WASHINGTON-The Association of Public Television Stations and the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency said they have completed the second phase of a pilot program to design a national digital platform to distribute emergency alerts to cell phones, personal computers and other devices.
“This project demonstrates how the capabilities of America’s public broadcasters can be utilized to dramatically enhance the ability of the president of the United States to communicate with the American public during a national crisis,” said John Lawson, president of APTS.
APTS said DHS-FEMA have committed $5 million to the association by the end of 2007 to deploy the digital emergency system to 356 public TV stations.
“The current EAS has it roots in the Cold War, and still relies on technology from that era. … What we are announcing today is an alert system for the mobile, networked, and digital America of the 21st Century,” said Lawson.
However, the selection of a technology to disseminate mass wireless warnings remains unclear.
President Bush recently signed an executive order shifting some emergency alert service powers to the DHS. The Federal Communications Commission, which has yet to rule on an emergency alert reform proposal from 2004, is responsible for writing emergency warning regulations and enforcing them as they relate to television, radio and cable TV operators. There has been speculation the FCC could vote on emergency alert reform at its Aug. 3 meeting.
While the DHS has not officially endorsed a technology for emergency wireless alerts, the agency appears to be leaning toward a cell broadcast approach. Indeed, on the same day as last week’s public TV emergency alert demonstration, FEMA Deputy Director Patricia Buckingham wrote the Wisconsin Emergency Management office to praise Paradigm Communications, an Appleton, Wis.-based GSM carrier, for work on a separate pilot project to test the cell broadcast emergency alert system.
“Paradigm is leading the way in the United States by using this emerging technology to support the Emergency Alert System,” Buckingham said. “The Cellular Emergency Alert System Association has coordinated with Cellcast Communications and Logica CMG to provide a data management broker and cell-selector center that will enable emergency managers to geo-target a message to a specific population.”
