IPAWS Overview: FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Mark Lucero, Chief Engineer IPAWS Division December 16, 2015

2 FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Mar 2013 – FCC established a committee to make recommendations for WEA improvements – May 2014 – WEA testing report released – Oct 2014 – WEA geo-targeting, character length, message content report released – Nov 19, 2015 – FCC issued a NPRM requesting public comments – Jan 13, 2016 – Initial comment period ends Feb 12, 2016– Reply comment period ends

3 FCC NPRM Highlights FCC proposes expanding the WEA message length from 90 to 360 characters FCC proposes adding a new WEA category titled “Emergency Government Information” for non-emergency type messages (i.e. boil water, shelter locations) FCC proposes allowing URLs and telephone numbers in WEA messages which were previously prohibited FCC proposes including multilingual WEA messages FCC proposes improvements to WEA geo-targeting of alerts FCC proposes inclusion of local WEA test codes FCC proposes requiring cell carriers to log alerts and provide reports

4 How to Comment on Proposed Changes Click “Submit a Filing in 15-91” and fill out the form Enter the Proceeding Number, which is “15-91” Enter your name as Name of Filer Do not click the “Exparte Presentation” box The type of filing is “COMMENT” Enter your business address (not your personal address, as your comment and information will be publicly available) Save your comments in a Word document or similar format, and upload the file to the FCC site by clicking the “Browse” button

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