WASHINGTON—As expected, the Federal Communications Commission has embarked on a major effort to reexamine the national alert and warning systems, including the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr announced in July plans for a fundamental reexamination of existing alerting systems and the agency voted to officially go forward with the idea during its August Open Meeting.
The FCC said the action will explore whether fundamental changes to these systems, which include EAS, which provides emergency alerts to the public via radio, television, satellite and cable systems, and WEA, which provides emergency alerts to supported mobile devices. could make them more effective, efficient, and better able to serve the public’s needs.
More specifically, the notice of proposed rulemaking will:
- Seek comment on the objectives for effective alert and warning systems.
- Explore which entities need to be able to send alerts to fully accomplish these objectives and how these needs should be addressed in the design of alerting systems.
- Consider the alert transmission capabilities that a national public alert and warning system must have to achieve its objectives, including the need for resilience, geographic targeting, and security.
- Ask whether EAS and WEA are meeting the needs and expectations of both the public and alerting authorities, and if not, whether redesign or targeted changes would allow EAS and WEA to fully reach their potential.
- Examine both the types of information and distribution methods needed to effectively convey information to the public through EAS and WEA.
Notably the proposed NPRM does not mention the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which the Trump administration is shutting down. In the past, the CPB has played a major role in channeling funding to public stations to implement and upgrade their alerting systems.
The proposed NPRM also makes no mention of ATSC 3.0 or the transition to NextGenTV/ATSC 3.0. Proponents of 3.0 broadcasts have repeatedly touted its capabilities for delivering much more robust and informative alerts.
In late July, TV Tech's Phil Kurz reported, “The Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance made the rounds at the Federal Communications Commission last week to underscore the importance of removing the ATSC 1.0-3.0 simulcast requirement, establishing a date certain for the shutoff of legacy DTV and setting a date by which broadcasters must transmit 3.0 to facilitate a successful transition and support continued technological innovation in broadcasting.”
"AWARN Alliance executive director Dave Arland and Ed Czarnecki, AWARN steering committee member and vice president of government and international affairs at Digital Alert Systems, met July 25 with FCC Media Bureau and Public Safety Bureau staff, as well as legal and policy advisers to Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty, to discuss how realizing all of the benefits of advanced emergency warnings depends on shutting down ATSC 1.0 and fully transitioning to 3.0, along with other issues, according to notices of ex parte communication sent to the agency."
In a public statement on the NPRM, Carr said: “One of the points that I have emphasized with the FCC’s leadership team is that we should take a first principles approach to our jobs. Just because something has been done a certain way for a certain number of years, we should not hesitate to change things up—whether in big or small ways.
“That is certainly the approach we are taking with this item today,” he said “Two of our most vital communications tools to keep people safe in times of crisis are the nation’s alerting and warning systems: the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). I’ve seen these tools in action, and there is no doubt that they have had a tremendous impact on public safety and saving American lives. Since I’ve been at the Commission, we’ve made multiple changes to both programs. But the frameworks underlying EAS and WEA are 31 and 13 years old, respectively. That’s a long time by any measure, and a lifetime in the tech sector. Today, we are asking questions to assess whether EAS and WEA are delivering on their objectives, and if not, how they can be changed to make sure they are leveraging the latest technology to save lives.”
The full notice can be found here.
