U.S. Government Affairs

  • 1.  Simplification of Multilingual Alerting by the Emergency Alert System

    Posted 04-08-2024 11:35
      |   view attached

    IAEM submitted comments on April 8 to the Federal Communications Commission on the simplification of multilingual alerting by the Emergency Alert System.  

    Here is a link to the notice, and the comments are attached as a PDF.

    Thank you to Travis Cryan, Dr. Jeannette Sutton, and Elizabeth Davis for their assistance in preparing the comments.



    ------------------------------
    Thad Huguley
    Government Affairs Director
    IAEM
    Falls Church VA
    (615) 870-9316
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  • 2.  RE: Simplification of Multilingual Alerting by the Emergency Alert System

    Posted 07-24-2024 09:47

    Follow up from the FCC...

    On July 19, 2024, the FCC released a Report and Order taking steps to advance the nationwide transition to Next Generation 911 (NG911).  Unlike the current 911 system, NG911 uses Internet Protocol (IP)-based format and routing, and will support the transmission of text, photos, videos, and data.

    In the Report and Order, the FCC adopted the first nationwide NG911 transition rules that define the responsibilities and set deadlines for wireline, wireless, covered text providers, interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) providers to implement NG911 capabilities on their networks and deliver 911 calls to NG911 systems.  This will expedite the nationwide transition to NG911, lead to faster call delivery, improved service reliability, and more accurate caller location, and save lives.

    These requirements apply to Internet-based TRS providers that are directly involved with routing 911 traffic.

      Link to the Report and Order and News Release:

    URL:  https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-takes-action-expedite-transition-next-generation-911-0  

    Additional information on 911 services is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/general/9-1-1-and-e9-1-1-services.  For further information on this proceeding, contact Rachel Wehr at Rachel.Wehr@fcc.gov or (202) 418-1138, or Brenda Boykin at Brenda.Boykin@fcc.gov or (202) 418-2062, of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Policy and Licensing Division.  Individuals who use videophones and are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) may call the FCC's ASL Consumer Support Line at (844) 432-2275 (videophone).



    ------------------------------
    Thad Huguley
    Government Affairs Director
    IAEM
    Falls Church VA
    (615) 870-9316
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Simplification of Multilingual Alerting by the Emergency Alert System

    Posted 5 days ago

    I wanted to pass along this notice from the Federal Communications Commission:

    On January 8, 2025, the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) released a Report and Order requiring wireless providers that participate in Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to implement multilingual templates that alert originators can choose to send during life-threatening emergencies. 

    In October 2023, the Commission adopted rules to enable alert originators to send common alerts in more than a dozen languages without the need for a translator.  To achieve this, the rules require wireless providers that participate in WEA to install and store multilingual alert templates, provided by the Commission, on mobile devices.  When an alert originator sends a template-based multilingual alert, the phone will display the relevant template in the subscriber's default language, if available.  Otherwise, the phone should display the alert in English. 

    In the Report and Order released on January 8, PSHSB adopted 18 templates to address the following types of alerts: tornado emergency, tornado warning, flash flood emergency, flash flood warning, severe thunderstorm, snow squall, dust storm, hurricane, storm surge, extreme wind, test alert, fire, tsunami, earthquake, boil water, avalanche, hazardous materials, and 911 outage.  The written languages supported with templates are: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.  Alerting authorities will be able to customize the templates for the written languages to include event-specific information.  American Sign Language alerts are also supported with video templates. When a multilingual alert is sent, the alert in the device's default language is required to appear first and must be followed by the English version of the alert.   

    The News Release and Report and Order containing more information are available on the FCC's website.  

    Thank you for your continued support and ongoing partnership as this marks a major step in expanding time-sensitive multilingual Wireless Emergency Alerts that will reach more people with urgent messages and save lives.


    Original Message


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