FCC PROPOSES TO BOLSTER EFFECTIVENESS OF WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS THROUGH PUBLIC PERFORMANCE REPORTING

The Federal Communications Commission proposed to strengthen the effectiveness of Wireless Emergency Alerts, including through public reporting on the reliability, speed, and accuracy of these messages.

Since its launch one decade ago, Wireless Emergency Alerts have become an essential part of America’s emergency preparedness. The system has been used more than 62,000 times to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, and other critical situations – through alerts on compatible mobile devices. While Wireless Emergency Alerts are a success story, there is still room for improvement, and to date there has been no formal mechanism for the Commission to collect reliable and consistent data about the system’s performance. In a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted today, the Commission therefore proposed that wireless providers that participate in Wireless Emergency Alerts publicly report on key aspects of the performance of this service.

In particular, the Commission sought comment on:

• How the reliability, speed, and accuracy of Wireless Emergency Alerts should be defined and whether these are the most pertinent performance measures for the service;
• How participating wireless providers should measure the performance of Wireless Emergency Alerts for the purpose of generating performance reports;
• When and how these performance reports should be provided to the Commission; and
• Whether and how these performance reports should include information collected at the consumer’s device.

The Commission noted that providing emergency management agencies and the public with visibility into the performance of Wireless Emergency Alerts in their communities will help promote the use and improvement of this life-saving tool. The Commission also sought comment on ways to further improve the reliability and speed of Wireless Emergency Alerts based on findings from the 2021 nationwide Wireless Emergency Alert test.

Source: FCC media announcement