EAS, First Nationwide WEA Test Look Mostly Successful, With Some Glitches

Most cellphones appeared to get wireless emergency alert test messages and most broadcasters appeared to transmit emergency alert system messages, but a number did not, based on a survey of our operations, some others, social media and events we attended during the simulation. On Twitter, #PresidentialAlert trended after the first nationwide test of the WEA system Wednesday. Early results of the fourth nationwide test of the broadcast EAS went largely as expected and mirrored past tests, said EAS officials and broadcasters. The WEA test started at 2:18 p.m. and lasted for 30 minutes, while the EAS test began at 2:20 p.m.

"The next step is to assess the results and identify areas for improvement," said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes. "The FCC is committed to working with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and other stakeholders to support this effort. We plan to engage with FEMA and wireless providers to learn how today’s wireless emergency alert test performed." Radio and TV providers participating in the EAS test will file reports that the agency will study "to identify any necessary EAS improvements," Fowlkes said.

"The national EAS and WEA test messages were successfully originated and disseminated through FEMA’s [Integrated Public Alert and Warning System] to the wireless provider gateways and EAS message servers," a FEMA spokesperson said. "All wireless provider gateways acknowledged receipt of the test message. Additional results from EAS participant station reception and broadcast of the national test message will be collected over the next month and reported later and compared against previous test results."

The FCC and FEMA expected about 75 percent of devices to receive the WEA message and said some might not receive it right away or at all if on a call, in an active data session, or if their phone wasn’t properly configured (see 1810020039). The national test, originally set for last month but delayed due to Hurricane Florence (see 1809170035), followed a Washington, D.C.-area test in April in which many didn’t receive alerts (see 1804050053).

Most we asked said they got the WEA message at 2:18 or not long after, with buzzing and a loud EAS-style tone. Some received an audio message along with the text, which carried the header “Presidential Alert” and read, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” Some said they or others nearby got the message multiple times; for example, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said he got five messages between 2:18 and 2:54 on a Samsung Galaxy S4 on Sprint. People we surveyed used a variety of devices, including Apple, Android and flip phones, on various carriers. The EAS simulation noted the WEA shortcomings: “A similar wireless emergency alert test message has been sent to all cellphones nationwide. Some cellphones will receive the message, others will not. No action is required.”

Recipients Unconcerned

At a number of conferences and events that happened to be held during the simulation, attendees didn't seem distracted or unnerved during the exercise.

About 400 emergency management officials appeared to get the WEA alert during a presentation at the National Emergency Management Association conference in Savannah, Georgia, said Montana Disaster and Emergency Services Administrator Delila Bruno. Calling from Montana, the same agency’s Preparedness Bureau Chief Burke Honzel told us most in the 10-person office got the message, with a few getting it two or three times, and AT&T seeming to deliver alerts about a minute before other carriers.

Aside from a small pocket of coverage in Anchorage, the WEA was widely received in Alaska, said Alaska State Emergency Communications Committee Chair Dennis Bookey. Phones serviced by Alaska carrier GCI, which just came online this year, received the alert along with those connected to major carriers, he said. Arkansas SECC Chair Chris Daniel said he heard anecdotally that some people in his state didn’t receive the WEA. He said he has noticed a problem with WEA reception there in the past, though he got the alert himself Wednesday.

“Several hundred people pulled out their phones, looked at them, looked at each other, and then dismissed the message and put the phone in their pocket,” said Ed Czarnecki, senior director-strategy and government affairs at EAS equipment-maker Monroe Electronics. He was in a large shopping mall as the WEA went out and was received by cellphones 10 to 30 seconds later, he said.

“We have not heard of any major problems,” but “it is still early,” emailed Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency Director Peter Gaynor. "Different brands of phones and/or devices received the message differently. For example, some phones received the text and audio alert, while others only received the text alert. This just may be an individual phone setting issue.”

On a post-mortem conference call with the FCC, EAS officials said there was no Verizon WEA message in Louisiana, and there were difficulties with AT&T phones in Delaware, said Maine SECC Chair Suzanne Goucher.

A Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Office spokesman heard some didn’t receive the alert, not just on Verizon, and wasn’t sure if it was a widespread issue. The FCC didn't comment. WEA and EAS tests were "important to ensure that the alert systems work" and familiarize the public with the notifications, said a California Office of Emergency Services spokesman. OES hasn't yet heard about problems, he said.

Other Venues

Close to six dozen attendees at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference (see 1810030020) received the alert nearly simultaneously, we observed. One attendee from Canada received it close to two minutes later. Two attendees said they received no alert, including a Communications Daily reporter whose iPhone is on the AT&T network.

Prior to a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building (see 1810030055), we observed many phones receiving alerts at the same time while blaring the EAS tone. A meeting of the Customs Commercial Operations Advisory Committee also in Dirksen was halted for about 30 seconds to allow the test to pass without interrupting speakers. Most phones went off on cue, though the alert could be heard again a minute later after the meeting resumed.

Before and after the 30-minute window expired, T-Mobile responded to several tweets from users who said they didn’t get the message. “To receive the WEA test message, a handset must be WEA-capable, switched on, and must be in the vicinity of and receiving service from a cell tower of a wireless carrier that participates in WEA,” said one response.

"CTIA and our member companies will work closely with our partners at FEMA and the FCC to evaluate its results,” said CTIA Assistant Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Matthew Gerst.

A fire department in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, tweeted a video of phones going off at a social media in emergency management class. Some local governments asked their communities to participate in a nationwide survey, including Montgomery County, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia.

Earlier Fears

A federal judge rejected a bid to halt the test by a journalist and two small-business owners in New York City in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. After a Wednesday morning conference, Judge Katherine Polk Failla denied (in Pacer) the motion that claimed the presidential alerts violate First and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from government-compelled listening and warrantless trespass into cellular devices. Such controversy about the WEA system’s purpose continued on Twitter, with some using the hashtag #GoDark103 to urge people to protest by keeping their phones off or in airplane mode during the test.

“I expect there will be some glitches and that is exactly why we need to have this type of nationwide test, to identify and correct problems,” Venable’s Jamie Barnett said Wednesday beforehand. Need for the national alert system outweighs possible dangers, Barnett said. “We still live in a world with threats to our nations and increasingly widespread natural disasters like the one in Indonesia. We need a warning system that works well and instantaneously and in more than one language. Any system can be misused, I suppose, but that is a different question than ‘Does the system work?’”

“There are lots of things to worry about right now, but this test is not one of them,” said Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in a statement. WEA must be tested and the test is legally required, he said. “We have strong laws and federal rules to ensure any use of these kinds of alerts, which are activated directly by FEMA, and not the president, are used appropriately.”

Many state, local and federal agencies earlier tweeted reminders and explainers, including the FCC, FEMA, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R), California’s Office of Emergency Services, the District of Columbia Public Service Commission, Montgomery County and Virginia’s Arlington County public safety. The National Weather Service warned librarians: “Please be gentle on library visitors tomorrow around 2:20PM EDT when phones will chirp during the national Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) test.” Carriers also tweeted WEA warnings, including Sprint and CTIA.

EAS

The EAS exercise proceeded very similarly to past ones, said EAS officials and broadcasters. Though some individual stations aired garbled messages or didn’t carry the alert, those were isolated events, state EAS officials told us. “I’m very satisfied,” said Alaska's Bookey. “A couple stations didn’t have the highest quality audio, but no big problems,” Arkansas' Daniel said.

Though only early results are available, EAS officials expect that again roughly half the participants received the alert through the internet-based common alerting protocol and half through the older, broadcast-based daisy chain system. After three nationwide tests conducted the same way, nothing else was expected.

We received reports of EAS messages airing as planned in Washington, D.C.-area broadcast and cable stations shortly after 2:20 p.m., EDT while WVXU(FM) Cincinnati aired the EAS message at 2:26 p.m. Since the alert is originated by FEMA and then downstream stations “poll” to receive it or are triggered by another station broadcasting the EAS tones, it can take time for the EAS message to travel across the country and propagate to stations, EAS officials told us.

Some flubs were reported. On a New York City cable system, the alert message was followed by the screen getting locked on a test screen, a viewer told us. Czarnecki said he saw stations displaying the EAS warning crawl text on a similarly colored background, making it hard to read. Czarnecki also saw crawls that ran too fast to be legible. Public radio's WAMU(FM) Washington experienced an equipment malfunction that led to a few seconds of silence at the allotted test time but no EAS warning. “This is one of the reasons these things are tested,” said WAMU Senior Director-Technology Rob Bertrand. He said the station will address the failed equipment. Stations in some states broadcast doubled or distorted audio, Maine's Goucher told us, but she said the EAS test went “practically flawlessly.”

During the 2017 nationwide EAS test, more participants received the alert message than in 2016, but fewer broadcasters participated -- 19,738 filed reports compared with 21,365 the previous year (see 1804160064). FEMA questioned the quality of participant reporting in 2017, citing numerous broadcaster errors, and participants claiming to have not received the test message but then somehow relaying it.