NAB, Qualcomm Officials Among Witnesses on Emergency Alerts Including ATSC, WEA

Testifying at the House Communications Subcommittee’s Wednesday hearing on emergency alerts will be NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny; CGM Advisors CEO Chris Guttman-McCabe, a former CTIA official; and Qualcomm Director-Engineering Farrokh Khatibi. A GOP memo, dated Monday, said the hearing is part of a broader look at emergency communications: “Earlier this year, FirstNet established a public-private partnership for the deployment of a nationwide wireless broadband network for the Nation’s First Responders and steady progress is being made in the deployment of next generation 911 networks. This hearing will examine the third prong of public safety communications -- emergency alerting -- including its current state and its future against the backdrop of these and other evolving technologies.” It included sections detailing the emergency alert system, ATSC 3.0 and wireless emergency alerts. “In addition to EAS and WEA, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have emerged as mechanisms for emergency communications,” the memo said. “Extensive work has been undertaken and continues in both academia and public safety to ascertain the impact and use of social media in times of emergency and as an alerting tool.”