Politicos push to update Cold War-era alert system

POLITICOS PUSH TO UPDATE COLD WAR-ERA ALERT SYSTEM
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
In an age of omnipresent cell phone, Internet and BlackBerry users, why does the government rely primarily on analog television and radio to beam its national emergency alerts? Politicians asked that question -- and urged support for legislation aimed at expanding the Cold War-era system -- at a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing Thursday. The hearing focused primarily on the Warning, Alert and Response Network, or WARN, Act, which was formally proposed last week by Reps John Shimkus (R-IL) and Albert Wynn (D-MD). That bill calls for government and the private sector to devise a "voluntary" national alert system capable of transmitting messages "across the greatest possible variety of communications technologies," including wireless devices and the Internet. The existing system, first deployed by President Harry Truman in 1951 with the intention of warning Americans about impending nuclear threats, requires national presidential alerts to be transmitted through analog radio, television and cable systems. Now called the Emergency Alert System, or EAS, it is also available for use by state and local governments on a voluntary basis. The idea of expanding the warnings to other media appears to have escalated in popularity since Hurricane Katrina and the communications bungles that occurred during the storm. Last November, the FCC issued rules requiring that digital television, cable and audio broadcasters and satellite radio operators also deliver the alerts, beginning Dec. 31, 2006. Satellite television providers must meet that requirement by May 31, 2007. The FCC itself is still contemplating whether the current structure of the EAS remains the best way to get the word out and is reviewing public comments on whether to deploy a new type of system, such as a satellite or Internet-based mechanism, Julius Knapp, acting chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, told the politicians. A recent executive order from President Bush and a report by an independent FCC panel reviewing communications during Katrina have also called for improvements. The WARN Act, for its part, would not explicitly require the messages to be sent to devices like cell phones and e-mail accounts, because "voluntary, incentive market-based competitive products (do) a better job of encouraging full deployment," Rep Shimkus said. Instead, details would be worked out by a new government office and a working group composed of federal, state and local government representatives and experts from industries related to the system. That working group would have a year from the law's passage to recommend guidelines, technological standards and other protocols, for any new alert systems.
http://news.com.com/Politicos+push+to+update+Cold+War-era+alert+system/2100-1028_3-6096561.html?tag=nefd.top

* Katrina Exposed Deadly Flaws in Public Alert System; Bipartisan Backing Grows to Add Mobile Phones, E-mail
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/News/07202006_2000.htm

* Hearing info: Shimkus-Wynn Bill, Expanding Emergency Alert System
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/07202006hearing1998/hearing.htm

** See also
[SOURCE: Prometheus Radio Project]
"It has been five years since the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Telecommunications has heard testimony about the essential service that low power FM (LPFM) radio provides to churches, schools, community groups, and to towns and cities across America. Today Sara Allen, an experienced engineer who has built radio stations from New Mexico to Florida spoke before the Subcommittee on the unique service that LPFM stations provide when hurricanes and other natural disasters take communications systems offline. Across the Gulf Coast and in countless other situations across the country, locally owned, volunteer-run community radio stations like LPFMs have been the difference between life and death, safety and danger for local communities. As Ms. Allen brought to the attention of the Subcommittee, stations like WQRZ-LP, a low power station in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, were perfectly placed to give neighborhood-by-neighborhood coverage of the damage of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and to help those communities know exactly how to interface with local and federal safety and health officials after the storms. But these stations are few and far between -- limited from thousands more towns and neighborhoods by an out-of-date law limiting low power radio to small, remote communities. With the WARN act, Congress has the opportunity to expand the national EAS infrastructure to reach millions of Americans at risk from a lack of local information about emergencies. If Congress moved to expand low power FM radio to thousands more towns and cities across this country, these communities would enjoy a reliable and well-understood local technology when disaster struck."
http://www.prometheusradio.org/