Br0wn13 ur d01ng h3ckuv4 j0b kthxbai
The FCC this week adopted rules for delivering emergency text messages to the public and recommended that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be the program’s aggregator.
The Federal Communications Commission this week adopted rules for delivering emergency text messages to the public and recommended that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be the program’s aggregator.
The emergency text message program was mandated by the Warning, Alert and Response Network Act that was passed in 2006. Under that act, the FCC is required to develop plans for a commercial mobile-alert system whereby wireless carriers voluntarily transmit text messages sent out by the government during national or local emergencies.
The architecture adopted by the FCC this week envisions a centralized alert-aggregator where federal and state emergency-response agencies send their warning messages to be authenticated and dispersed to the appropriate participating commercial mobile services. Noting FEMA’s role in developing the proposal for the adopted architecture, the FCC recommended the agency as its first choice to serve as the alert aggregator. Thus far, however, FEMA has not agreed, and has argued that it is limited in its statutory authority from serving in such a role.
In its order, the FCC said that it was “hopeful that any bars that prevent FEMA or some other entity within DHS [Department of Homeland Security] from fulfilling these roles will be lifted expeditiously,” and urged Congress to expand FEMA’s role to give it a central role in the emergency Short Message Service program.
The commission said that if FEMA did not take responsibility for being the alert aggregator, another entity within DHS or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should take the reins. In a separate statement, Commissioner Michael Copps expressed frustration that FEMA had yet to step up to the plate, and said that if no federal agency assumed the role as aggregator, then “Americans will never receive the protection of emergency alerts delivered to their mobile phones.”
FEMA has come in for heavy criticism over the past few years, especially for its response to the humanitarian crisis created in the Gulf Coast region by Hurricane Katrina. For instance, in the aftermath of the hurricane, it was revealed that FEMA’s Web site accepted only online aid requests that were sent through Internet Explorer Version 6 or higher, and that came from computers that used the Windows operating system.
The agency acknowledged the problems and limitations of its National Emergency Management Information System months later, and said it was working to increase the number of aid applications it could process. FEMA also said it had made strides in integrating its own communications capabilities with those of the Coast Guard, as well as other departments within DHS.
The FCC has divided the types of messages the government will send out to mobile-phone users into three broad categories. Presidential Alerts deal with national emergencies and will take precedence over any other impending alerts. Imminent Threat Alerts deal with emergencies “that may pose an imminent risk to people’s lives or well-being.” Finally, Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER alerts will be related to missing or abducted children. In addition, the FCC says that all subscribers with roaming agreements will receive timely alerts “provided the subscriber’s mobile device is configured for, and technically capable of, receiving such emergency alerts from the network they are roaming on.”
The commission’s adoption of rules for emergency mobile alerts comes on the heals of its failure during the 700MHz auction to find a bidder to operate a block of spectrum that it had reserved for the construction of a high-speed public-safety network. The FCC says it is still weighing options for how to best use the spectrum for public-safety purposes.
