From Federal Communications Commission Documents and Publications
Original publication date: June 20, 2011 

Summary: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) seeks comment on proposed changes to its rules governing the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to codify the obligation to process alert messages formatted in the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and to streamline and clarify these rules generally to enhance their effectiveness.

Effective Date: Comments are due on or before July 20, 2011 and reply comments are due on or before August 4, 2011.

Addresses: You may submit comments, identified by EB Docket No. 04-296, by any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
• Federal Communications Commission’s Web site: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Filings can be sent by hand or messenger delivery, by commercial overnight courier, or by first-class or overnight U.S. Postal Service mail (although the Commission continues to experience delays in receiving U.S. Postal Service mail). All filings must be addressed to the Commission’s Secretary, Office of the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission.
• People with Disabilities: Contact the Commission to request reasonable accommodations (accessible format documents, sign language interpreters, CART, etc.) by e-mail: [email protected] or phone: 202-418-0530 or TTY: 202-418-0432.

For detailed instructions for submitting comments and additional information on the rulemaking process, see the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

For Further Information Contact: Lisa Fowlkes, Deputy Bureau Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, at (202) 418-7452, or by e-mail at [email protected] For additional information concerning the Paperwork Reduction Act information collection requirements contained in this document, contact Judy Boley Hermann at (202) 418-0214 or send an e-mail to [email protected]

Supplementary Information: This is a summary of the Commission’s Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Third FNPRM) in EB Docket No. 04-296, FCC 11-82, adopted on May 25, 2011, and released on May 26, 2011. The full text of this document is available for inspection and copying during normal business hours in the FCC Reference Center (Room CY-A257), 445 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20554. The complete text of this document also may be purchased from the Commission’s copy contractor, Best Copy and Printing, Inc., 445 12th Street, SW., Room CY-B402, Washington, DC 20554. The full text may also be downloaded at: http://www.fcc.gov.

Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
1. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended (RFA), the Commission has prepared this Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) of the possible significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities of the policies and rules proposed in the Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Third FNPRM). The Commission requests written public comments on this IRFA. Comments must be identified as responses to the IRFA and must be filed by the deadlines for comments on the Third FNPRM provided in section IV of the item. The Commission will send a copy of the Third FNPRM, including this IRFA, to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration (SBA). In addition, the Third FNPRM and IRFA (or summaries thereof) will be published in the Federal Register

A. Need for, and Objectives of, the Proposed Rules

2. In 2007, as an initial step towards upgrading the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to incorporate the latest technologies and capabilities and to facilitate integration of public alerting at the national, state, and local levels, the Commission adopted the Second Report and Order (Second Report and Order) in EB Docket No. 04-296, 72 FR 62123, November 2, 2007, which incorporated certain Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)-related obligations into the Commission’s Part 11 EAS rules. First, to ensure the efficient, rapid, and secure transmission of EAS alerts in a variety of formats (including text, audio, and video) and via different means (broadcast, cable, satellite, and other networks), the Commission required that EAS Participants be capable of receiving CAP-formatted alert messages no later than 180 days after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) publicly publishes its adoption of the CAP standard. Second, the Commission required EAS Participants to adopt Next Generation EAS delivery systems no later than 180 days after FEMA publicly releases standards for those systems. Third, the Commission required EAS Participants to transmit state and local EAS alerts that are originated by governors or their designees no later than 180 days after FEMA publishes its adoption of the CAP standard, provided that the state has a Commission-approved State Area EAS Plan that provides for delivery of such alerts.

3. The Third FNPRM builds on that effort by seeking comment on a wide range of tentative conclusions and proposed revisions to the Part 11 rules that would codify the CAP-related mandates adopted in the Second Report and Order, and modernize and streamline the Part 11 rules by eliminating outdated technical and procedural requirements. Specifically, the Third FNPRM contains the following tentative conclusions and proposed rule changes, and seeks comment on each:

• Tentatively concludes that, for the time being, the existing legacy EAS, including utilization of the EAS Protocol, will be maintained.
• Proposes to amend SEC 11.56 of the Commission’s rules to require EAS Participants to convert CAP-formatted EAS messages into SAME-compliant EAS messages in accordance with the EAS-CAP Industry Group’s (ECIG) ECIG Implementation Guide.
• Tentatively concludes that SEC 11.52 of the Commission’s rules should be amended to require that EAS Participants monitor the Really Simple Syndication 2.0 feed(s) utilized by: (i) FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System for federal CAP-formatted messages; and (ii) state alert systems as the source of governor-originated CAP messages (provided these are described in the State Area EAS Plan submitted to and approved by the Commission).
• Proposes that the language from the Second Report and Order regarding receipt of CAP-formatted messages from Next Generation EAS delivery systems was intended to put EAS Participants on notice that, should FEMA adopt technical standards covering delivery of CAP-formatted messages to EAS Participants over specific platforms, such as satellite systems, EAS Participants would ultimately need to configure their systems to be able to interface with such systems to meet their existing obligation to process CAP-formatted messages.
• Seeks comment on whether EAS Participants should be permitted to meet their CAP-related obligations by deploying intermediary devices that essentially would carry out the function of receiving and decoding a CAP-formatted message, and translating and encoding such message into a SAME-formatted message that could then be inputted into a legacy EAS device via its audio port (just as an over-the-air SAME-formatted message would be) for broadcast over the EAS Participant’s transmission platform.
• Seeks comment on whether adding a requirement to SEC 11.32(a) of the Commission’s rules that EAS encoders must be capable of encoding a CAP-formatted message (i.e., originating or somehow transmitting a message in the CAP format as opposed to the SAME format) would be necessary or appropriate.
• Seeks comment on whether the input and output configuration requirements in SUBSEC 11.32(a)(2) and (a)(3) of the Commission’s rules should be modified to include a requirement for a single Ethernet port and eliminate the existing requirements for 1200 baud RS-232C interface.
• Seeks comment on whether the minimum requirements for decoders in SEC 11.33(a) of the Commission’s rules should include the capability to decode CAP-formatted messages and convert them into SAME protocol-compliant messages, and whether this requirement can be met through the deployment of an intermediary device.
• Seeks comment on whether the input and output configuration requirements in SUBSEC 11.33(a)(1) and (a)(7) of the Commission’s rules should be modified to include a requirement for a single Ethernet port and eliminate the existing requirements for 1200 baud RS-232C interface.
• Seeks comment on whether SEC 11.33(a)(4) of the Commission’s rules should be modified to require that if an alert message is derived from a CAP-formatted message, the contents of the text, assembled pursuant to ECIG Implementation Guide, should be added to the EAS device log.
• Tentatively concludes that there is no basis for revising SEC 11.33(a)(10) of the Commission’s rules to require processing of CAP-formatted messages by default when duplicate messages are received in both the EAS Protocol and CAP formats, as recommended by the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), if EAS Participants are required to translate CAP-formatted messages into SAME-formatted messages in conformance with the ECIG Implementation Guide.
• Seeks comment on whether SEC 11.33(a)(11) of the Commission’s rules should be updated to specify that a CAP-formatted message containing a header code with the EAN event code received through a non-audio input must override all other messages.
• Seeks comment on whether the text of SEC 11.11(a) of the Commission’s rules should be amended to include as a minimum requirement compliance with the CAP-related requirements in SEC 11.56 of the Commission’s rules, and whether the reference to “analog television broadcast stations” should be deleted.

–This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below–

Notice of proposed rulemaking.
CFR Part: “47 CFR Part 11”
Citation: “76 FR 35810”
Document Number: “EB Docket No. 04-296; FCC 11-82”
Federal Register Page Number: “35810”
“Proposed Rules” 

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