FEMA Sounds Warning on Rules for Alerts to Cellphones
The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned the FCC that though FEMA has authority over emergency alerts from the president, it lacks power over warnings by state and local authorities. In a letter this week, FEMA asked the FCC to hold off choosing a federal agency to oversee alerts to cellphones. FEMA also warned that Congress may need to pass legislation allowing a federal agency to take charge.
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FCC sources were reviewing FEMA’s letter, which showed up Thursday in a docket on creating rules for alerts to wireless devices. At issue is a recommendation by the FCC’s Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee that a federal agency serve as the “alert aggregator” to “receive, accumulate and authenticate alerts” before they're sent to wireless subscribers.
FEMA said that, though it supports the recommendations in general, the role that FEMA can play is limited by federal rules and laws. FEMA also asked the FCC not to set a date for carriers to start sending alerts “until all legal issues have been identified and resolved.”
Industry associations and companies also weighed in this week, as the FCC works to complete a rulemaking on alerts to cellphones. Most said the FCC should adopt the recommendations of the advisory committee without change, because it represented all major players from carriers to public safety groups.
“The vast majority of commenters in this proceeding urge the Commission to adopt the CMSAAC recommendations,” the CTIA said. “In supporting the CMSAAC report, these commenters recognized that the CMSAAC struck the right balance in weighing various interests to develop a workable plan that can be implemented within a reasonable period of time to the largest possible number of wireless customers.”
The American Association of Paging Carriers said: “The CMSAAC labored long and carefully to fulfill its mandate, and it would be highly inappropriate and counterproductive to the objectives of the WARN Act for the Commission to either second-guess the CMSAAC in any material way, or to attempt to reinvent the Report produced by the CMSAAC.”