[EAS] FCC Commission meeting: WEA order and further notice approved

[Ed Czarnecki]

Here is the WEA order again, in more user-friendly sentence case.

"This item as adopted would leverage technological advances to enhance WEA
as a tool for state and local officials to keep communities safe.

The order adopts requirements to improve w.e.a. message content, delivery,
training and outreach.

With respect to message content, we would increase the maximum message
length from 90 to 360 characters for 4G, LTE and future networks.

It would significantly improve the quality of information that alert
originators are able to transmit by requiring participating wireless
carriers to support embedded urls and phone numbers in all WEA messages,
including Amber alerts, within one year of the rule's publication in the
Federal Register. This would enable the public to view a photo or to place a
call to authorities by simply clicking on a link in a WEA alert.

We would create a new alert classification for public safety messages,
defined as a central public safety advisory that describe one or more
actions likely to save lives or safeguard property.

We would also require carriers to support transmission of alerts initiated
in Spanish.

The order would also adopt rules to meet alert originator's needs for the
delivery of alerts, specifically, we would require participating wireless
carriers to create and maintain alert logs that they must make available
upon request.

We would require carriers to improve alert delivery by geographically
targeting alerts to an area that best aapproximates the target area
specified by alert originators, and allow carriers to begin implementing
device-based geotargeting as soon as practicable to create a clear path
forward for meeting an even more active geotargeting standard.

The order would also adopt rules that would create a framework for emergency
managers to test, exercise and raise public awareness about WEA to support
community proficiency in the use of wireless alerts.

Next, in the further notice, we would propose and seek comment on additional
measures to improve the effectiveness of WEA.

We would propose to require that WEA-capable devices preserve alerts for
easy user review until they expire.

We would propose requiring carriers to deliver earthquake-related alerts to
the public in fewer than three seconds.

We would also seek comment on additional steps we can take to optimize WEA
as a means of communicating with the public during disaster relief efforts,
including by using WEA to queue the provision of crowd sourced community
feedback.

We would also seek to incorporate future technical advancements to improve
WEA specifically, we would propose to require support for certain multimedia
content and public safety messages, and propose to require carriers to joe
owe target alerts to areas that match rather than approximate target areas
specified by alert originators. 

We would also seek comment on ways to deepen WEA's support for alerts in
multiple languages and on whether and how 5G networks could enhance WEA even
further. 

We would take steps to promote the development of consumer education tools
for WEA and propose to facilitate and inform state and local emergency
agencies to require to annually report on metrics."

Edward Czarnecki, PhD 
Senior Director – Strategy  & Global Government Affairs
MONROE ELECTRONICS
585-765-2254 ext. 122 | fax 585-765-9330
Reston VA | Lyndonville NY
www.digitalalertsystems.com 

From: Ed Czarnecki [mailto:ed.czarnecki at monroe-electronics.com] 

Today, the FCC approved the WEA item (order and further notice) scheduled at
today’s FCC meeting.  The item was approved unanimously, except that
Commissioner O’Rielly dissented in part with quite realistic assessments on
current limitations on technology and cost burdens on industry..

Here’s a summary as outlined by the staff (please forgive the all-caps, this
comes from the FCC reader service):

Edward Czarnecki, PhD 
Senior Director – Strategy  & Global Government Affairs
MONROE ELECTRONICS
585-765-2254 ext. 122 | fax 585-765-9330
Reston VA | Lyndonville NY
www.digitalalertsystems.com