NCTA estimated it would cost about $3,500 per...
NCTA estimated it would cost about $3,500 per location to order and install new emergency alert system equipment required to recognize a new nationwide EAS code, in comments in FCC docket 04-296 (http://bit.ly/1d221jx). The development and testing processes for the…
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new code for downstream equipment is significantly more time- and resource-intensive “than the encoder/decoder review process and any subsequent modifications,” it said. The aggregate capital and operational cost of deploying a new nationwide location code is about $1.1 million for about 85 percent of cable customers, it said. At least one year is needed to deploy the new location code once it’s adopted by the FCC, NCTA said. Requiring the National Periodic Test Code to filter location codes and to last longer than two minutes is more costly and complex to implement than adopting a nationwide location code, it said. This would cost about $4.4 million for about 85 percent of cable customers, NCTA said. Public Safety Bureau staff discussed with NCTA the importance of achieving a consistent regulatory approach to EAS over an ad hoc interim approach to the handling, routing and security of EAS alerts, said the association.