The Consumer Technology Association told the Federal Communications Commission last week that it believes the current Emergency Alert System is highly effective and, if expanded, could create more problems than it solves.
The association’s comments were in response to a public notice issued by the FCC last month in which it said it would explore whether fundamental changes to EAS and Wireless Emergency Alerts — which provide emergency alerts to supported mobile devices — would make them more effective, efficient and better able to serve the public’s needs.
The CTA told the commission that while it appreciated its efforts towards reassessing the state of emergency alerting in the U.S., adding more regulations to current rules would be expensive and time-consuming.
[Related: “NAB Outlines Key Steps to Modernizing EAS”]
“Expanding EAS and WEA beyond the media and devices they reach now would require overcoming resource-intensive and complicated technical hurdles, while duplicating the alerting that the public already receives,” the CTA said in its filing. “Because the public safety community has expressed concern with alert fatigue, avoiding unintended consequences also requires the careful evaluation of any new requirements and guidelines.”
With nearly all Americans — 98 percent as of 2024 — owning a cellphone, CTA said the current system works well.
“The integration of wireless phones into consumers’ lives means that the shift in behavior from traditional television and radio to online media and connected devices does not frustrate the alerting ‘systems’ objectives of widespread public notification about emergencies,” the association told the FCC.
The CTA added that “most Americans receive emergency and public safety information through WEA to mobile devices, not terrestrial radio or broadcast television.”
When a combined WEA-EAS test was conducted in October 2023, the association conducted a survey to determine how Americans received the emergency alerts, and found that approximately 95 percent of U.S. adults received or heard the emergency alert via their phone.
“The results of this survey illustrate the ubiquity of cellphones and smartphones and the effectiveness of the WEA system in reaching device users,” the CTA said.
Even when watching TV or listening to the radio, consumers usually have their mobile devices close by, CTA added.
