The FCC Public Safety Bureau agreed to extend...
The FCC Public Safety Bureau agreed to extend for 18 months a waiver to allow the broadcast of a simulated Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) attention signal in public service announcements developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The bureau acted…
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at FEMA’s request. “We agree with FEMA that while the PSAs have been successful in educating the public about WEA, negative public reaction to the WEA Attention Signal has continued due to residual public confusion about how the WEA functions,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1kpxa71). “We also concur that, despite the WEA success stories, this public confusion could potentially lead some consumers to opt out of receiving most WEA messages -- a result that would undermine the goal of WEA to serve as a viable and effective means to alert the public of emergencies.” In 2008, the FCC issued a series of orders adopting requirements for a Commercial Mobile Alert System allowing carriers to transmit emergency alerts to their subscribers, if they choose to do so. The major wireless carriers all agreed to participate in the alerting program.