At least one person in the alerting community believes the FCC should release the results of the nationwide EAS test so broadcasters and agency officials can continue updating EAS.
At the time, FCC officials said they wanted to protect the identities of individual stations that filed results following the Nov. 9 test, but could possibly release the data in some sort of aggregate form.
Since the test and for months afterwards, agency officials have asked broadcasters to send in their results.
Soon, it will be a year since the Nov. 9 test.
Now, a blogger for AWARE, which stands for Alerts, Warnings & Response to Emergencies, has proposed to the new FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Turetsky that the commission release the results.
Though the bulk of her post concerns the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, a 90-character text alerting messaging system implemented by wireless carriers this spring, SRA International consultant Liz Trocki also notes that when the agency released its fifth Report & Order on EAS in January, several decisions were deferred until after the commission had reviewed and processed the data from the test.
That, she notes, has left EAS progress in limbo.
“These new rules most likely will impact the rewrite of state EAS plans, which the FCC has asked that State Emergency Communications Committees currently be engaged in,” according to Trocki. “Without knowledge as to which of the possible deferred rules may be implemented, SECCs may need to rewrite their plans yet again, as soon as the commission rules on the possible future EAS rule changes.
