Americans Need an Effective Emergency Alert System: Wireless Carriers Drag Their Feet Instead

What’s the story?

Before Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25th, wireless carriers had lobbied the Federal Communications Committee against upgrades to the wireless emergency alert (WEA) system.

As explained by Recode.net, for years the FCC "has endeavored to upgrade the sort of short text-based messages - often accompanied by a loud alarm - that authorities have used since 2012 to warn Americans about rising floods, abducted children and violent criminals at large."

Some wireless providers and device makers, however, have been pushing back against the measures. They argue that some of the changes "could prove technically difficult or costly to implement, while congesting their networks," according to Recode. In recent months, service providers like AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile have “encouraged the FCC to slow down its work.”

On August 15th, less than ten days before Harvey hit, CTIA, a lobbying group for wireless carriers, wrote the FCC that Commercial Mobile Service (CMS) providers "are committed to working collaboratively with public safety and alert originators to develop the ability to receive and transmit WEA alerts with embedded references on their networks, and to work with mobile device and OS vendors to implement embedded, ‘clickable’ references, but remain concerned about implementing such functionality without adequate time for development and feasibility testing."

Microsoft has also joined the discussion and in a letter to the FCC on August 8, Microsoft wrote that during its call with the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, the company "emphasized the importance of providing adequate time to develop technical standards and adequate time to develop, produce, and test devices incorporating that new technology."

And in another letter filed with the FCC on August 23, Microsoft lobbied against proposed rules that would place the burden for technological changes on them: "in an emergency context, auto-translation should be conducted by the alert originator rather than the device," Gunnar Halley, a senior attorney for Microsoft wrote.

Why does it matter?

On July 10, a homeland security official in Harris County, Texas - which includes Houston - sent a letter to the FCC outlining his frustrations with the hold-up on WEA upgrades.

"Despite a robust record that included comments from wireless carriers, vendors and public safety officials across the country, as well as a robust [Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council] process that advocated for these enhancements, the Commission’s potential delay…has left the public safety community feeling frustrated and disappointed," wrote Francisco Sánchez, Jr.

Further down in the letter, Sánchez specifically voiced his concerns for hurricane-related alerts.

"Currently, Harris County rarely uses WEA because it does not want to potentially alert the entire county when a WEA message may only pertain to a certain portion of the county…. For example, an ordered evacuation for a hurricane or tropical storm would need to communicate different messages to different areas: inland populations should take shelter, while populations near the Gulf of Mexico should evacuate immediately."

Calls to upgrade the WEA are not new. Almost a year ago, the debate was reignited during the manhunt for Manhattan bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami, who police believed was tied to explosions in Chelsea. An alert sent to smartphones said the police were searching for a suspect, but the notification didn’t include a photo of Rahami or link; instead, it urged readers to "see media for pic."

The reason for the exclusion was because wireless alerts weren’t capable of including multimedia – like photos and maps – and alerts were capped at 90 characters. In response, the Obama administration, and then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, adopted an order to "increase the maximum length of WEA messages (from 90 to 360 characters)," “support transmission of Spanish-language alerts,” and require the future support of “embedded phone numbers and URLs.”

Ajit Pai, Trump’s appointee to lead the FCC, has, in the past, supported reforms to the WEA program. In 2016, Pai said, "Millions of people who live in these communities could miss out on potentially life-saving information because [the alert system’s] current brushstroke is too broad."

In January 2017, CTIA requested that the FCC forgo any additional reforms to the WEA system. "CTIA and the wireless industry wish to continue their commitment to enhancing public safety through voluntary participation in the WEA program and are dedicated to assisting in the development and deployment of feasible improvements to WEA. The record in this proceeding, however, demonstrates a consensus that several of the Commission’s proposed rules pose technical and economic challenges that render implementation infeasible or premature."

However, in the wake of Harvey, CTIA released a statement with a slightly different tone: "The wireless industry partners with federal, state and local emergency authorities to deploy wireless networks and handsets that support unique WEA capabilities, and continuously seeks to enhance the WEA system."

Since Harvey the FCC has not issued a statement regarding the proposed changes to WEA.

However, as the FCC notes, participation in the WEA program is voluntary: "Wireless companies volunteer to participate in WEA, which is the result of a unique public/private partnership between the FCC, FEMA and the wireless industry to enhance public safety."

What do you think?

Are wireless carriers right in saying they need more time do what the FCC is asking? Should participation in the WEA program be mandatory? Is the FCC doing enough to ensure the WEA program is up to date? Hit the Take Action button, tell your reps, and comment below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Nomad_S0ul / iStockphoto)