Industry Opposes Proposed EAS Changes
Broadcasters, cable groups and emergency alerting companies resisted FCC suggestions for persistent emergency alert system warnings and changes to alerting codes. “It is simply not feasible to incorporate these changes cost-effectively into the existing, well embedded system,” said NCTA. Comments were due Tuesday in docket 15-94.
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Neither the Federal Emergency Management Agency “nor the FCC should consider the Emergency Alert System as a surrogate for a Public Information Officer,” said Nevada State Emergency Communications Committee Chair Adrienne Abbott. A Further NPRM was approved in June (see 2106170063).
Nearly every commenter objected to a proposal to allow persistent alerts for emergencies that require immediate action, such as an emergency evacuation. “We are unaware of an effective process for issuing, processing and most importantly, ending persistent EAS messages or related notifications,” said NAB. Many stations are unattended some, if not most, of the time, argued EAS gearmaker Sage Alerting. That could make it difficult to end a persistent alert if information changed or if a new alert were needed, Sage said. “Persistent alerting should not be mandated by the commission,” said Digital Alert Systems. “Industry itself should be given adequate time to consider realistic alternatives, if any.”
NAB said the broadcast practice of displaying an icon in the corner of the screen during an alert and running a crawl during ongoing incidents “sufficiently addresses” the goal of persistent alerts. “Implementing a ‘persistent alerting’ capability within EAS would be a costly and burdensome undertaking,” said ACA Connects. Xperi said HD Radios display a form of persistent alert, so the FCC plan shouldn't go forward. “Existing implementation of emergency alerts on digital radio delivers the critical benefits of persistent alerting without some of the potential drawbacks,” said Xperi.
Changes to alert codes got similar resistance. Changing the nationwide EAS code for global emergencies such as nuclear attacks from the emergency action notification would make a great deal of older equipment unable to issue the message, said Sage: “The old equipment is still in use.” The EAN code is “hard-wired into downstream processes because of its unique nature in the EAS ecosystem,” said NCTA. “The cost to redefine or replace the EAN event code would be massive and have little or no countervailing benefit.”
Changes to the code for primary entry point (PEP) stations -- the first stations to trigger their EAS systems in the alerting daisy chain -- could be troublesome for small broadcasters, said Nevada's Abbott. “The cost would not be worth a change that is of little significance to the general public,” she said. Digital Alert Systems supports changing the PEP code to NAT, which stands for “National Authority.” If the FCC does implement a change to the PEP code, participants should have a year to make the change, said ACA.