “SouthPark” and “Anchorman” to make fun of the emergency alert system; a parody of Herman Cain’s now-infamous “smoking” ad featuring a falsely mustachioed FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus declaiming how “f--- up” the Universal Service Fund was; and an extended bit where Genachowski was stymied by Apple’s voice assistant app, Siri. Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein was compared to Charlie Sheen, and Genachowski’s senior counselor Josh Gottheimer was compared to Washington Nationals’ mascot Screech the Eagle. Public Knowledge’s Gigi Sohn and Harold Feld were compared to Statler and Waldorf, the crotchety hecklers from The Muppet Show, and LightSquared was told it would have to vacate a higher table and that its remaining lower table was “still too loud.” There were at least three AT&T jokes, all from Siri, who told Genachowski that Justice Department antitrust lawyer “Christine Varney’s not the only woman who does your dirty work,” but that Genachowski was chicken for not making a direct AT&T/T-Mobile joke. When Genachowski responded, “Siri, you know I can’t talk about that,” Siri said: “That’s not what [AT&T CEO] Randall Stephenson’s phone records say."
A House subcommittee approved a bipartisan bill providing $13.4 million annually from 2012 through 2016 to the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS), the next-generation emergency alert and warning network. HR-3563 was unanimously approved in a voice vote Thursday morning in the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications. The bill will ensure that the IPAWS programs “work reliably, effectively and efficiently to ensure the appropriate use of taxpayer funds,” said Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla. It authorizes $5 million less than the program received in FY2011, and provides the IPAWS program with “needed direction,” Bilirakis said. The subcommittee approved by voice an amendment by Ranking Member Laura Richardson, D-Calif., that would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more training for senders of alerts. Richardson withdrew another amendment requiring testing of the IPAWS system at least every two years. Bilirakis said he'd work with Richardson on the amendment before the bill moved to a full committee markup.
As some broadcasters gear up for a mobile emergency alert system pilot project, they said they expect the EAS project to complement the current system and lead to further use of mobile DTV. With three public TV operations as test markets for the project, it will reassert the role of broadcasters as initial informers during emergencies and disasters, some executives said.
There was little agreement on a Federal Emergency Management Agency webcast Tuesday about when the government should next test the national emergency alert system. Several problems with the simulation have been identified since a Nov. 9 EAS test (CD Nov 18 p1), which was the first time the EAS was triggered nationwide. When Manny Centeno, FEMA program manager for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, asked the roundtable participants when the next test should be, dates as early as April 1 and as late as November, were suggested.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., plans to keep tabs on the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency as the agencies investigate glitches during last week’s national test of the Emergency Alert System. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with FEMA and FCC officials Thursday, the House Communications Subcommittee chairman said he’s asked the agencies for more information but doesn’t plan any hearings. The FCC and FEMA gave a “very good and comprehensive report,” Walden said. “I think they're on it, I think they get it, and I think they want to make it work.” A broadcasting executive told us an audio problem caused a cascade-like effect during the test, while a public-access channel executive said those networks didn’t get the message.
Sprint Nextel plans to become the first U.S. carrier to offer emergency alerts on its wireless network, the company announced. The system would allow FEMA to accept and deliver warning messages to wireless networks from the president of the United States, the National Weather Service and state and local emergency operations centers. Sprint plans to hold the first test of its alerting technology in New York City later this year. “Providing immediate, reliable wireless communications before, during and following an emergency situation is trademark of Sprint’s service,” said Steve Elfman, Sprint president-network operations and wholesale.
The U.S. government ought to examine the public outreach that was made for the Nov. 9 nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS), an FCC panel said. The Consumer Advisory Committee recommended to the commission that the agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which triggered the first-ever U.S.-wide EAS test, examine the “effectiveness” of outreach. Such a review also should examine communications with people who can’t hear well or can’t see well or who have “dual sensory loss disabilities,” the committee said. It also asked the FCC to start a review of what sort of information was available during the test to people with hearing disabilities. The audio of the test couldn’t be heard on some pay-TV stations and broadcast stations (CD Nov 14 p8). “There were a number of issues uncovered with regard to cable and satellite alerts,” wrote broadcast lawyers on the Pillsbury Winthrop law firm’s blog. Individual radio and TV stations in Oregon “and a number of other locations apparently” didn’t get the test, or had “excessive background audio noise in the test message,” attorneys Scott Flick and Paul Cicelski wrote Friday. Some TV stations received the test’s “video but no audio,” they added (http://xrl.us/bmimij). But “initial reports seem to indicate that the alert was heard in the vast majority of locations, and that the next area to focus on is ensuring that the content of the alert itself is clear and understandable to the public."