In order to comply with new FCC regulations, Sage Alerting Systems hopes to announce the release of its EAS Rev96 in the coming days. Meanwhile, the manufacturer has issued a statement about a related issue.
“We have been working with FEMA over the last few weeks to resolve the upcoming expiration of intermediate signing certificates used by EAS devices to validate CAP alerts,” the manufacturer states on its website.
“There are two certificates that will expire April 14 and April 28, 2024. We are pleased to report that we’ve tested the newly released replacements, and they will be included in the Rev96 release. You will not need to do an extra update to accommodate these changes.
“In addition to the expiring intermediate certificates,” it continued, “FEMA will begin using a new certificate as it replaces older certs issued to originators such as state and county EOCs. Rev96 will also include support for that certificate as well. FEMA says that it will start issuing new certificates to originators starting April 1.
“In summary, as has happened every few years, new certificates will be required by April 1, 2024 to continue to receive IPAWS alerts. These will be included in the Rev96 release.”
That means users won’t have to perform an additional update when FEMA signing certificates expire in April.
Sage President Harold Price said the company is “wrapping up the Rev96 release, more news on that in a few days.”
U.S. radio stations were supposed to meet an FCC deadline of Dec. 12 to update their EAS equipment to comply with new rules that prioritize CAP-formatted alerts over legacy ones, when both are available. But Sage users were given another 90 days after the company notified the commission it would not be able to release the necessary firmware in time.
