The false Emergency Alert that occurred in hawaii on januar january 13, 2018. Second, you will consider a second report in order to excuse me, order on recon to enhance the effectiveness of wireless Emergency Alert including improving the geographic accuracy of these alerts. Third you will consider an order addressing the remaining issues raised by parties for the committees order implementing the connect america phase two auction 903 in which Service Providers receive support for up to 1. 98 billion to offer voice and Broadband Service in unserved high cost areas. Fourth, you consider a Public Notice establishing procedures for the connect America Fund Phase ii option which will award up to 1. 98 billion over ten years to Service Providers that commit to offer voice and Broadband Services to fixed locations in unserved high cost areas. This, you consider in order to establish an office of economic and analytics and six you will consider a notice of proposed rulemaking proposing to eliminate the requirement that broadcast licensees and committees which routinely submit paper copies of contracts and other documents to the fcc as specified in section 3. 361 of the questions. Seven, you will consider an enforcement action. This is your agenda for today. Please note items seven on the agenda as listed in the januar january 203rd 2018 Sunshine Notice entitled amendment of part b7547374 and 76 of the commissions rules to delete pools made obsolete by the Digital Transition was adopted by the commission and deleted from todays agenda. First thing on the agenda is a pulmonary report provided by the Security Bureau and chief of the bureau will give the introduction. Thank you, madam secretary ms. Holt, the floor is yours if you. Good morning mr. Chairman, commissioners. Earlier this month on the morning of january 13 people throughout hawaii were alerted on their Television Radio and wireless phones of an eminent Ballistic Missile attack. The warning unleashed widespread panic and fear. The alert was issued by the state of hawaii to the Emergency Alert system and the wireless Emergency Alert system but the warning was false alert. Compounding this problem it took 38 minutes for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to issue a corrective alert. As chairman price stated this false alert was unacceptable and he immediately asked the bureau to investigate the incident with the goal of understanding how it happened and how to help prevent such an incident from happening again. Americas Emergency Alert system provided timely and lifesaving information to the public and must ensure that these systems remain effective. This includes maintaining the publics confidence so that when it Emergency Alert is issued the public heeds its call. Today the bureau presents a preliminary report on its investigation. Joining me here today are nikki, deputy for ot for the Public Safety homeland Security Bureau, james wiley, attorney advisor in the bureaus Cyber Security and mitigations Reliability Division and justin kane, deputy chief of the bureaus operation in Emergency Management position. These talented folks along with the rest of the heroes learning team has produced an incredible amount of excellent work on this investigation. Wireless Emergency Alert that will be considered truly and my recent testimony before the Senate Commerce committee. Often a very, very, very short timeframe. To nikki, james and the rest of the alerting team as well as others in the bureau would help on these projects in recent weeks thank you. You have my pride and appreciation and i am grateful that you are a part of the Public Safety. Family. I would also like to recognize client, field agent with the Enforcement Bureau who assisted james and justin when they were on the ground in hawaii as part of this investigation. James will present the report. Thank you. Thank you for your kind words. Good morning kevin by in commissioners. As was said on generate 13 the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency initiated a false Ballistic Missile alert. Using the wireless Emergency Alert system which delivers alert to consumers mobile devices as well as the Emergency Alert system which delivers alert through television and radio. In investigating the false alert the bureau to date has interviewed representatives of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency in person in honolulu and received a demonstration of how its alert Origination Software initiates alert in tests. In addition we have interviewed representatives of wireless providers that offer service to hawaii, the president of the hawaii Broadcaster Association and the hawaii state Emergency Communications committee, alert Origination Software vendors including the vendor that supplies alerting software to the white emergency and other state management and stakeholders. So far we have generally been pleased with the level of cooperation we have received including the leadership of the hawaii Emergency Management corporation. Unfortunately the individual that transmitted the false alert has refused to speak with us. However, late last week the the Emergency Management agency provided us with information from a statement made by this individual shortly after the incident which help to improve our understanding of the events that led to the false alert. By way of background and provide context to what happened on generate 13 why he has been actively testified its alert and warning abilities over the past year. The hawaii Emergency Management Ballistic Missile defense drill aims to simulate filament and begins with a call from a warning officer who simulates a call from the United States Pacific Command and ends with the transmission of a test message to fema. Under the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency established the procedures the text message should be sent to only famous public warning system, gateway. It should never actually be transmitted to consumer phones, radios or television. By november 27 of last year Hawaii Emergency Management Agency had memorialized a checklist of procedures for initiating and conducting proposed Missile Defense drill. It has been refined over months of testing through practice and feedback on Lessons Learned. And the agency was regularly running the sick Missile Defense drill as a no notice drill meaning it was commencing the drills without prior notice to the warning officer that initiated the alerts. In order to better stimulate actual emergency conditions. The final version to the checklist which guided them through the plastic was a director was created on generate. I will now walk you through a timeline of events is really understand them that led to the initiation of the false alert. In the Early Morning hours of january 13 the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency midnight shift conducted a plastic Missile Defense drill without incident and the supervisor of the midnight shift also decided to run eight no notice version of the drill during the transition to the dayshift. The midnight shift supervisor specifically decided to drill a shift change in order to help train the dayshift warning officers for a plastic Missile Defense scenario at a time when it would be challenging to properly respond. At 8 00 a. M. Hawaii standard time Hawaii Emergency Management Agency conducted this regularly scheduled shift change. The supervisor of the dayshift entered the agency the supervisor of the midnight shift communicated the intentions poorly of the drill but there was a miscommunication. The incoming dayshift supervisor thought the midnight shift supervisor intended to conduct the drill for the midnight shift warning officers only and those that were ending their shift not for the dayshift officers those beginning their shift. As a result the dayshift supervisor was not in the proper location to supervise the dayshift warning officers when the plastic Missile Defense drill was initiated. At 8 05 a. M. The midnight shift supervisor initiated the drill by placing a call to the dayshift warning officers pretending to be us Pacific Command. The supervisor played a recorded message over the phone and their cordons began by saying exercise, exercise, exercise. Language that is consistent with the beginning of the script for the drill. After that however the recording did not follow the Hawaii Emergency Management Agencys Standard Operating Procedures for the stroke. Instead the recording included language scripted for use in an Emergency Alert system message for an actual live Ballistic Missile alert. It included the sentence this is not a drill. The recording and if by saying again exercise, exercise, exercise. Three onduty warning officers in the agency wash center pc this message simulate a call from the us Pacific Command on. According to a written statement by the warning officer as related to the bureau the dayshift warning officer heard this is not a drill but did not hear exercise, exercise, exercise. According to the written statement the dayshift warning officer therefore believed that the missile threat was real. At 8 07 a. M. The officer responded by transmitting a live incoming plastic missile alert to the state of hawaii. The dayshift warning officer you suffered to send the alert and specifically they selected the template for a life alert from a dropdown menu containing various live and test alert. The alert Origination Software prompted the warning officer to confirm whether they wanted to send the message to the prompt read are you sure you want to send this alert . Warning officers who heard the recording report that they knew that the erroneous incoming message did not indicate a real missile threat but was supposed to indicate the beginning of an exercise. Specifically they heard the words exercise, exercise, exercise. The dayshift warning officers exceeded the alert reported to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency after the event their belief that this was a real emergency. They clicked yes to transmit the alert. Because we have not been able to interview the dayshift warning officer who transmitted the false alert youre not in a position to fully evaluate the credibility of their assertion that they believe there was an actual missile threat and intentionally send the life alert as opposed to believing that it was a drill and accidentally sending out the life alert. It is worth noting that the accurately recalled the event that the announcement did say this is not a drill. At 8 08 a. M. The mobile device of the warning officer who transmitted the alert sounded wireless Emergency Alert attention signal. It was distinct audible tones that announced a wireless Emergency Alert. It provided the first indication to those in the watch center that an actual alert had been transmitted to the public. At 8 09 a. M. State Major General joe logan director of the high Emergency Management agency notified Hawaii Governor that the agency had transmitted a false alert. At 8 10 a. M. The director of the white Emergency Management Agency Communicated United States Pacific Command that there was no Missile Launch confirming what Pacific Command already knew. High Emergency Management agency also notified the Honolulu Police department there was no Missile Launch. At 8 12 a. M. The white Emergency Management agency used its alert Origination Software to cancel the false alert. The conflation is in it to downstream Emergency Alert system and wireless permit to retransmission. Notably a cancellation that it does not generate an all clear message and it does not call messages that have already been transmitted and displayed on televisions and mobile phones. From 8 13 a. M. To 8 26 a. M. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency conducted outreach to the county Emergency Management out reach in radio and tv stations to inform them that the alarm was false. The agencys phone lines also became congested with incoming calls from a public asking about the nature of the alert they just received. Some calls to the agency did not get through. The agency also notified its staff of the false alert so they could help respond to community inquiries. At 8 20 a. M. The hawaii Emergency Management posted on facebook and your account there was no missile threat to white. At 8 24 a. M. Hawaii governor did the agencys notice that there was no missile threat. Governor has stated that he was unable to do this earlier. He did not notice. At 8 27 a. M. The agency staff met to discuss options for sending a corrective second message using the Emergency Alert system and the wireless Emergency Alert system. The agency determined that a correction of this false alert best met the criteria of the Civil Emergency message which is one of the event codes used to initiate alerts over the Emergency Alert system. At 8 30 a. M. The agency called fema and on the second attempt to reach a reached a employee and after a 45 seconds all on the call agreed the correction met the criteria for use of the Civil Emergency message. 8 31 p. M. The deputy chief of the hawaii Emergency Management public Mitigation Branch logged into the agencies alert Origination Software created correction messages for the Emergency Alert and systems. At 8 45 a. M. 38 minutes after the false alert the Agency Issued a correction over the two alerting systems and based on our investigation to date the bureau believes that a combination of human error and inadequate safeguards contributed to this false alert. With respect to human error due to a miscommunication between the midnight shift supervisor and dayshift supervisor the drill was run without sufficient supervision. Speaking with the bureau other Emergency Management agencies stressed the importance of proper drill supervision and conducting a drill without proper supervision would not be tolerated. Further the midnight shift supervisor initiated the drill by playing a recording that deviated from the script of the agencies established drill procedure that included the phrase this is not a drill. Finally, the warning officer at the terminal failed to recognize that this was an exercise even though the other warning officers on duty understood this is not a real emergency. With respect to inadequate safeguards most partly there were no procedures in place to prevent a Single Person from mistakenly sending of the solar to the state of hawaii. While it addressed a gravity there was no requirement in place for a warning officer to double check colleague or get signoff from the supervisor for sending such an alert. Additionally, the state of hawaii appears to have conducted in a typical number of noticed drills which heighten the potential for an error to occur. The bureaus investigation while Emergency Management agencies used noticed drills under special circumstances they are common practices to schedule drills in advance for a set date and time. It is also troubling that in hawaiis Origination Software do not differentiate between the testing and the life production of environment. Hawaiis alert Origination Software allowed users to send both life alert and test alert using the same interface. The same login credentials also. After clicking upon that said are you sure you want to send this letter. The confirmation props contain the same language irrespective of whether the message was a test or an actual alert. The confirmation prompt also did not offer the officer an opportunity to review the tax that is about to be sent. Further, hawaiis alliance unprepared templates stored in their alert Origination Software made it for a warning officer to click through the process without sufficient focus on the actual text of the alert message that he or she was about to send. In contrast, the bureaus investigation so far has revealed the common industry practice is to host the live alert environment on a section separate login screen with a separate application. Other alert origination sulfur also appears to provide clear visual cues that distinguish the test environment from the life production environment including the use of color coding and water coding. Once a false alert was sent the error was lucid worsened by not correcting the information. The hawaii Emergency Management is not anticipated the possibility of issuing a false alert and as such has failed to develop standard procedures for response. It personnel a corrective message using social media rather than the same alerting system that used to transmit the false alert. Indeed the agency not immediately prepared to issue a correction using these systems. The agency also did not maintain redundant and effective means to indicate during the emergency. The bureau is pleased that the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has taken steps to ensure that an incident like this never happens again. It has created a new policy that supervisors must receive future notice of all drills. It will card to credentialed warning officers to sign in and validate the transmission of every alert and test. It has created a false alert correction template for Emergency Alert system and wireless emergency messages so that warning officers are more readily prepared to conduct, excuse me, correct a false alert should one ever occur again. It has requested that the alert Origination Software integrate improvements into the next iteration of the software to more clearly delineate the test environment from the life production environment. It helps to safeguard against puzzlers. Finally, it has stopped all future plastic Missile Defense drills pending the conclusion of its own investigation. That said, theres more work to be done. The bureau will continue its investigation and issue a final report including recommended measures to safeguard against puzzlers and to mitigate the harmful effects if they do occur. And once you have developed these recommended measures we intend to partner with fema to engage in stakeholder outreach and encourage implementation of these practices. Among other avenues we are considering convening Emergency Alert system to discuss the lessons that should be learned from this incident as well as developing a joint webinar with fema to further educate stakeholders. And of course as always the bureau stands ready to implement additional action as well as directed by the commission. Thank you. An Emergency Communications. We cannot simply dismiss the mean an inadvertent mistake that only Public Officials in hawaii need to address. This incident showed and is serving as a catalyst for every state and locality to review their Emergency Alert processes. Every community should be doing more to prevent an issuance of a false alert. But if and when a false alert is ever sent again, the Technical Capability to immediately signed a correction should be in place in protocol on how to go about that should be clearly defined. Thank you and thank you, commissioner clyburn. Commissioner oreilly. I have more questions than i do a statement but i want to say its astounding that no one was hurt in this instance. This could be a cataclysmic catastrophe in the utmost importance. I wanted to check on one of the points he made. You have highlighted a Washington Post article regarding the governor and ice Emergency Management Agency Responded to the Washington Post article said we hoped they would wait until the fcc investigators report had come out before comment thing regarding the twitter password, but nothing he responded to today suggested that the Washington Post article is completely accurate. The reason the governor did not respond is because he couldnt find his password. Is that right . Thats how its been reported in the news. Okay. Can you help me . I watched her testimony in the senate in his it is correct in thinking behind the responsibility for overseeing the preparation of a notification as relates to its relationship with the state and local and other organizations and our responsibility is to make sure the notifications work from the Communication Company side gate is that accurate . Is that consistent with your testimony . The fcc is responsible for distribution by the communication Service Providers. Fema oversees its integrated public alert and warning system, which is aggregate solar coming from the originators. The state and local governments decide when to issue the alert over wet systems and windows alerts would be issued. The state and local government is when our rule kicks in. Is that right . I was wondering when i read your good work on the next steps, a lot of these seem to be famous responsibility. Is that not accurate . When you mention the stakeholder roundtable at the possibility and best practices are mentioned herein false alerts, that is on fee ministers on stability and whether they did or didnt do it. That is not the Communication Company. The communication from the site seems to work very well from the communication perspective information did get out whether its false information or Accurate Information it did get out and the companies themselves to their job. Is that accurate . On the fema side and the statue, the responsibility is all about and not our responsibility. From a statutory live, yes. Kind of like a toplevel statutory perspective. What we said in his presentation as well as what i had said in my testimony is that all the stakeholders involved need to do their part to address these types of issues. The fcc is simply performing, its hard. For example, the fcc has in the past served as a convener at the holders to identify Lessons Learned and best practices. Weve also taken into account feedback received from state and local governments and fema in terms of the policies we adopt. On your last point there, there is this a colder Advisory Committee created in a law that fema operates an weary number of data, so they have the authority for another couple years for convening back as they see fit in the adoption is only 18 months old. That is ready. They have a committee they set up under a statute dealing with their system. One last question with the presentation. One of the supervisors of this entire project was not home at the time, is that accurate . A 31 00 they began to create a false alert and he was at home at the time. The supervisor, is that accurate . May we follow up with you on that point . Sure. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, commissioner oreilly. Imagine what you would do at this very moment on your phone if you received the following message. Ballistic missile threat, seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill. Who would be the first person that you would call . What would you say . And what would you do when the intervening 38 minutes between getting that message and getting another one saying that the first one was false. Many residents of hawaii dont have to imagine not an area. He lived through it. Many of them thought those 38 minutes for their last ones. The panic and fear and heartache of those dirty minutes we now believe was due to human error, but also deficient preparation and training. No one should have to go through moments like those, especially a sick competency would have prevented them. The people of hawaii are just decidedly livid. They demand answers and so do we. I commend the chairman for immediately beginning an investigation into what happened in hawaii and junior 13 connecting to Public Safety and homeland Security Bureau for all the work you pretty put together for the preliminary findings are testifying on this issue and doing it also quickly. They showed a lot of light on what ari transpired. We will get to the bottom of this incident and its incumbent upon all the relevant agencies of our government to make certain that this doesnt happen again. Thank you again for all your diligent work on nasa nothing means you put together. I look forward to continuing to work with you on this matter. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner carr. Commissioner rosenworcel. Years ago i had the privilege of working for the people of the state of hawaii when i served as counsel to the late senator daniel inohe. Im sure they are aware like all of us as new vulnerabilities in the pacific. When nested segment incident occurred, folks in hawaii to understand what it happening. And they had only harrowing tales to tell. Imagine knowing you had only minutes left to live before everything you hold dear. When the threat was overcoming sure people in hawaii help their children closer. I know i did the same matinee. I senator brian shouts at them in the system failed miserably. We need to improve and get it right. Amen. So lets get to work. That work starts right here with the preliminary report that we produce today thanks to the chairman swiftly calling for an investigation which was the right thing to do. Its also thanks to the efforts of our talented Public Safety and homeland Security Bureau. What your work reveals is that many levels this mistake couldve been avoided and its effects could have been mitigated. Now we need to take these facts and use them to improve our Alert Systems across the board. We can start by considering how this agency can help develop best practices at the local state and federal level. And we need to incentivize their use through the Emergency Alert system state plan which are subject to regular filing and review at the fcc. Wildly erratic, we it, we should address everything from state training to improve user interfaces that reduce the likelihood of error. In addition, we should explore the viability of offering these alerts to audio and Video Streaming Services and the possibility of aligning traditional reporting practices with newer federal alert aggregation capabilities. But above all, we need to act with dispatch. We need real change is then placed on an accelerated schedule. We should commit right here, right now to having them in place before the summer begins because what happened in hawaii should never happen again. Thank you, commissioner. As weve heard, the only things that struck the island on january 13th were panic and outrage and gravely so on each count. That means two key questions. What went wrong and what needs to be done to stop the future mistake from happening. Those are the two questions i asked the Public Safety bureau to me to investigate on january 13th and as todays preliminary reports demonstrate, the bureau made a lot of progress and less than two and half weeks, very busy week says the cheapest pointed out. The presentation sporting makes clear that many things went wrong in hawaii as we talk to mr. Rileys powerpoint. I dont say this to casting blame for disparaging officials, though we simply need to identify the problems in order to fix them. Not just in hawaii, but anywhere else where they may exist in this country. In my view, the two most troubling things that are investigation thus far has found his number one, the hawaii Management Agency did not reasonable safeguards in place to prevent human error from resulting in a transmission of a false alert and number two, hawaiis Emergency Management agency didnt have a plan for what to do if a false alert was transmitted. Every state and local government that originate needs to learn from his mistakes. Each should ensure that it has adequate safeguards in place to prevent transmission of false alert and he should have a plan in place for how to immediately correct the false alert. This is important because the public needs to be able to trust that when the government issues an Emergency Alert, it is indeed a credible alert. Otherwise people wont take alert seriously and respond appropriately when a real emergency strikes and lives on the line. Todays preliminary report as mr. Riley pointed out not the end of the i work on the issue. The bureau will produce a final report on this incident. The sec will work in collaboration with federal, state and local officials to explore appropriate actions and their best track says. We want to minimize the chances of future false alerts being issued as well as the impact of any such false alert. I too would like to thank all of the witnesses who have cooperated with our investigation and id like to thank senator brian shot senator shot and indeed subsequent and most of all i would like to thank the bureau staff for the expertise, speed and tenacity they are brought to bear on this important task. Jane smiley and Justin Mccain were dug in underground investigators in hawaii as well as field agent of the haaretz and theyve been assisted by Rochelle Cohen from a great cook, and making henry and nikki mcginnis. Thank you for your hard work and thanks in advance for the effort to come. With that, madam secretary, please do not the next item on todays agenda. Mr. Chairman and commissioners from the second item entitled wireless Emergency Alerts, amendment of the commissions rules regarding Emergency Alert system will be presented by the safety Homeland Security chief at the bureau to give the introduction. Thank you, madam secretary. Whenever you and your team is ready. Are ready. Thank you. Good morning again. Chairman pai and commissioners, the Public Safety and homeland Security Bureau is pleased to present a second report order a second order on reconsideration that would enhance the effectiveness of wireless Emergency Alert. When the wireless Emergency Alerts program launched in 2012, participating wireless providers are generally required to send alert to a Geographic Area no larger than the county or counties affected by an emergency. Oftentimes however an emergency effect affects an area smaller than a county. To address that as of last november, all participating wireless providers are not required to transmit alerts to a Geographic Area the best approximate the area affect it by an emergency, even if it is smaller than a county. Todays order would improve geotargeting accuracy even further by requiring participating wireless providers to deliver alerts to an area that matches the target area specified by originators with an overreach of no more than one 10th of a mile. This enhanced geotargeting standard would allow Emergency Managers to send alert to only those funds located in areas affected by emergency without disturbing others. Recent natural disasters in texas, california and puerto rico among other places have demonstrated the need for Public Safety personnel to communicate potentially lifesaving information to targeted areas, including orders to evacuate due to wildfires or hurricanes. The enhanced geotargeting requirement before you today would allow for the kind of precise alerting and encourage the use of wireless alerts during times of crisis. If adopted, this and other improvements in todays order would make wireless Emergency Alert even more effective tools for Emergency Managers to keep the community safe. Joining me at the table are nikki mcginnis, making henry and james riley and james reilly, attorney advisors in the bureau Cybersecurity Communications Reliability Division and dr. Russell survive and come engineer in the bureaus policy on licensing division. I also want to thank the other bureaus and offices within the agency, particularly colleagues in the office of general counsel who have provided expertise and counsel throughout this process. Megyn will present the item. Thank you. Good morning, chairman pai and commissioners. As chief [inaudible conversations] explained from important steps towards improving the lifesaving tool, first, the order would require participating wireless providers to deliver wea messages to an area that matches the target area specified by the alert originator. We do is find matching the target area as delivering an alert message to 100 of the area with no more than one 10th of the mild overshoot. This requirement would apply to all new devices and all existing devices that are capable of being updated to support this match standard. We expect that participating wireless providers would match the target area in all instances except where there is technically incapable of doing so. In those very limited circumstances, for example when the consumer turns up Location Services on their device, wireless providers would be required to best approximate the target area. In recognition of the urgent need to ensure that members of the public receive only the alert messages that are relevant to bad and to give Emergency Managers the tools to communicate by sending information to those specifically affect it by an emergency, they would require participating wireless providers to comply with the rule by november 30, 2019. The order would also adopt new consumer Disclosure Requirements to ensure that members of the public are aware of the availability and benefits of enhanced geotargeting at the pointofsale. Second, the order would require wireless providers to preserve wea messages on mobile devices for these 24 hours or until deleted by the user. Preserving alert messages on the device will allow members of the public to go back and review lifesaving information such as location of shelters and supply distribution units and emergency hotline numbers. This capability is especially important given the commissions recent adoption rules that allow for longer messages that include clickable links and phone numbers. Third, the order would define what constituted in participation in wea. Wireless providers if they provide service on all the mobile devices they offer at the pointofsale and the entirety of their Geographic Service area. They would participate in part if they provide wea services him but not all Geographic Service area around some but not all of the mobile devices that they offer at the pointofsale. These definitions will provide additional clarity to industry Emergency Managers and the public about the availability of wea service. Finally, the secondorder reconsideration wouldve minded deadline for implementing spanishlanguage alerting with the deadlines for implementing longer 360 character length messages. In doing so, we recognize alerts in spanish can require more characters than equivalent in english and harmonizing the deadline first in 2019 will allow wireless providers to conduct Software Testing at the same time. The recommends adoptions to items that request privileges extended only to technical and conforming ethics. We will now proceed to questions with mr. Clyburn. But it is tax to 911, wireless location accuracy or promoting reliability and safety communications, my approach when it comes to Public Safety issues has been shaped by three guiding principles. People with accessibility and access challenges must benefit. We should do all we can to educate numerous about the safety benefits and collaboration among all stakeholders work better than litigation. Frederick douglass, one of the most influential africanamericans of the 19th century is known to have said, if there is no struggle, there is no progress. With africanamerican History Month just days away, i find this to be a particularly fitting quote to aptly describe most of the Public Safety proceedings out here ive has participated in over the last eight years. Typically, proceedings start setting an ambitious goal to improve the services. In many cases they push back and certain details followed by the five of us are not all the policy details. In the end, these struggles and collaboration among stakeholders have resulted in progress and improvements to Emergency Communications. The same can be said for wireless Emergency Alerts oes. Wireless and the wea system authorizes alert originators at the federal tribal state and local levels to warn the public about all levels of emergencies. First deployed in april 2012 and thanks to the collaborative effort by industry and the Public Safety community, the wea system has issued more than 33,000 Emergency Alerts. We have worked over the past few years to more precisely target those alert to cell phone users, located in the exact area where the emergency exists. The riskier is that those who repeatedly get alert, which are not relevant to them may one day ignore an alert that directly impacts their safety and that would be extremely unfortunate. This is why back in September September 2016 we sought comment on requiring the industry to go beyond the current geotargeting standard and more closely match the target area that an alert originator transmits. That further note is demonstrated again that despite differences on specific policy details, my colleagues and i have the challenges and work toward supporting this goal. Todays order marks an important milestone because it follows through on the previous administrations enhanced geotargeting proposals and requires the industry to meet the enhanced standard by november 30th 2019. I must admit that i had concern about certain aspects of the draft originally circulated earlier this month, but i am pleased to report that i can now support the item because we were able to compromise on a few key areas. The order originally stated that a participating Wireless Companies Network Infrastructures could resort to less accurate standard if it were technically incapable of matching a target area. I was concerned that the term could become a loophole. My colleagues agree to the request to clarify that technically incapable does not include circumstances when the carriers own failure to adequately maintain the network or devices makes it unable to meet the standard. I want to commend apco coming to new york city at Management Office and others for the strong advocacy on this issue. The original draft order did not amend this rule to keep pace with the technical changes we are adopting today. Currently, consumers must be notified at pointofsale if Wireless Companies do not offer wea at all or wea impart. More precise targeting alerts are important to keep people safe, then we should give all wireless customers the ability to choose more precise geotargeting devices and services. Consumers cannot make the choices they do not have adequate notifications. So i think my colleagues were agreeing to amend the rules made clear that consumers must also be notified about the extent to which Wireless Companies offer enhanced geotargeting alerts. Finally, i was concerned that the initial draft had no mention of multimedia information and wireless Emergency Alert. The september 2016 further notice specifically sought comment on this issue and the new york City Emergency Commission made a compelling case that it would have been very helpful if the alert about the Chelsea Bombing in 26 team had included a photo of the suspect. So i asked that the item included further notice on of multimedia information and news alerts. Although my colleagues do not agree to further notice, i am pleased they are willing to support direct in the Public Safety and homeland Security Bureau staff to issue a Public Notice to further develop the record on the subject. So for all the reasons i have stated, this order has my support. I think lisa fowlkes in a dedicated staff to the homeland Security Bureau for their work on this and my colleagues are working with me on such a critical proceeding. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner clyburn. Commissioner reilly. Of what should be able to agree that providing agencies with flexibility to pinpoint their wireless alerts to specific areas where there is a threat is an incredibly useful function that Public Safety industries are supportive of such targeting capabilities and so am i. Im in favor of todays order. The continuous need to mandate technologies is where they are ready to time frames that dont seem to be in line with the record. Along with the Communications Security interoperability with 42 months after adoption of the commission order. The Wireless Industry said that they could then probably do it faster and suggest 36 months in todays inexplicable 22 months timeline based on no record evidence that is actually achievable. They have stated they will try to meet those guidelines and have also stated incredibly challenging. Basically the stars must align just right to what happens in this time. While i understand the Public Safety entities like geotargeting now, you cannot wish technology into existence. As the record reflects, further consideration is needed regarding how to effectuate geotargeting including such basics as the need for soft or hardware changes and updated and new standards. This doesnt happen overnight. The standard bodies are still finalizing the last that the wea changes including spanishlanguage messages in 360 character alerting requirements. Before the third and the third and completed into targeting relies on the ability to send these longer alerts, we are adopting new rules that will add additional requirements for standard setting bodies to work out. Based on the draft that was made public the alliance for Telecommunications Industry solutions are identified 25 standards that must be developed or modified to make geotargeting possible. Hopefully thisll be the end for a while. Lets not forget a key priority should be setting standards for 5g. I also want to be clear that the industry should be given the opportunity to figure out the best means to implement geotargeting. It is paramount in the context of Public Safety that industry ensures that whatever it is they pick is taxed at a marks. They should be not forced to cut corners or pick a lesser solution to meet an aspirational deadline. We went down this road for a location accuracy and it didnt work out well. Therefore, standards are delayed in Industry Needs more time to successfully deploy geotargeting, ill be supportive of extending the deadline. For this reason im pleased that chairman agreed to my my request to add language to the item that the commission will entertain a waiver of the 22 month deadline that the standard processes prolonged. Ultimately we must remember that this is a voluntary program and you do know why providers optimize the program because they can integrate its functionality and 22 months. This brings me to the cost benefit analysis. I remain skeptical of the flawed value of a statistical life metric and while some assumptions are made with little to no support i appreciate the efforts by the Chairmans Office and staff to food as part of the item. Going forward we should work towards improving customs to ensure that they are based in fact and that there is actual proof for a high probability to the stated benefits who proved the buildings we impose. I hope under the new office says analytics which we have a separate item today we can have a framework in which any proposed rule must be shown to have a statistically significant likelihood of correlation or causation to suggest benefits. I want to thank the chairman for the additional language to ensure solutions to coordinate points invisible 360 characters. I also want to thank the staff for all the hard work they dedicated this issue, especially given their intense focus on the other issues over the last many weeks. Thank you so much. Now we vote to approve the item. Thank you im a commissioner riley. Commissioner carter. Wea can save lives from Service Warning about an approaching hurricane to amber alerts coming to bring a child home safely. Emergency managers have spent more than 33,000 aimed at keeping the public safe. And in effect is wea system is no system at all. Its Emergency Managers cannot count on a system to deliver their messages on time and to the intended area, the public loses trust in weas reliability, officials and the public will optout in a system that delivers few alerts to a dwindling audience becomes an afterthought rather than a lifesaving tool. Recent events in california, hawaii remind us that the urgency of improving wea. The massive wildfires that swept through Northern California in october caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents. Of alerting to too many resids and telling them to evacuate. As we just heard in the report the false alert resulted in 38 minutes of panic and confusion. We must continue to exercise oversight authority. Our experience with wea over the last five years and the submissions from a community and the record support the commissions action today. We now require that wea matched the target area to reduce the likelihood of over warning and warning fatigue. We require messages be preserved for 24 hours so that the public can review and share alerts after theyve been said. We provide guidance on how Legacy Networks and devices can continue to comply with our rules. In selecting the new deadlines the commission has attempted to balance the urgency we all feel to improve the wea system with the speed at which technology and standards are developing. Im confident the commission will continue to work with all stakeholders on implement these upgrades and is a based on the recognition that working quickly and effectively together will save lives. So thank you to the staff of Public Safety, home lets get a beer for your work on this item. I am pleased to support it. Thank you, commissioner carr. Commissioner rosenworcel. Are Emergency Alert systems were first designed for war and then rebuilt for peace. In the wake of september 11 attacks, we reimagined in the can for the smartphone era. And today wireless Emergency Alerts are a powerful tool to quickly send messages to people in imminent danger. 90 characters to the right person at the right time in the right place can mean the difference between life and death here these messages have already saved countless lives and help divert many more tragedies. This past year, however, exposed to many shortcomings in our Emergency Alert systems. We saw this quite clearly early this month with a harrowing false alert announcing a Ballistic Missile attack in hawaii. On top of this, master was one of the most devastating on record for natural disasters in the United States. California experienced its most destructive on wild fire seasons earning 1. 2 main acres of land, and killing 46 people. Hurricane harvey shattered rainfall records for a single tropical storm, flooding parts of texas with more than four feet of rain. Puerto rico is still recovering from when Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island four months ago. More than 1000 people died in the storm and its aftermath. 30 of the island remained without power. Puerto rico still waiting for a report and plans for communications for recovery from this agency. In too many cases last year wireless Emergency Alerts fail to perform. In california and texas, Emergency Services were unable to transmit these messages because they were unable to target the accurately enough to ensure that did help those in danger and not cause panic beyond the broader area of concern. Thats troubling. Moreover, its a problem when repeated imprecision of these alerts causes those who receive them to disregard warnings, and weve seen this happen before with destructive weather in areas where tornado sirens have been sounded too many times over too large of an area. Overstating the scope of danger. Thats why in november of last year i urged the fcc to act swiftly to require more granular geo targeting before the next disaster compels us to do so. For this reason i fully support the actions the agency is taking today, the roles we adopt your can significantly increase the precision of wireless Emergency Alerts as a result they reduce the danger of overalerting, making their use more effective, more efficient, and more likely to save lives. Its important that we do not stop here. We need to watch technical issues impacting the targeted availability of wireless Emergency Alert and be on guard for ways these issues can be resolved so that everyone gets the emergency warning they need. We also need to consider multimedia use and alerts, many to one feedback, and multilingual messaging. The record on all of these issues is already robust. So lets do something bold. Lets take them on now for the next disaster or crisis compels us to do so. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner rosenworcel. When disaster strikes it is essential that americans in harms way get reliable information so that they can stay safe and protect their loved ones. The wireless Emergency Alert system, or wea, is one important tool for Emergency Managers to quickly convey such information such as tornado warnings to the public on their mobile devices. Since wea became operational in 2012 it has been used over 33,000 times. Recently, wea was used four times in response to wildfires in Northern California, 16 times more than wildfires around los angeles. Wea was also used extensively in all areas affected by recent hurricanes, including 21 alerts sent in puerto rico alone. But weve heard that many jurisdictions are hesitant to use wea because it lacks granularity. That is, people may receive the alert even though their locatable outside of an affected target energy. Overbroad alerting can cause public confusion and leads him to opt out of receiving alerts altogether, and many instances it can complicate rescue efforts by unnecessarily causing Traffic Congestion or overloading call centers. As i said before people should not miss out a potentially lifesaving information just because the Alert Systems current brushstroke is too broad. This morning we address this problem by bringing a finer brush to bear on the canvas. Todays report and order requires participating wireless providers to deliver alerts to match 100 of the target area that overlaps with a wireless providers network, jerry with the overshoot of no more than onetenth of a mile. This will help channel alerts to americans who need them. And equally important this rule will give alert originated the assurance they need to rely on wea as a valuable tool to help save lives. Indeed, among the many Public Safety officials who have endorsed this approach, Harris County deputy Emergency Management coordinator Francisco Sanchez has that this rule, quote, will be the single most important improvement to the nations alerts and warnings infrastructure in years. I understand theres some division over the rules novemben deadline pick some say the schedule is too aggressive. Some say its not aggressive enough. I think its just right. On this Public Safety matter i favor an approach that i believe is aggressive and achievable. In my view the record indicates the november 2019 meets this test. In short this rule coupled with the other improvements we adopted a common daily consumers to retrieve alerts for 24 hours after they are received, clarifying the difference between providers participating in wea in part rather than whole, and harmonizing the deadline for implementing spanishlanguage colluding with the deadline for implementing logger 360 character make messages. All of these will strengthen the wea system and keep america safer. I like my colleagues like to thank the staff of the Public Safety and homeland Security Bureau for all of the hard work and commitment to serving the public they have shown. Rochelle, graham, megan henry, nikki, emily, and, of course, james wiley. From office of general counsel takes to david horwitz, bill richardson. With that will move to a vote on the item. Commissioner clyburn . The chair of votes imac is willt the item is adopted. Privileges granted as requested. Thanks to the great work. Thanks dean appeared very much. I will have a few comments and be happy to take your questions. Today the sec took a major step forward in improving our wireless Emergency Alert system. Many in the Public Safety community have said wireless
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