CTIA Urges Changes to FCC's Wireless Emergency Alert Draft

CTIA said it mostly supports an FCC draft order that would require participating wireless providers to transmit emergency messages in the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S., in addition to English and American Sign Language, and make other changes to the rules (see 2309280071), but sought a few tweaks. CTIA representatives met with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel ahead of an Oct. 19 commissioner vote, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. “The Commission should require that any potential implementation requirements be placed out for public comment by all affected stakeholders prior to adoption of a Bureau Order, which could be conducted when the Bureau seeks comment on the costs of supporting additional languages,” CTIA said: “Consistent with the traditional demarcation of WEA responsibilities, the content and management of these templates necessarily lies with alert originators, presumably in coordination with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency]. Participating [carriers] and handset manufacturers cannot be responsible for these tasks.” CTIA raised questions about the templates that must be stored on devices. “The Commission should bear in mind that the timeline to comply with a new template requirement will vary depending upon the complexity of the implementation and if the Commission adopts a requirement for including context-specific information, CTIA expects that thirty months will be insufficient,” the group said.