Got an opinion about the FCC’s latest batch of proposed changes to the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts, such as allowing EAS functions to be done in software?
The commission has published the deadlines to comment.
In June, as we reported, the commission not only issued new EAS cybersecurity rules, but it opened a further notice of proposed rulemaking to study and improve EAS and WEA.
Now it has announced that comments are due Aug. 31 and replies due Sept. 29. You can file comments here. Comments should refer to PS Dockets 25-224, 15-94 and 15-91.
In the FNPRM, the commission proposes changes to “improve the integrity, resilience and effectiveness of emergency alerts, including improving geographic accuracy of alerts, improving the detection and blocking of duplicate alerts, and removing outdated and unnecessary alerting requirements to help encourage broader participation in alerting.”
Among other things, it wants to allow radio and TV stations and other EAS participants to use software-based encoder/decoder technology instead of a dedicated EAS hardware device to process EAS alerts. The FCC does not propose to allow EAS to be run from the cloud.
The FNPRM also proposes to require authentication of EAS alerts before they are transmitted; to establish a universal alert identification number; to eliminate “outdated WEA geotargeting exceptions that often cause alerts to be received in the wrong locations”; to expand geotargeting options for EAS; to require EAS and WEA to display symbols that match the type of emergency and improve the effectiveness of earthquake alerts to grab the public’s attention; and to retire the 90-character maximum versions of WEA messages.
The FCC notice contains many pages of detailed questions about each of those proposals. You can read them in the FNPRM here, starting with Paragraph 41 on page 25.
[Related: Circles & Polygons: FCC Seeks to “Incentivize” EAS Geotargeting]
