CTIA Objects to FM-Based Warning Proposal

Nineteen months after a multi-industry telecom committee settled on the best way to create a nationwide mobile warning service, the Cellular Telecommunications & Information Association (CTIA) has sent a letter to Congress objecting to a recent recommendation to include FM radio chipsets in cellular handsets to create a public warning network. The CTIA was joined by several cellular companies in their letter of objection, written to U.S. Senators and Representatives yesterday. According to the letter, Congress passed the WARN Act in 2007 to create a way to alert the public of serious situations, and the FCC created a 40-member advisory committee (pdf) in 2008 to devise a technical solution for a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS). The high-level solution was a point-to-multipoint, 90-character text broadcast, which could be satisfied by SMS or similar services. According to the CTIA letter, the FM chipset recommendation by the broadcast industry is impractical, not cost-effective, and won’t allow alerts to be targeted by geography. The companies signing the letter concluded that the recommendation “is not in the public interest. Find links to the WARN Act and subsequent FCC actions here.

President Bush signed Executive Order 13407 (pdf) in June 2006 setting a policy on a public warning system. The FCC began working on meeting the requirements of the order, using existing work on the nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS), the official means of communicating with the public.

In Oct. 2006 Bush signed the SAFE Port Act (pdf, Title VI, p. 53), which included provisions to create a modern, nationwide alerting system. Those provisions were known as the WARN Act. That latter act required the FCC to create a committee to study methods of communications and recommend the best one. The committee was formed and made their recommendations in Oct. 2007.

The FCC then asked for comments on the recommendation by issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (pdf) in Dec. 2007. Then in Feb. 2008 the FCC began considering all of the submitted suggestions.

In April 2008 the FCC issued a First Report and Order (pdf) covering the committee’s recommendations and public comment.

The FCC later issued a first, second and third Report and Order on CMAS, covering technical and procedura issues (see FCC info).

Now, we are in the middle of an 18-month network development and testing period, ending in Nov. 2010 with a system ready for broadcasting actual alerts. (timeline)

Download (pdf) the June 2009 CTIA letter to Congress criticizing the FM chipset plan here.

Download (pdf) a June 2008 summary of the WARN Act committee work here.