Hurricanes Give Carriers More Time to Comply With WEA Upgrades

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UPDATE The FCC wants wireless carriers to get going on some of the planned upgrades for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and the industry asked for more time. Now, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have convinced the Commission to give the carriers a temporary reprieve.

The Competitive Carriers Association asked for extra time for members to comply with the implementation of the embedded references and “best approximates” geo-targeting requirements. CCA told the agency the November 1 deadline would be difficult to meet and might prompt some carriers to withdraw their election to participate in WEA. CCA also sought a partial waiver of the rule that requires Commercial Mobile Service (CMS) providers taking part in WEA to give the FCC and affected subscribers 60-days’ notice of their intent to withdraw from WEA. 

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau granted this waiver on September 1. Now, the FCC is extending that relief by waiving the 60-day notice requirement until 30 days after the Commission acts on the merits of CCA’s petition. In order to ensure the temporary relief is not “abused” the FCC spelled out a condition that no participating CMS providers that are also CCA members who want to benefit from the waiver can stop participating in WEA without giving at least 30-days’ notice, the bureau said in its decision.

The bureau included that clause because without it, providers could withdraw from WEA messaging with no customer notice, and the agency doesn’t believe “such an abrupt withdrawal would be in the public interest.” The bureau recognizes “many carriers’ limited resources are being further constrained at this time by the response to multiple severe weather events.”

September 19, 2017              

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