WASHINGTON-House Democrats today criticized the Bush administration for delays in modernizing the nation’s emergency warning system, but a homeland security official told lawmakers progress is now being made, and a six-month pilot project here involving at least two national mobile-phone operators is about to begin.
Testifying before the House Homeland Security subcommittee on emergency preparedness and response, Reynold Hoover, director of national security coordination at the Department of Homeland Security, said T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless have agreed to participate in testing intended to lay the foundation for a national digital backbone for emergency alerts by the end of 2005.
DHS is also talking with Nextel Communications Inc. about joining the effort, said Hoover.
Hoover told reporters afterward he did not know what technology solution would emerge to deliver emergency alerts to cell phones, pagers, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices. The wireless industry is undecided whether short message service, cell broadcast or some other technology will be the platform for delivering warnings to the nation’s 170 million mobile-phone subscribers.
Meantime, the Federal Communications Commission will receive public comments next month on a proposal to modernize the Emergency Alert Service. EAS is largely a vestige of the Cold War-era, one that depends on voluntary compliance by radio and TV broadcasters.
A big issue for policy-makers will be whether participation in the future by telecom carriers and broadcasters will continue to be discretionary or will be mandated.
Various studies, including a 2000 Clinton administration report, recommended cell phones, pagers, the Internet and other digital technologies be employed in the next-generation of emergency alerts. Hoover conceded the Bush administration may not have immediately followed up on all the report’s recommendations.
