U.S. Must Improve EAS, Upton Says
The U.S. emergency alert system (EAS) needs upgrading to reflect new technology and new threats, Rep. Upton (R-Mich.), chmn. of the House Telecom Subcommittee said Thurs. at a hearing on the Warning Alert & Response Network (WARN) Act. The Senate is considering similar legislation.
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“There do exist many shortcomings in our current alert system,” Upton said, noting that the system dates to 1951. “While much has changed since the days of Harry Truman, the alert system has only expanded to analog radio and TV stations as well as wired and wireless cable systems,” he said.
Upton called a 2005 FCC order (CD Nov 4 p4) widening EAS duties to DBS, digital TV and cable and satellite and digital audio broadcasting “a very important step for our national alert system.” But, he added, “with burgeoning technologies it seems that more can be done to ensure a greater blanket of coverage.”
A key point disputed Thurs. was whether EAS requirements should apply to wireless carriers. WARN doesn’t set a mandate but the FCC might do so (CD July 17 p 4) with an order likely at the Commission’s Sept. agenda meeting.
Rep. Markey (D-Mass.), ranking subcommittee member, noted wireless carrier opposition to a mandate. “I think it is important to revisit the voluntary nature of some pending proposals,” he said: “Bad as an unfunded mandate may be it seems equally problematic to spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on a new alert system… and then indicate to industry that they don’t have to use it. This would represent a funded nonmandate, the worst of all situations.”
Rep. Shimkus (R-Ill.), a WARN sponsor along with Rep. Wynn (D-Md.), said EAS deployment should be technology neutral and encourage participation but not require steps by wireless carriers. “When people say, ‘Mandate, mandate, mandate,’ guess what? You can’t mandate to areas that don’t even have 911 dialup,” said Shimkus, who represents 30 heavily rural counties: “That’s why incentives, market-based, competitive products I think do a better job of encouraging full deployment.”
Upton planned to see a committee markup if the hearing went well, Shimkus told reporters after the hearing. Shimkus is hopeful the Senate also will move this year, he said: “If we show movement, I think that helps the Senate,” he said. “Conventional wisdom is, if we can move it they will then move it… There’s not a lot of opposition.” He doesn’t see timing as an impediment, he said: “We're going to be here after the election in November. We're going to be here in December. There’s a lot of idle time.”
Shimkus hasn’t communicated his concerns about a wireless carrier mandate to Chmn. Martin, though “my friends over in the Senate have,” he said.
Hearing testimony broke little new ground. Upton asked panelists straight out if wireless carriers should face a mandate. CTIA largely stood alone in opposition. Julius Knapp, deputy chief of the FCC Office of Engineering & Technology, declined to comment, citing the ongoing proceeding.
“Competition will result in the best and most capable product,” Chris Guttman-McCabe, CTIA Vp for regulatory affairs, said: “The solution is not simple.” Guttman-McCabe said, for example, that putting a paging chip in cellphones may hold promise. “You can’t just put a 2nd chip into a phone this big,” he said. “It would also require shielding of the existing antenna so that you don’t cause interference within the phone.”
Committee members and panelists agreed device redundancy will remain important. “Resiliency and redundancy make sense,” Guttman-McCabe said: “The Commission is looking at an alert system across multiple platforms and we wholly endorse that.”
Wireless carriers should be able to expand their EAS capabilities quickly, Knapp said: “It really shouldn’t take that long because I think you've already seen demonstrated the technologies that are available today. It should just be a matter of testing them and nailing down the standards.”
Paging offers benefits to EAS, said Vincent Kelly, pres. of USA Mobility, the nation’s biggest paging company. “While damage to a transmission tower usually will disrupt mobile telephone service, paging’s use of simulcasting enables the delivery of messages to paging devices from other nearby towers,” he said. “Paging also is a very affordable technology, which makes it suitable either as a primary communications tool or as a backup.”