T-Mobile Gets Waiver for WEA Tests of Geotargeting

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved a waiver T-Mobile sought (see 1910250027) of wireless emergency alert rules so it can do testing. A new geo-targeting requirement for WEA messages takes effect Nov. 30. T-Mobile asked to do “live testing of network and device geo-targeting capabilities” before the deadline. “The Commission has previously recognized that compliance with enhanced geotargeting necessitates testing, and we find that there is good cause to grant T-Mobile’s request for a waiver,” said a Friday order in docket 15-91: “We are persuaded that the means by which T-Mobile proposes to conduct its test would serve the public interest. T-Mobile’s test is narrowly designed to affect a limited subset of the public, while still providing T-Mobile with the data necessary to evaluate its implementation of enhanced geotargeting.”