WASHINGTON-Two proponents of cell-broadcast technology said a Senate-passed bill to update the nation’s emergency alert system could further delay widespread deployment of wireless warnings to the nation’s 219 million cell-phone subscribers.
The Warning, Alert and Response Network Act, sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and approved recently as a rider to port-security legislation, authorizes $106 million to develop technical protocols for wireless and other new emergency-warning distribution channels during the next year or so.
“The nation’s technological infrastructure for cell broadcast is already in place,” said Paul Klein, chief operating officer of CellCast Technologies, a Houston-based firm that markets cell-broadcast EAS gear. “No new development is necessary for immediate activation.”
Klein noted other countries are using cell-broadcast technology. “Congress’ reluctance to consider immediate and proven technology delays America’s urgent need to overhaul our half-century-old public warning program,” said Klein.
A companion EAS reform measure backed by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is pending in the House. However, with only two weeks left before Congress adjourns for mid-term elections, it appears prospects for passage of the WARN Act this year turn on whether the House and Senate can reconcile differing port-security bills.
The wireless industry supports short message service as a near term EAS solution and favors studying future technologies for delivering next-generation wireless emergency alerts. As such, the DeMint bill-which establishes a working group to assist a new National Alert Office within the Department of Homeland Security, liability protection for wireless carriers and an opt-in approach for licensees-goes a long way toward meeting key policy concerns flagged by industry.
The parent companies of the two largest cell-phone operators are major indirect contributors to DeMint, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In the 2001-2006 Senate election cycle, Verizon Communications Inc., parent company of Verizon Wireless, contributed $23,000 to DeMint through the former’s political action committee, employees and others affiliated with the company. AT&T Inc., 60-percent owner of Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and on track to assume full control of the carrier if its proposed $67 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp. is approved, accounted for $21,500 in political campaign contributions to DeMint during the same period.
“We are buoyed by the Senate’s recognition that an improved Emergency Broadcast System is needed for our nation and that a critical tool rests-literally-in our hands today. The ubiquity of cell phones provides the opportunity to dramatically enhance public safety. However, we must caution Congress and the administration that an extensive, multi-year `study’ is not needed and is a barrier to deploying an enhanced warning system in a timely manner,” said John Richter, honorary secretary of the Cellular Emergency Alert Systems Association-United States. “Countries in Asia and Europe are now using the `control channels’ on existing phones to create improved warning systems that will not overload networks and provide highly localized alerts. A Wisconsin cell-phone carrier plans to deploy the same type of system in the very near future-a development that is being closely monitored by the Department of Homeland Security. We strongly urge the federal government not to reinvent a wheel, but look to existing, available, and proven technologies to improve public safety.”
Einstein PCS plans to launch cell-broadcast EAS in Appleton, Wis. New York City and Houston are also considering pursuing cell broadcast EAS.
Meantime, the Federal Communications Commission, holding true to Chairman Kevin Martin’s promise to DeMint not to issue new emergency alert rules before Congress finishes work on the WARN Act, will not vote to expand EAS to wireless and other technologies at its Sept. 26 meeting. During his Senate confirmation hearing for a second term at the agency, Martin was warned by DeMint not to impose an EAS federal mandate on carriers.
