The Federal Emergency Management Agency urged federal regulators to defer key decisions in efforts to establish a voluntary mobile-phone emergency alert system.
FEMA, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, told the Federal Communications Commission a 2006 executive order gives FEMA delegated authority over the emergency alert system involving presidential activations, but that it lacks authority during non-emergency periods to be involved with critical components of the commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), including aggregator and gateway functions as well the trust model, when warnings are issued by non-federal agencies.
A need to coordinate
FEMA asked “that the commission not identify a federal agency to enact elements of the CMAS that regard alerts, warnings, or notifications originated by state and local authorities until the federal entities identified by [the Bush executive order] can coordinate appropriate responsibilities.”
Indeed, FEMA said new legislation may be necessary to sort out jurisdictional questions.
But FEMA’s concerns go beyond the legal administration of the mobile alert system. The agency said that while it supports the development of the common alerting protocol (CAP) standard, it “reserves the right to abstain from designating the CAP standard as the formal Emergency Alert System standard until such time as deemed appropriate by FEMA.”
FEMA’s filing at the FCC comes at an important juncture in the latter agency’s mobile emergency warning proceeding. The FCC recently received feedback on October 2007 recommendations of the government-industry committee advising the agency on how to modernize a Cold War-era emergency alert regime – based largely on broadcast TV and radio – that has yet to incorporate cellular technology into the mix.
The Warning, Alert and Response Network Act requires the FCC to complete its rulemaking on technical standards, protocols, procedures and technical requirements – based on advisory committee recommendations – within 180 days of receipt of those recommendations. That puts the deadline at early April. The legislation, signed into law in October 2006, also authorizes $106 million to develop technical protocols for delivering emergency alerts through wireless and other communications distribution channels.
In recent years, FEMA has been working with wireless carriers, public TV operators and others to develop a digital platform for emergency alert distribution and is closely monitoring cell-broadcast trials.
Wireless industry weighs in
The cell-phone industry and others support the advisory panel’s recommendations on mobile alerts, with cellular carriers warning the FCC it would be unwise to go beyond them. The wireless sector opposes geo-targeting of mobile alerts beyond the county level and claims that requiring warnings in multiple languages is not feasible. The industry also said the FCC should not impose burdensome requirements on wireless carriers’ notifications to consumers about whether the service providers are participating in the mobile alert system.
“Work has already begun to develop industry standards to implement the CMAS. Any significant modifications of the [advisory committee’s] recommendations would slow the development and rollout of the CMAS,” stated cellular industry association CTIA.
Cellcast Technologies L.L.C., a Houston-based firm whose cell broadcast technology has been launched in Appleton, Wis., and is set for deployment in Missouri, told the FCC the advisory group’s recommendations do not satisfy the WARN Act’s requirements. One example, according to Cellcast, is the absence in recommendations of standards to transport alert messages by mobile-phone operators. Cellcast also supports geo-targeting on a cell site basis. The firm said the government should seize on the reality that many top handsets already have cell broadcast capability.
“By formalizing cell broadcast as the standard for CMAS alert message delivery, the commission can take a tremendous step toward ensuring the delivery of authenticated, secure, geo-targeted emergency alert messages directly to the more than 250 million cellular handsets in use across the United States,” stated Cellcast.
Last year’s Virginia Tech shootings and Southern California fires, the major hurricanes in 2005 and recent killings at Northern Illinois University have highlighted the value of wireless alert capability during emergencies. States like California and Florida do not appear willing to waiting for the federal government to modernize emergency alert system, saying they want to move ahead with their own plans sooner to bring wireless alerts to their citizens.
