Wireless Carriers Protest Possible EAS mandate
Wireless carriers told the FCC they shouldn’t be forced to transmit emergency messages through text messages on mobile phones. Led by CTIA, carriers noted that efforts to develop a more effective Emergency Alert System (EAS) were under way and a voluntary approach would work best. The Rural Cellular Assn. said in a white paper filed as a comment in the proceeding that wireless phones may be particularly ill-suited as warning devices.
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Carriers doubt the Commission is about to approve an EAS mandate, but want to make their views clear on a rulemaking seeking comments that was published in Aug., a wireless carrier source said Mon. “The Commission isn’t very far along in its thinking for wireless and other systems,” the source said. “The NPRM just asked open- ended questions. Most of the action is taking place elsewhere.”
The source cited a demonstration project the Dept. of Homeland Security is funding in D.C. working with 3 carriers (CD Oct 22 p5) and the Assn. of Public TV Stations -- as well as Sen. Steven’s (R-Alaska) interest in promoting EAS. Stevens believes EAS alerts from various sources could save lives in the event of an emergency such a tsunami hitting the Alaskan coast.
“Wireless currently is not arranged as a point to multi-point system, and attempting to shoehorn the EAS service into wireless may not make sense,” CTIA said. “The CMRS industry is actively investigating these and other issues involving the EAS and welcomes the opportunity to meet with the Commission to discuss the EAS and the industry’s capabilities.”
CTIA warned that precipitous action could harm public safety. “The Commission also should take caution to ensure that they do not act in a way that negatively impacts existing EAS effort,” CTIA said. “Even now, several wireless carriers are working with DHS/FEMA to trial new capabilities for the delivery of critical emergency information.” CTIA said the 6-month DHS/FEMA pilot will “help to form an understanding of the capabilities of the wireless industry.”
CTIA said the emphasis should be on improving EAS, not overhauling the current system. “The core EAS works admirably well, and has worked for over 40 years,” the association said. “As a result, CTIA believes that the appropriate inquiry should be the improvement of EAS, rather than full overhaul. Indeed, replacing the system is not financially viable and could result in significant harm to the public.”
RCA said it was pleased that the Commission “quite appropriately” didn’t draw conclusions in the rulemaking on whether wireless carriers or other services should have to provide an additional channel to the public in an emergency.
The group commissioned a white paper on the feasibility of wireless phones for EAS. The paper concluded that wireless systems are different enough -- from GSM to CDMA to TDMA -- that building a single alert system would be difficult. “Such a wide variety of operating technologies and status modes presents significant complications for an effective dissemination of emergency messages through cellular telephones,” the group advised. “Further… there are no standardized interfaces from external devices to wireless networks. Beyond that, the text messaging capabilities to deliver EAS messages vary with the network technology in use, but in all cases the capacity to transmit text characters is limited or extremely limited.”
RCA said if the govt. adopts a mandate, it should be for signals transmitted using the existing National Weather Radar system. Wireless phones could be adapted to incorporate receivers that would receive these warnings, the group said.
“We do have concerns that either Congress or other policymakers will proceed out of concern for public safety and adopt policies that are not entirely thought through,” David Nace, RCA gen. counsel, told us Mon. “That’s why we commissioned the white paper was to ensure that we had a clear understanding and to share it with the public. We had concerns and the white paper confirmed our concerns.”