Emergency Communications

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has shared with her fellow commissioners draft final rules that, if adopted, would strengthen the security of the nation’s public alert and warning systems—the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts—against emerging cybersecurity threats. The Emergency Alert System delivers warnings to the public thorough radio and television. Wireless Emergency Alerts deliver warnings to consumers’ wireless phones.

Here’s what to expect for the Federal Communications Commission's jam-packed July Open Meeting agenda.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau announced a settlement to resolve its investigation into whether Verizon Wireless violated FCC rules by failing to deliver 911 calls during an outage in December 2022, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. As Congress and the Commission have found, robust and reliable 911 service is a critical national priority. Those calling first responders must be able to rely on their calls being completed.

The abrupt failure of Massachusetts’ 911 system on June 18 was a stark example of the disastrous consequences that can occur when an emergency network that is supposed to be reliable is, without warning, suddenly unreliable. The outage, lasting two hours, prompted a scramble among emergency agencies as they directed the public to reach out directly to the local authorities at less-familiar phone numbers or, as a last resort, go in person to their local firehouse.

Verizon is among several entities that told the Federal Communications Commission to hold off on any plan to grant FirstNet – and by extension AT&T – a nationwide license to the 4.9 GHz band. In case you aren't up to speed, here's the recap: The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) supports a proposal to assign the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet, which runs on AT&T’s network. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) opposes that plan and argues that the 4.9 GHz band should remain in the control of local authorities.

Network consolidation and centralization of networks is putting our broadband and voice networks in increased jeopardy. It’s easy to understand why carriers are in favor of the savings that come from consolidation, but it’s vital that we recognize and acknowledge the increased risk that comes as a consequence of choosing efficiency over other factors. One area of particular concern is 911 network consolidation.

As Atlantic hurricane season begins, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel highlighted actions the agency has taken to help the public reach emergency services, receive emergency information, and communicate during disasters.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed improvements for wireless call routing to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline that would connect callers in crisis to behavioral health resources in their state or county while protecting their privacy.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel held a roundtable discussion about the vote on net neutrality with community leaders and agencies at the Santa Clara County Fire Department in Campbell, California.  She chose the site to focus on how restoring net neutrality would benefit public safety, pointing to how that very fire department had had its internet access throttled—or cut off—automatically when it hit its internet use cap during the 2018 Mendocino Fire.  Chairwoman Rosenworcel heard from the department’s assistant fire chief, Brian Glass, who said fire agenci

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues a proposal that would improve how wireless calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988 Lifeline) are routed to ensure that callers in crisis have access to behavioral health resources in the state or territory they are calling from while protecting their privacy. Calls to the 988 Lifeline are currently routed based on the caller’s area code and exchange, which presents some obstacles to callers whose area code does not correspond the caller’s location when in crisis.