[EAS] National test won't be shown on AT&T U-verse?

[suzanne at mab.org]

This puzzles me.  It's the tag of a story from Broadcasting & Cable about the FCC order not to use the alert tones in news stories.  If the duration of the test is the issue, does that suggest that U-verse can't even run RMTs because they're "too short"? --SG
 
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In other EAS news, AT&T said Tuesday that since the alert was shortened last week from 3 minutes to 30 seconds, its customers may not recieve the alert, though they would if it were a real emergency.

"If the test only lasts 30 seconds," said AT&T, "alert messages will not be transmitted to U-verse customers and their receivers may not be automatically tuned to a local news station. However, in the event of an actual emergency alert, our customers' receivers would automatically tune to a local news station and all customers would receive the emergency alert message."

But AT&T said it has sent out a pre-alert alert to let its viewers know about the alert they may be missing.

"In an effort to keep our customers informed," said the company Tuesday, "we today notified our U-verse TV customers via an on screen message that a) the National Emergency Alert System is being tested tomorrow at 2 p.m. ET, b) the test has been shortened by the authorities from three minutes to 30 seconds to reduce overall disruptions, and c) because of the shortened duration of the test, the test may not appear on their TV screens."