The Federal Communications Commission will now require commercial mobile service providers that participate in Wireless Emergency Alerts to use multilingual templates.
In issuing final rules, it created templates for the 18 most commonly issued and time-sensitive alerts in the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S., in addition to English and American Sign Language. The latter are video messages signed in ASL.
At present, mobile devices only support WEA alerts sent in English and Spanish, according to the FCC. In addition, alert originators currently must write any Spanish translations themselves.
It created “fillable templates” and adopted versions for English and the written forms of the other languages. The 13 templates include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
It will take a while before multilingual alerts show up on phones. Mobile providers have 30 months to implement them.
WEA itself is a voluntary system in which CMS providers may choose to participate.
Background and details
In late 2023, the commission adopted rules to enable alert originators to send common alerts in other languages without the need for a translator. It spent much of 2024 collecting feedback from stakeholders on how the process should be implemented.
The rules require wireless providers that participate in WEA to install and store the alert templates on mobile devices. When an originator sends a template-based alert, the phone will display the relevant template in the subscriber’s default language, if available. Otherwise, the phone should display the alert in English.
In its order the FCC said it adopted templates for the following 18 alerts: tornado emergency, tornado warning, flash flood emergency, flash flood warning, severe thunderstorm, snow squall, dust storm, hurricane, storm surge, extreme wind, test alert, fire, tsunami, earthquake, boil water, avalanche, hazardous materials, and 911 outage.
The FCC studied data from the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System from 2022 to identify the most common alerts. The National Weather Service recommended two templates for tornados and two templates for flash floods; one emergency version for each conveys “the highest threat to life and property,” while one warning version for each provides advance notice.
The FCC declined to adopt evacuation and shelter-in-place templates and deferred consideration of other templates, saying it agreed with commenters that certain templates might risk panic due to vagueness.
Optional for originators
Outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel says the language a person speaks shouldn’t keep them from receiving emergency information.
“During an emergency, life-saving alerts should be accessible to everyone,” she said in a statement. “Our public safety partners have made it clear that one of the main barriers to multilingual alerting is the ability to translate time-sensitive messages into additional languages during crises. The multilingual Wireless Emergency Alert templates we announce today are a long time coming and will make it so officials can reach more people with urgent messages and save lives.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was supportive of this initiative, according to the FCC.
The FCC reiterated that the use of the templates is optional for the alerting authorities; if an originator does not find it appropriate, they don’t have to use them.
The rules also finalized the wording of each warning. The FCC says it incorporated language or guidance based on existing templates used by NWS; social science research; the United States Geological Survey (USGS); FEMA test alerts; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It did modify several templates from the original proposal to make minor refinements.
For example, this is the text it adopted for a tornado warning for WEA: “[SENDING AGENCY]: A TORNADO WARNING is in effect for [LOCATION] until [TIME]. Take shelter now in a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest sturdy shelter and protect yourself from flying objects. Check media. [URL].”
CMS providers were given 30 months to implement these fillable templates.
The commission directed its Media and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureaus to create a consumer guide to help people set the default language on their devices.
The FCC has also been considering ways to bring more multilingual announcements to the Emergency Alert System, as we have reported. It has proposed creating template scripts and audio files for broadcasters to use; its proposal would allow broadcasters to provide additional multilingual alerts using pre-translated, pre-loaded scripts in a variety of languages.
That idea was met with skepticism from EAS stakeholders worried about the complications of implementing the technology to carry out the FCC’s wishes.
