FCC Announces Delay in Wireless Emergency Alerts Improvements

The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) through which all Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are authenticated, validated, and delivered to participating Commercial Mobile Service Providers, has informed the Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau that IPAWS will not be ready to support certain improvements to WEA as of June 10, 2019, as previously expected. Accordingly, until such time as IPAWS will support and deploy the State/Local WEA Test option, alert originators may not conduct an end-to-end WEA test to the public without first obtaining a waiver of the FCC’s rules3 The Bureau will issue a Public Notice announcing when IPAWS is available to fully support these WEA enhancements and providing further guidance on their use.