WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Feb. 2 on a newly introduced tsunami preparedness bill that directs the Commerce Department and the Federal Communications Commission to examine the use of wireless and other technologies to improve hazard warnings to the public.
The legislation is sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), ranking minority member of the panel.
The FCC currently is considering whether cell phones and other wireless technologies should be integrated into a Cold War-era national emergency alert system largely dependent on voluntary participation by TV and radio stations. The question of whether any future wireless involvement in a reformed warning system looms large for the mobile-phone industry.
Elsewhere, the Department of Homeland Security is working with Cingular Wireless L.L.C., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Nextel Communications Inc. on a pilot project to determine whether public television facilities around the country can be used as digital backbones to feed emergency alerts for re-transmission by cell-phone carriers and others.
