FCC Reports Geofencing, Other Problems Based on Wireless Alerts Testing

to make sure the right devices get alerts, works about one third of the time, the FCC said. The agency also found only about half of those participating in the tests had a device that supports geofencing. Only 1.1% still had phones offering “only basic WEA functions.” Alerts are also being received outside target areas, the FCC said. Target areas were designed to be 0.5 square miles in urban areas, 1.5 square miles in non-urban areas, but “the median delivery distance outside of the allowable presentation area was 3.13 miles.” About 10% of participating subscribers received warnings more than 11.76 miles from the allowable presentation area, the report said. The FCC doesn’t have any current speed requirements, but it found about half of respondents received a test alert within two minutes of when it was received by FEMA, 25% within one minute -- at the high end some reported times of longer than 90 minutes. AT&T was the fastest in transmitting alerts, with a 0.4025 seconds median interval between receipt and transmission of alert, compared with 0.806 seconds for Verizon and 0.7095 seconds for T-Mobile. “These findings indicate that localized WEA alerts transit wireless networks significantly faster than nationwide WEA activations,” the FCC said. The FCC said the test results will be placed in the record as the agency considers requiring providers to report on WEA performance, one of the topics of a Further NPRM approved by commissioners last week (see 2304240041). The report was published in Tuesday’s Daily Digest.