FCC Members Expected to Largely Approve Proposed WEA Changes
CTIA is raising concerns about the FCC’s proposed new rules for wireless emergency alerts, saying the agency must give industry ample time to adapt to any rule change. Commissioners vote on revised WEA rules at their Sept. 29 meeting (see 1609080083). Industry objections are raising at least some concerns among the commissioners, though it's unclear how much the rules will be tweaked before next week’s vote, agency and industry officials told us.
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Agency officials also said, given the role wireless alerts apparently played in the apprehension of New York bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami (see 1609210037), there's unlikely to be much pushback on any aspect of the proposed rule change. The FCC didn't comment.
New York City officials pressed for action on the rules, in a call Monday with Brendan Carr, aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai. Representatives of the New York City Emergency Management Department (NYCEM) on the call described the message they had sent out that morning: “WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male. See media for pic. Call 9-1-1 if seen.” That message would have been more effective had the photo or a link to a photo of the suspect been included, as will be possible with the revised rules, the NYCEM officials said, according to a filing in docket 15-91.
The New York officials also said they sent out two messages when a second bomb allegedly planted by Rahami was discovered Saturday and then after it was removed. “Although these messages were intended for one block, the WEA system’s limited geo-targeting capability required NYCEM to select a larger area to improve the likelihood that the intended residents would receive the alert,” the city officials said. “Despite geo-targeting the message to several square blocks, NYCEM has received anecdotal reports that individuals far outside of the target area received the message.”
That doesn’t make sense in an era when technology allows ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft to geo-locate customers within a few feet, while WEA remains reliant on cell towers and sectors, the filing said. “WEA must leverage the native capacity of today’s handsets to improve the state of emergency alerting and prevent warning fatigue.” The New York officials later reported on a second call with Johanna Thomas, aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.
CTIA raised concerns in a series of meetings at the FCC, mostly on the timing of new WEA rules. “It is crucial that changes to the WEA service are carefully developed and deployed to ensure that consumer experiences and expectations are properly managed,” CTIA said in a filing. “The wireless industry is concerned that excessive modifications to WEA may lead to confusion by the public or may overwhelm wireless subscribers with either confusing or duplicative information. This may have the unintended effect of subscribers choosing to opt out of the service.”
If the FCC approves longer 360-character alerts, as proposed by Chairman Tom Wheeler, CTIA said the agency should allow 24 months for standards completion, 18 months for device and network development and 12 months to start transmitting 360-character messages to capable devices. If the FCC allows alert senders to embed active links in alerts, also as proposed by Wheeler, the agency should do so following a voluntary pilot program, CTIA said. “Current WEA messaging has no connection between a browser and the WEA interface, so there is no ability within existing standards to accommodate a ‘clickable’ link.”
International wireless standards efforts are focused almost exclusively on 5G, CTIA said. “Any WEA enhancements will be difficult to move through standards bodies. Industry’s prior experience of a 12 month process for standards completion is likely to be substantially longer, perhaps closer to 24 months.” CTIA also said the replacement cycle for new handsets has slowed considerably, from two years in 2013/2014 to 29 months this year. “Market penetration of new WEA features into the existing handset base is therefore likely to be delayed by the slowing handset replacement cycle,” CTIA said.
The FCC sought comment in a November NPRM on allowing longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts (see 1511190053).