The FCC, CTIA and Consumers Union unveiled “Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines” as an alternative to bill shock rules proposed by the agency last year. The announcement Monday as expected (CD Oct 17 p10) was in keeping with the Obama administration’s broader move away from regulation where possible. But FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski warned that rules are still possible if voluntary guidelines don’t work. Other members of the commission were not given advanced notice of the agreement, agency officials said.
The broadcast and cable industries are stepping up consumer education efforts through public service announcements and other initiatives to let viewers and listeners know of a first-of-its-kind emergency alert system test Nov. 9. The NAB shared with members a comprehensive “checklist” with PSAs and information for each step of the nationwide simultaneous exercise, the association said late Wednesday. “The checklist provides steps for broadcasters to ensure their equipment is ready for the exercise, and what actions are required of them during and after the test,” the group said. “NAB encourages broadcasters to begin airing the PSAs at least one week before the test, and with increasing frequency as November 9 approaches.” FCC-produced PSAs are on the NAB website (http://xrl.us/bmf3f7), as is information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will trigger the test. The NAB Friday at 11:30 a.m. EDT is sending TV PSAs by satellite feed, and has scripts available for stations to make their own announcements. The NCTA also is sending spots to member companies, executives of that association told us Thursday. “We're getting those out to all of our companies this week, and urging them to start running the PSAs Oct. 24,” said Associate General Counsel Loretta Polk: “We've been getting the word out about this throughout the summer” by telling cable operators about the test so they can prepare. The FCC held a closed-door meeting with FEMA officials and executives from the public and commercial broadcasting industries and from cable, telco-TV and DBS companies (CD Oct 13 p9), and FEMA held a publicly accessible webinar on the test Thursday.
Emergency alert system participants are increasingly focusing outreach on consumers before next month’s first nationwide test, industry officials told us. They said the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency are shifting educational efforts from being just focused on letting radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors know about the Nov. 9 test, to working on public education. The FCC has produced public service announcements about the exercise (http://xrl.us/bmfyvk), and FEMA is working on them, industry participants said. They said both agencies have been holding conference calls and meetings with the broadcasting and MVPD industries and local emergency management agencies.
The FCC is tentatively set to vote Oct. 27 on TV-station disclosure, the agency said Thursday. That delivers some on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s pledge Monday to act on part of the recommendations of the report on the future of the media industry (CD Oct 4 p4). The report had recommended killing the proceeding and requiring TV stations to disclose the extent they cover their communities with filings available online, not just in paper form. The order on reconsideration of the 2007 enhanced disclosure rule accompanies a further rulemaking notice “proposing to replace television broadcast stations’ public files with online public files to be hosted by the Commission,” the agency said. Also Oct. 27, where the main item will be a vote on changing the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system (see story in this issue), will be a presentation by the Public Safety Bureau. The bureau will talk about preparations for the Nov. 9 nationwide test of the emergency alert system, in which all radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors will take part.
Transition to a Next Generation 911 system, technical solutions like call prioritization and rerouting, procedure and policy changes are answers to 911 overloading issues, speakers said during the 911 Industry Alliance’s 911 workshop Wednesday. But many solutions have issues like funding that need to be addressed, they said.
The FCC proposed fining a small cable operator $25,000 for violating emergency alert system rules, said an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability to St. George Cable in Florida (http://xrl.us/bme8fp). It said the company didn’t install EAS gear, ran with “excessive signal leakage” and didn’t register the system with the agency. An executive at the cable company had no comment.
New Jersey is getting a new emergency alert system, as broadcasters and pay-TV providers in all states prepare for a simultaneous EAS test Nov. 9 (CD Sept 23 p8). New Jersey’s statewide communications system EMnet will be part of a national network and should be installed by Nov. 1, the state’s broadcaster association said in a weekly newsletter to members on Friday. “With the installation of this equipment, we took a giant step forward in insuring [sic] that critical EAS messaging will not fail,” as it has before for EAS tests and for AMBER alerts, New Jersey Broadcasters Association President Paul Rotella wrote. “Our interoperability will reach beyond our borders to include Pennsylvania, Delaware, DC and Maryland, as well as the future prospect of having NYC included in our network through their [Office of Emergency Management], which has indicated that they will be following New Jersey’s lead."
All emergency alert system participants should prepare now for a new EAS format to send messages using the Internet, said FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials. They said that’s true even though the FCC Friday delayed the compliance deadline for all public and private radio and TV stations, DBS and satellite radio providers and multichannel video programming distributors. Those EAS participants must now be ready by June 30 to get and send alerts in Common Alerting Protocol, which FEMA developed, the FCC Public Safety Bureau has said. Government officials said at an FCBA lunch Thursday that they're working with PBS, NPR and state emergency managers on matters including a Nov. 9 nationwide test of EAS using the current alerting standard.
A fresh House bill to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety has the support of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., who serves on the Appropriations Committees, on Tuesday introduced the Help Emergency Responders Operate Emergency Systems (HEROES) Act. Using proceeds from spectrum auctions, the bill would provide $5.5 billion for construction, maintenance and operation of the national public safety network and $400 million to set up a grant program to help first responders upgrade their radios to comply with the FCC’s 2004 narrowband mandate.
The FCC delayed for a second time emergency alert system rules for traditional media to get and pass on to viewers and listeners EAS warnings that the government distributes online. The commission Friday delayed by nine months to June 30 the date when all multichannel video programming distributors and radio and TV stations must be ready for the Common Alerting Protocol format. That’s longer than the four-month compliance delay sought (CD Aug 8 p3) by CAP’s developer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It released the new standard in September 2010, and CAP is part of the integrated public alert and warning system (IPAWS).