https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Call Center/Command


Updated: FEMA assumes key role in emergency-alert system

Updated: FEMA assumes key role in emergency-alert system

The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced last week that it would perform the unified aggregator/gateway role for the fledgling Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) after all. The system, mandated by the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act, would provide the framework for commercial wireless carriers to send text alerts to their customers during emergencies
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 6th June 2008

(Updated 06/06/2008)

Agency reconsiders aggregator/gateway role for CMAS

The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced last week that it would perform the unified aggregator/gateway role for the fledgling Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) after all. The system, mandated by the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act, would provide the framework for commercial wireless carriers to send text alerts to their customers during emergencies.

The announcement represented an about-face for FEMA, which originally declined to take on the role because it believed it lacked the statutory authority to do so. That position drew the ire of FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who last month called FEMA’s failure to step up “especially disheartening,” because the agency had a hand in establishing the aggregator/gateway function as a key component of the CMAS.

“It was … after the advisory committee had made its recommendation—and after FEMA’s representative had voted in favor of the unified federal gateway/aggregator scheme—[that] FEMA raised any objections to assuming this responsibility,” Copps said in the statement.

Copps also said that, without the aggregator/gateway function, the CMAS wouldn’t be able to function and noted that FEMA is experienced with originating emergency alerts and has received appropriations for operating an emergency-alert system.

While FEMA has been responsible for transmitting messages from the President to the American people since the emergency alert system was established in 1994—and for ensuring the infrastructure existed to transmit such messages—the agency historically has not played any role in authenticating emergency alerts from state and local officials, said FEMA spokeswoman Mary-Margaret Walker in an e-mail response.

Consequently, FEMA needed to determine whether it had the necessary legal authority to authenticate messages sent by a state or local emergency official and to develop and maintain such a system during a non-emergency situation, according to Walker.

“FEMA could not accept the … aggregator role until completion of a review of its authorities, which was not complete at the time FCC adopted its regulatory framework,” Walker said.

In a statement issued after FEMA announced it would accept that role, Copps said he was pleased that FEMA had reconsidered. “This is good news. … The real winners today are the American people, whose personal safety will be enhanced by receiving emergency alerts via their mobile phones, as well as their televisions and radios.”

The aggregator/gateway component of the system will verify that federal, state and local emergency alerts are authentic. Once verified, the CMAS will transmit the alerts to commercial carriers, which then will transmit them to their customers in the affected area.

Three types of alerts are envisioned for the system: presidential alerts for national emergencies; imminent-threat alerts to provide information about significant risks, such as a national or man-made disaster; and child-abduction or AMBER Alert emergency information.

All customers of participating carriers will be sent text-message information in emergency situations, unless a customer has opted out of the program. Commercial carriers are not required to participate in the CMAS.

Tags: Call Center/Command content Policy Wireless Networks

Most Recent


  • AT&T claims LTE coverage edge, FirstNet build more than 99% done
    AT&T claims a 250,000-square-mile coverage advantage and that the planned five-year deployment of the FirstNet public-safety broadband network operating on the 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to the FirstNet Authority is more than 99% complete as a contractual deadline approaches this week. AT&T—the contractor responsible for building and maintaining the FirstNet public-safety broadband system—made […]
  • Verizon
    Verizon Frontline supports U.S. Forest Service efforts against wildfires
    Verizon Frontline increased its support of entities responding to wildland fires during 2022, particularly the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), which accounted for more than half of this activity by the carrier’s Crisis Response Team, according to the carrier. Cory Davis, Verizon’s assistant vice president for public safety, said that Verizon Frontline provided communications support to […]
  • Autonomous-vehicle consequences could include more traffic
    Most discussions about driverless, autonomous cars, have led to claims that they will help reduce congestion. Not so, says the RAC Foundation. It cites a UK government report which believes the opposite is true. Claiming that driverless cars could increase congestion by 85% by 2060. Presently, it’s thought that drivers lose more than 80 hours […]
  • Tesla Model 3 hacked in less than 2 minutes at Pwn2Own contest
    Researchers from France-based pen-testing firm Synacktiv demonstrated two separate exploits against the Tesla Model 3 this week at the Pwn2Own hacking contest in Vancouver. The attacks gave them deep access into subsystems controlling the vehicle’s safety and other components. One of the exploits involved executing what is known as a time-of-check-to-time-of-use (TOCTTOU) attack on Tesla’s Gateway energy […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Unfinished Business: Why NFPA and IBC fire codes need to kill the fire phone
  • Driverless-tech liability is all in the wording
  • Is an attacker living off your land?
  • New ThroughTek IoT supply-chain vulnerability announced

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Gallery: IWCE 2023 kicks off in Las Vegas dlvr.it/SlZlk4

28th March 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T claims LTE coverage edge, FirstNet build more than 99% done dlvr.it/SlXZfr

27th March 2023
UrgentComm

Verizon Frontline supports U.S. Forest Service efforts against wildfires dlvr.it/SlX1g3

27th March 2023
UrgentComm

Autonomous-vehicle consequences could include more traffic dlvr.it/SlWr67

27th March 2023
UrgentComm

Tesla Model 3 hacked in less than 2 minutes at Pwn2Own contest dlvr.it/SlVJg9

26th March 2023
UrgentComm

SES: JP Hemingway on satellites’ role in the digital divide, D2D and disasters dlvr.it/SlTL4h

25th March 2023
UrgentComm

House members introduce $15 billion NG911 funding bill dlvr.it/SlS0Lr

25th March 2023
UrgentComm

ADRF: Sun Kim discusses company’s new hybrid in-building wireless solution dlvr.it/SlRtSQ

25th March 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.