Carriers Saw Some Problems During Latest Wireless Emergency Alert Tests
Major wireless carriers reported a few glitches during localized, end-to-end wireless emergency alert testing Sept. 12-13, designed to assess the geographic accuracy of alerts (see 2208300046). Reports from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon were posted Monday in docket 22-160. Carriers reported some problems during a national WEA test last year (see 2108260046). In the first national test in 2018, many alerts didn’t go through (see 1812210056).
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Verizon learned after the tests that one of the two redundant virtual private network paths between FEMA’s integrated public alert and warning system gateway and Verizon’s gateway “failed during the alerts transmitted,” the company reported. “Verizon received and transmitted all but one of the alerts via the redundant alternate VPN path … but important redundancies were nonetheless affected as a result,” Verizon said: “Our preliminary analysis indicates that the VPN configuration was affected at the originating end of the VPN path. This reconfiguration would have precluded the [carrier] gateway from recognizing and establishing the terminating end of the VPN path.”
Verizon said it’s in discussion with FEMA “to compare our respective assessments of the lost VPN path and confirm more definitively the cause of the failure and to improve coordination policies and procedures with FEMA.”
AT&T said several of the 42 alert originators appeared not to participate in tests on its network. The carrier cited seven entities, including three in California, from which it said it never got an alert. Among those that didn’t transit were the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, AT&T said.
The FCC’s WEA waiver order permitted alert originators to use the public safety message category, but many of the alerts sent didn’t use that category, AT&T said: Some “used the State & Local alert category and others did not appear to assign a category at all. Since State & Local test alerts are opt-in by nature, the use of this category for any tests conducted pursuant to this performance testing could have the unintended effect of suppressing alerts from being displayed on any handset that was not opted-in to State & Local Test alerts.”
T-Mobile said five of the 42 authorized alert originators didn’t transmit test messages to its network. T-Mobile said 25 of the 37 that sent valid tests “used the Public Safety message type, with the other 12 Alert Originators coding the test message as requiring no special handling or setting the alert as a State and Local Test.” Alert originators didn’t “always identify the geographic area for the test message consistent with the area specified in the Order authorizing their participation” and 13 sent the message in English only. The FCC order didn’t require sending alerts in Spanish.
“T-Mobile did not identify any issues or complications with delivering the test messages within its coverage area and therefore no action is necessary,” the carrier said.
Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated for a vote in the days before the latest tests an NPRM that proposes new security and other requirements for WEAs and other emergency alerts (see 2209070076). "We are reviewing the filings," an FCC spokesperson said.