WEA/EAS Tests Delayed Until Oct. 3; WEA Test Seen Likely to Uncover Issues

The District of Columbia and 19 other nearby jurisdictions tested WEA in April through the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Some didn’t get the alerts (see 1804050053). Observers expect similar problems nationwide. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai later said the WEA system has a ways to go (see 1805150059). The voluntary program has been in operation since April 2012.

Since they come through the same gateway, it's sound to test EASs and WEAs the same day, said communications lawyer and emergency-response expert Jamie Barnett of Venable. With WEAs, “there are various manufacturers, various delivery systems, there can be differences even from handset to handset,” he said. “It makes sense to test and it really is not to embarrass anybody. It’s not to call anyone out.” It’s important to determine “the system actually works,” he said.

Barnett would be “very surprised” if the nationwide test doesn’t uncover areas where improvements are needed. “There’s new equipment introduced into a system, there’s old system that should be replaced” and there are human errors, he said.

The rescheduled test means broadcasters will need to update their equipment before the new test date, said Monroe Electronics Senior Director-Strategy and Government Affairs Ed Czarnecki. The rescheduled national EAS test date falls after the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System digital certificates expire, he said. EASs will need to update their equipment with the current certificate, he said. FCC filing deadlines for EAS reporting forms likely also will shift with the new date, to Oct. 3 for same-day test results and to Nov. 19 for the later Form 3, Pillsbury Winthrop broadcast attorney Scott Flick blogged.

The Denver Office of Emergency Management did its own WEA test earlier this month, to practice the procedure and gauge propagation of the message, said Denver OEM Public Information Officer Loaitza Esquilin Garcia in an interview. “We wanted to make sure our process and procedures were in place." Denver OEM was satisfied the message reached large numbers of cellphones within the city, but also found a fair amount of “signal bleed,” with the message hitting phones in surrounding counties. OEM received a great deal of public feedback on the test, including from those outside the test area wondering why their phones weren’t included, she said. “There’s room for improvement.”

Confusion

The proximity of the WEA test and the broadcast test could cause some confusion, said Arkansas State Emergency Communications Committee Chair Chris Daniel.

Wireless alerts are a “huge shift” for emergency alerting, with potential to quickly warn of fast developing disasters like tsunamis, said Dennis Bookey, broadcast chair of Alaska’s SECC. “It will be very interesting to see how the penetration works.”

On Twitter, the hashtag #GoDark920 has been trending, questioning the need for the WEA tests and suggesting people turn off their cellphones. “I Resist” posted a typical comment, featuring a photo of President Donald Trump. “There’s one, and only one reason to activate the presidential emergency text alert established after 9/11 and which has NEVER BEEN USED,” the tweet claims. “Why now?” nonnie917 tweeted “I plan to shut my phone off at that time in protest of Trump and his cronies.”

“CTIA and our members are working closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the FCC “to support the first presidential WEA test message,” a spokesperson said: “We expect this test message will further demonstrate the proven life-saving capability” of WEAs.

Routine EAS Test

The nationwide EAS test will take place immediately after the wireless alert test, and is expected to proceed very similarly to the previous recent nationwide tests, broadcasters and EAS officials told us.

This is the third annual nationwide EAS test, and it’s become “routine,” said Alaska's Bookey. Broadcasters test their EAS systems all the time, said Beach TV President Jud Colley. The way the nationwide test differs is that the extra attention focused on it, and the additional reporting requirements, he said.

The FCC has been "working with stakeholders to prepare for the test, which we are hopeful will have widespread participation and support our collective effort to continue strengthening the nation’s emergency alert systems,” said Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes.

An FCC report on the 2017 nationwide EAS test showed more participants receiving the alert message than in 2016 but a decrease in participation. There were 19,738 unique filings vs. 21,365 (see 1804160064). A FEMA report on the 2017 test questioned the quality of participant reporting, noting numerous broadcaster video and audio errors, and seven EAS participants claiming to have not received the test message but then somehow relaying it anyway.

As in the past EAS tests, 40 to 45 percent of broadcasters will likely have their EAS alerts triggered by the legacy “daisy-chain” system instead of by the IPAWS system, said Monroe's Czarnecki. The IPAWS-triggered alerts contain a more information-rich message, and for the test will inform the public that the EAS alert and WEA messages don’t signal a real emergency. “If this had been an actual emergency an official message would have followed the tone alert you heard at the start of this message. A similar wireless emergency alert test message has been sent to all cell phones in the nation. Some cell phones will receive the message. Others will not. No action is required,” the message will say, said a Public Safety Bureau public notice. Non-IPAWS test messages will simply explain that the alert is a test.

Future EAS tests may go differently, as the industry is moving toward triggered common alerting protocol polling to address the issue, said Czarnecki and Sage Alerting Systems President Harold Price. CAP polling allows broadcaster EAS equipment triggered by a legacy daisy chain alert to briefly check to see if an IPAWS version of the alert is available. If it is, the system runs the more fulsome IPAWS alert instead. The FCC gave notice of a favorable attitude toward triggered CAP polling in its Blue Alerts order (see 1711220048), and upgrades allowing triggered CAP polling for normal alerts are expected to roll out later this year, Czarnecki and Price said. It would take FCC action to allow triggered CAP polling for national tests and presidential alerts, because they are required to be passed on immediately, rather than the 15-minute window the rules mandate for other EAS alerts.

“I’m really expecting it to go well,” said Arkansas SECC Chair Chris Daniel, broadcast technical consultant and low-power FM operator, of the EAS test. Daniel acknowledged the importance of the WEA test. He said WEA alerts and IPAWS alerts should never wholly replace the legacy broadcaster daisy chain alerts, because radio stations are better at being able to share information during disasters than cellular networks and the internet. The daisy chain system is “pretty doggone robust,” Daniel said.