[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
FUTURE OF EMERGENCY ALERTING
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MAY 17, 2017
__________
Serial No. 115-31
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
energycommerce.house.gov
______
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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
GREG WALDEN, Oregon
Chairman
JOE BARTON, Texas FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
Vice Chairman Ranking Member
FRED UPTON, Michigan BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois
JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois ANNA G. ESHOO, California
TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas GENE GREEN, Texas
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado
STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania
ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina
GREGG HARPER, Mississippi DORIS O. MATSUI, California
LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey KATHY CASTOR, Florida
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland
PETE OLSON, Texas JERRY McNERNEY, California
DAVID B. McKINLEY, West Virginia PETER WELCH, Vermont
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico
H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia PAUL TONKO, New York
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York
BILL JOHNSON, Ohio DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa
BILLY LONG, Missouri KURT SCHRADER, Oregon
LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III,
BILL FLORES, Texas Massachusetts
SUSAN W. BROOKS, Indiana TONY CARDENAS, California
MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma RAUL RUIZ, California
RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina SCOTT H. PETERS, California
CHRIS COLLINS, New York DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan
KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota
TIM WALBERG, Michigan
MIMI WALTERS, California
RYAN A. COSTELLO, Pennsylvania
EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
Chairman
LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania
Vice Chairman Ranking Member
JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois PETER WELCH, Vermont
STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York
ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky RAUL RUIZ, California
PETE OLSON, Texas DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida ANNA G. ESHOO, California
BILL JOHNSON, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
BILLY LONG, Missouri G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina
BILL FLORES, Texas DORIS O. MATSUI, California
SUSAN W. BROOKS, Tennessee JERRY McNERNEY, California
CHRIS COLLINS, New York FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey (ex
KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota officio)
MIMI WALTERS, California
RYAN A. COSTELLO, Pennsylvania
GREG WALDEN, Oregon (ex officio)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hon. Marsha Blackburn, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Tennessee, opening statement.......................... 1
Prepared statement........................................... 3
Hon. Michael F. Doyle, a Representative in Congress from the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, opening statement................ 4
Hon. Greg Walden, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Oregon, opening statement...................................... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the
State of New Jersey, opening statement......................... 6
Witnesses
Sam Matheny, Chief Technology Officer, National Association of
Broadcasters................................................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 11
Farrokh Khatibi, Ph.D., Director of Engineering, Qualcomm
Technology..................................................... 20
Prepared statement........................................... 22
Christopher Guttman-McCabe, CEO, CGM Advisors, Llc, On behalf of
Advanced Computer and Communications, LLC...................... 31
Prepared statement........................................... 33
Submitted Material
Statement of the American Cable Association...................... 63
FUTURE OF EMERGENCY ALERTING
----------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology,
Committee on Energy and Commerce,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:00 a.m., in
room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Marsha Blackburn
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Blackburn, Lance, Shimkus, Latta,
Guthrie, Olson, Bilirakis, Johnson, Long, Flores, Brooks,
Collins, Walters, Costello, Walden (ex officio), Doyle, Welch,
Clarke, Eshoo, Butterfield, Matsui, McNerney, and Pallone (ex
officio).
Staff Present: Ray Baum, Staff Director; Chuck Flint,
Policy Coordinator, Communications and Technology; Adam Fromm,
Director of Outreach and Coalitions; Gene Fullano, Detailee,
Communications and Technology; Giulia Giannangeli, Legislative
Clerk, Digital, Commerce, and Consumer Protection/
Communications and Technology; Kelsey Guyselman, Counsel,
Communications and Technology; A.T. Johnston, Senior Policy
Advisor, Energy; Lauren McCarty, Counsel, Communications and
Technology; Alex Miller, Video Production Aide and Press
Assistant; Dan Schneider, Press Secretary; Hamlin Wade, Special
Advisor, External Affairs; Everett Winnick, Director of
Information Technology; Jeff Carroll, Minority Staff Director;
Alex Debianchi, Minority Telecom Fellow; David Goldman,
Minority Chief Counsel, Communications and Technology; Jerry
Leverich, Minority Counsel; Lori Maarbjerg, Minority FCC
Detailee; Dan Miller, Minority Policy Analyst; Matt Schumacher,
Minority Deputy Press Secretary and Digital Director; and
Andrew Souvall, Minority Director of Communications, Outreach
and Member Services.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARSHA BLACKBURN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE
Mrs. Blackburn. The Subcommittee on Communications and
Technology will now come to order. And I recognize myself for 5
minutes for an opening statement.
I do want to welcome each of you and say good morning
because it is a good morning here in D.C., and welcome you to
our hearing, the ``Future of Emergency Alerting,'' and to think
about how important this topic is.
One data point that we should each celebrate is that the
first abducted child to be rescued by an AMBER Alert in 1998 is
about to graduate from high school, and in that thought, we
extend our congratulations to Miss Rae Leigh Bradbury of Fort
Worth, Texas, who was that first child who was rescued by an
AMBER Alert.
I do want to thank our witnesses that are here today. This
committee's commitment to advancing public safety
communications is well established. Recently, FirstNet
announced the award of a contract to AT&T that will bring
state-of-the-art interoperable broadband communications to our
Nation's first responders. The legislation that got us there
reflects the bipartisan work of this committee under Chairman
Walden's leadership, and we thank him for that leadership.
The committee examined Next Gen 911 services and listened
to testimony regarding the challenges and benefits of bringing
the robust capabilities of IP-based technology to our Nation's
public safety answering points.
This morning, we have an opportunity to hear about a third
critical component of public safety communications, which is
emergency alerting. Outfitting first responders with the
capabilities of broadband communications is essential. In those
times when catastrophe looms in the lives of hundreds,
thousands, or maybe even millions are at risk or a child is
missing, the necessity of ensuring the best available tools are
available to local, state, and federal authorities to alert the
public cannot be understated.
We all know the stories from tornadoes that are ripping
through communities, hurricanes that devastate the coast,
earthquakes, even acts of terrorism that weigh heavily on our
collective consciousness of just how dangerous the world can
be. Where do we find comfort? With the knowledge that those
that have dedicated their lives to protecting ours are able to
notify us and steer us from harm's way.
How do they go about doing this? This morning, we will hear
about the Emergency Alert System, EAS, a broadcast-based
mechanism that has been around for decades and serves as the
Nation's primary alerting tool.
Recently, FEMA and its partners performed a nationwide
test, the second in history. We will hear about the outcome and
the lessons learned. We will be introduced to a new television
broadcast transmission standard, ATSC 3.0, that the broadcast
television industry has sought authorization from the FCC to
deploy. Among other things, it appears to offer capabilities
that could bring significant improvements to emergency
alerting. I would like to understand what those are and the
impact it will have on EAS.
We will hear about wireless emergency alerts, the mechanism
that brings us alerts through our mobile devices. Mr. Shimkus
was the lead sponsor of the WARN Act, the legislation that
established that mechanism in 2006, and we thank him for that
leadership. Since then, we have come to increasingly rely on
our smartphones.
Today, we will hear how continued technological innovation
promises to make WEA a more significant component of alerting.
Finally, we are going to explore the role of social media.
We have seen firsthand the power of Twitter and Facebook, as
well as others in this space. Yet while social media has been
used as a tool by public safety, there are concerns regarding
such things as trustworthiness and security.
Having the most effective means to reach our citizens in
times of emergency is a goal we all share. Today's panel will
inform us on what is and what might be as the Nation's alerting
capabilities evolve.
I now recognize the subcommittee ranking member, Mr. Doyle,
for 5 minutes for an opening statement.
[The prepared statement of Mrs. Blackburn follows:]
Prepared statement of Hon. Marsha Blackburn
Good morning and welcome to the Communications and
Technology Subcommittee's hearing titled: the ``Future of
Emergency Alerting.'' How important a topic is this? The first
abducted child to be rescued by an Amber Alert back in 1998 is
about to graduate from high-school. Congratulations to Ms. Rae
Leigh Bradbury of Fort Worth. And let me thank our witnesses
for appearing here today to offer your expertise.
This Committee's commitment to advancing public safety
communications is well established. Recently, FirstNet
announced the award of a contract to AT&T that will bring
state-of-the-art interoperable broadband communications to our
Nation's First Responders. The legislation that got us there
reflects the bipartisan work of this Committee under Chairman
Walden's leadership. The Committee examined Next Generation 911
services and listened to testimony regarding the challenges and
benefits of bringing the robust capabilities of IP-based
technology to our nation's Public Safety Answering Points. This
morning we have an opportunity to hear about a third critical
component of public safety communications--emergency alerting.
Outfitting first responders with the robust capabilities of
broadband communications is essential. In those times when
catastrophe looms and the lives of hundreds, thousands, even
millions--are at risk or a child is missing, the necessity of
ensuring the best available tools are available to local, state
and federal authorities to alert the public cannot be
understated.
We all know stories--tornadoes ripping through the
heartland, hurricanes devastating our coasts, earthquakes, even
acts of terrorism weigh heavy on our collective consciousness
of just how dangerous the world can be. Where do we find
comfort--with the knowledge that those that have dedicated
their lives to protecting ours are able to notify us and steer
us from harm's way.
How do they go about doing this?
This morning we will hear about the emergency alert
system--EAS--a broadcast based mechanism that has been around
for decades and serves as the nation's primary alerting tool.
Recently, FEMA and its partners performed a nationwide test--
the second in its history. We will hear about the outcome and
lessons learned.
We will be introduced to a new television broadcast
transmission standard--ATSC 3.0 that the broadcast television
industry has sought authorization from the FCC to deploy. Among
other things, it appears to offer capabilities that could bring
significant improvements to emergency alerting. I'd like to
understand what they are and how they impact EAS.
We will hear about Wireless Emergency Alerts--the mechanism
that brings us alerts through our mobile devices. Mr. Shimkus
was the lead sponsor of the WARN Act, the legislation that
established that mechanism in 2006. Since then we have come to
increasingly rely on our smart phones. Today we will hear how
continued technological innovation promises to make WEA a more
significant component of alerting.
Finally, we will explore the role of social media. We have
seen first-hand the power of Twitter and Facebook as well as
others in this space. Yet, while social media has been used as
a tool by public safety, there are concerns regarding such
things as trustworthiness and security.
Having the most effective means to reach our citizens in
times of emergency is a goal we all share. Today's panel will
inform us on what is and what might be, as the nation's
alerting capabilities evolve. Thank you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL F. DOYLE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Doyle. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I want to thank the
witnesses for being here today. I believe emergency alerts are
a critical issue for our country and our constituents, and I
look forward to the hearing today.
Advances in emergency alerts have enabled greater
flexibility, targeting, and effectiveness, and I am proud of
the legislation that was passed out of this committee and has
been adopted by industry and consumers alike. Wireless alerts
provide detailed and timely messages to the devices that we
carry and keep close to us every moment of the day.
Additionally, I am happy to see a representative from the
broadcasters here. The commitment that broadcasters have had to
emergency alerts and local reporting in times of emergency is
commendable. For far too long this has been the only way that
people have been able to get information about emergencies and
events in their regions.
I will be interested to hear about the impact the new
proposed television standard could have on broadcast alerts.
That being said, I still have concerns about this proposed
transition to a new broadcast standard and the impact it could
have on working families and seniors.
The last time we changed broadcast standards, Congress, the
FCC, and the Department of Commerce partnered with industry to
inform people and ensure that citizens were not left behind by
a change in technology. As we embark on this next transition,
it is critical that we work together to do the same thing.
That being said, I am concerned about the timing of this
hearing. The FCC, at its open meeting tomorrow, will vote to
advance an order that will roll back essential rules that
protect and promote a free and open internet. There are already
1.6 million comments on the record.
This committee has yet to hold a public hearing at this
Congress to address the proposed changes, nor has this
committee held an oversight hearing of the FCC itself, one of
the primary agencies this subcommittee is charged with
overseeing. This issue is one of many that this subcommittee
should be discussing with the Commission.
Since the Commission is made up of unelected appointees, as
the majority repeatedly pointed out over the last 8 years, it
is critical that they be held accountable by Congress.
Last Congress, this subcommittee had no trouble bringing
the FCC up here to testify, with some commissioners joking that
they should receive frequent flyer miles for the frequency of
their visits. Now, with the Commission on the brink of
considering an enormously unpopular and ill-advised proposal
that could have far-reaching implications on the most
innovative part of our economy, it seems irresponsible not for
Congress to provide the much needed oversight.
Ranking Member Pallone and I have recently sent a letter to
the Commission requesting that they extend the comment period
for open internet NPRM. I am concerned that denying citizens
and stakeholders sufficient opportunity to comment on this
proceeding will only prevent the Commission from seeing how
deeply unpopular and ill-advised this course of action is.
Additionally, along with my colleagues Anna Eshoo and Doris
Matsui, we recently sent a letter requesting a hearing on the
proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger. This merger, coupled with the
FCC's recent action to reinstate the UHF discount, has the
potential to enormously increase consolidation of media
ownership in this country.
It is my hope that the majority and Chairman Blackburn will
work with us to schedule a hearing to address the issues
surrounding this proposed merger.
Madam Chair, I would like to ask unanimous consent that a
letter from the American Cable Association be placed in the
record.
Mrs. Blackburn. So ordered.
[The information appears at the conclusion of the hearing.]
Mr. Doyle. Thank you.
And with that, I will yield back my time.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields back.
At this time, I recognize the chairman of the full
committee, Mr. Walden, for 5 minutes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GREG WALDEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON
Mr. Walden. I thank the chairman for her leadership on
these and other issues involving communications.
I want to strike out a little personal privilege here to
recognize and commend our long-time counsel on the
subcommittee, Mr. David Redl. The announcement that the
administration intends to appoint him to head up the NTIA, that
announcement came out last night. He has been an incredibly
valuable part of our efforts on communication law, and I think
we owe him a round of applause for his new endeavor.
And he is not here. Appropriately he is hiding out in the
back, I think, but David has done a terrific job, so thank you,
David.
I think I can say without a doubt I am the only chairman of
the Energy and Commerce Committee that has ever actually wired
in an emergency alert system. Having been a radio station owner
and operator and full engineer from time to time, I am very
familiar with EAS and its predecessor, the EBS, and the
importance of the work that has been done over the years to
provide emergency communication to our citizens.
I want to commend Mr. Shimkus, who has gone up to the other
hearing, I believe, for his work in transitioning America's
laws over into the wireless world as well, where we
communicate. Well, actually, radio was the original wireless
world.
Today, we are going to look at all of this and look
forward. As you know, our work, in a bipartisan way, Ms. Eshoo
and I, moving forward on the spectrum auction that allowed the
facilitation of the creation of FirstNet, which also funded it
when the auction was successful.
As we move forward, we want to make sure that our first
responder community and the citizens that they serve and
protect have access to the latest technologies and that that is
an evolving course, not something that is just simply locked
in.
We have come a long way since the 1950s with EBS, and now
we are into this new age. And we need to make sure that Federal
policy doesn't inhibit technological advancement, and we need
to make sure that we are providing the help that our first
responders need and that broadcasters use and cablecasters and
others when it comes to making sure that people are notified.
So I look forward to your testimony today. I thank the
chairman for her leadership on this subcommittee. And with
that, I yield back the balance of my time.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Walden follows:]
Prepared statement of Hon. Greg Walden
Today's hearing will examine the future of emergency
alerting system and the mechanisms used to provide the public
with life-saving information. Emergency alerting has come a
long way since it was established in 1951, the Integrated
Public Alert and Warning System now reaches people via
broadcast, cable, satellite, and mobile devices. I look forward
to our witnesses giving us a better picture of the successes
and advances of this life-saving technology.
Back in December the state of Oregon, specifically, my
district was hit with a severe storm and flooding. Emergency
alerting was there to notify Oregonians who were in the path of
the storm. As a result, my constitutes were given time to
prepare and remove themselves from potential danger. Providing
emergency alert and warning information to the public before,
during, and after incidents and disasters is a key component to
our emergency system.
Every one of us has had a natural disaster, extreme
weather, or AMBER alter occur within our district, countless
lives have been saved due to emergency alerting. Alerts are a
critical part of our emergency infrastructure and they have
changed significantly changed over the last 20 years. Today,
there are different delivery mechanisms being implemented
simultaneously which create the tools that are essential to
saving lives.
We are committed to seeing the alerting systems be both
more effective and responsive to all communities, particularly
those that have been historically underserved. As the world
changes and becomes more interconnected our emergency altering
delivery mechanisms must continue to grow and work together.
As technology continues to advance, authorities can deliver
alerts simultaneously through multiple communications devices
reaching as many people as possible to save lives and protect
property. It is important to advance current and future
emergency altering as we move forward in a rapidly changing
world. I look forward to hearing your testimony and how to
foster innovation of this important technology. Thank you for
being here this morning.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields back.
Would anyone like the balance of Mr. Walden's time?
No one seeking that time, I recognize Mr. Pallone for 5
minutes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I also want to
thank you and our ranking member, Mr. Doyle, for having this
important hearing today.
But before I turn to the matter of the hearing, I wanted to
quickly address FCC's efforts to strip away consumers net
neutrality protections at tomorrow's FCC meeting. FCC Chairman
Pai has proposed a plan that would kill net neutrality, and the
chairman's proposal will have a chilling influence on our
democracy, cut away at our connections with each other, and
limit economic opportunities for the future.
It is no wonder that more than 1 million comments have
already been submitted, and I would urge the Commission to
listen to the American people and reconsider this misguided
approach.
Getting back to today's hearing, President Truman created
our Nation's first emergency alert system in 1951, in part, to
ensure Americans will be prepared in the event of a nuclear
strike. It is hard to overstate the importance of emergency
alerts, whether it is preparing us for the impending landfall
of a devastating hurricane, telling us to seek shelter from a
tornado, or letting us know there is an active shooter nearby,
getting up-to-the-minute information saves lives. And the need
for alerts, unfortunately, is now greater as we face the
sobering realities of climate change and as mass shootings
appear more frequently than ever.
The people in my district know this too well. The emergency
alerts that were sent out ahead of Superstorm Sandy was one
important way officials helped people along the New Jersey
shore evacuate and prepare. Going above and beyond just passing
along alerts, one radio station called the RAT stayed on the
air during the storm to help reunite families and get people to
safety.
Alerts also helped to get the word out last year when a
bomb was detonated in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and several
more bombs were found at a train station in Elizabeth.
Authorities in New York and New Jersey used mobile alerts to
enlist the public's help to find the suspect.
Now with the advent of new technologies, Americans deserve
better, more detailed information to help keep them safe
wherever they are when disaster strikes.
But new technologies won't save lives if they aren't useful
and available to everyone. We need to ensure existing systems
are free from interference, and we must test and evaluate these
systems to make sure that they get the job done. Unfortunately,
that is not something we have always been good at.
As I mentioned, the first nationwide alerting system was
created in 1951, but we didn't test the nationwide system until
2011, 60 years later. The results of that test were abysmal,
and entire states didn't even receive the test alerts.
Today, we are here to learn about the status and future of
public safety and what is being done in the name of saving more
American lives. When it comes to public safety, we always must
ask ourselves how many lives we are saving, not how many
products companies are selling.
And with that, I would like to yield the rest of my time to
Ms. Matsui.
Ms. Matsui. Thank you very much, Ranking Member Pallone,
for yielding me time.
Public safety is our first and foremost responsibility to
the American public. As technology advances, we should use
these innovations to improve emergency communications to our
constituents.
I am glad that the subcommittee is focusing on these
important issues, but I also believe there are many other
pressing issues that deserve our subcommittee's immediate
attention. Tomorrow, the FCC is set to vote to begin the
process of rolling back the net neutrality rules, which is a
real threat to the free and open internet.
Yesterday, I join my colleagues, Representative Doyle and
Eshoo, to ask for a hearing on the proposed Sinclair-Tribune
merger, which could have damaging consequences for local
newsrooms. It is our responsibility to conduct oversight of
these major regulatory decisions and changes in the
marketplace. I urge my Republican colleagues to work with us to
do so.
And I yield more time here.
Mr. Pallone. Yes, I will yield the minute that is left to
Mr. McNerney.
Mr. McNerney. Thank you.
I also want to express my deep concerns about the FCC/
Chairman Pai's proposal to undo the net neutrality rules.
Strong net neutrality rules are vital to the more than 31,000
small businesses in my district. Abandoning these rules will
make it much harder for a small business owner to get his or
her business off the ground and successfully compete in the
marketplace.
Additionally, I am concerned about the short public comment
periods. It is critical that this period be extended so that
all parties, including small businesses, have sufficient time
to participate in the process and express their views.
It is my opinion that reducing the net neutrality rules
will continue to harm the economy, so we need to make sure that
those rules are enforced, that they are in place, and that
small businesses have a chance to take an opportunity of the
vital internet services that really have created so much
economy in our country in the last decade or two.
Thank you. I yield back.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields back.
This concludes member opening statements. And I will remind
everyone that pursuant to the committee rules, all members'
opening statements will be made a part of the record.
We want to thank our witnesses for being here today and for
submitting your testimony in a timely manner. That allows us to
prepare, and we will look forward to hearing from you with your
opening statements and then following with our questions.
Our witness panel for today's hearing includes Mr. Sam
Matheny, who is the Chief Technology Officer for National
Association of Broadcasters; Dr. Farrokh Khatibi, who is the
Director of Engineering at Qualcomm Technology; and Mr.
Christopher Guttman-McCabe, who is the Chief Executive Officer
for CGM Advisors. Chris is testifying on behalf of the Advanced
Computer and Communications Company.
We appreciate that you are all here. And we will begin with
you, Mr. Matheny, for 5 minutes for your testimony.
STATEMENTS OF SAM MATHENY, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS; FARROKH KHATIBI, PH.D., DIRECTOR
OF ENGINEERING, QUALCOMM TECHNOLOGY; AND CHRISTOPHER GUTTMAN-
MCCABE, CEO, CGM ADVISORS, LLC, ON BEHALF OF ADVANCED COMPUTER
AND COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
STATEMENT OF SAM MATHENY
Mr. Matheny. Good morning. And thank you, Chairman
Blackburn and Ranking Member Doyle, for inviting me here, as
well as all of the members of the subcommittee. My name is Sam
Matheny, and I am the chief technology officer at the National
Association of Broadcasters. I appreciate this opportunity to
testify today on the unique and important role that local
broadcasters play as first informers during times of emergency
and how the innovations of Next Gen TV will enhance that
ability.
I bring an on-the-ground perspective to this issue from my
nearly 20 years of experience with Capitol Broadcasting
Company, parent to WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina. Like
WRAL, all NAB members, the thousands of free local radio and
television broadcasters in your hometowns take seriously their
role as the most trusted source of news and emergency updates.
Whether it is preparing listeners and viewers for the
coming storm, directing them to needed supplies and shelter
during the disaster, or helping towns and cities rebuild in the
aftermath, local stations are part of the communities they
serve. And local radio and TV stations are sometimes the only
available communication mediums in an emergency when cell
phones and wireless networks fail. In fact, a new poll was
released today by Morning Consult reaffirming that broadcasters
are the number one medium that the American people turn to in
times of emergency by a factor of nearly 4 to 1.
This unique combination of trust and reliability is why, in
addition to our ongoing comprehensive news coverage of
emergencies, broadcasters form the backbone of the Emergency
Alert System, EAS. EAS connects over-the-air broadcast radio,
television, and cable systems to communicate critical safety
information to the public during sudden, unpredictable, or
unforeseen events.
These capabilities can be enhanced by a station's voluntary
upgrade to Next Gen TV, which will enable significant
lifesaving advances in emergency communications. One need look
no further than the recent tragic fire in Gatlinburg,
Tennessee, or the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy to
appreciate the vital role of a reliable communications
infrastructure in a time of crisis.
I would now like to share some of the capabilities of Next
Gen TV through a video demonstration. If we could play the
video, please.
So what you are going to see here when the video begins
playing is you are watching a basketball game, and an emergency
alert, an advanced emergency alert is going to appear. And
rather than seeing the normal text that you would see
scrolling, what you have here is an ammonia gas leak and a
HAZMAT alert. But you also see a menu of items that are
available under that alert notice. And so the user has access
to a lot more information.
In this case, we are actually presenting a map of the area
that is impacted by the ammonia gas leak so you can visually
see what is there, as well as a list of the neighborhoods in
that community that are impacted.
From that, you can also see that just to the right, a video
on-demand file started playing. So instead of the basketball
game, you are now watching a piece of content that was
downloaded in the background that is specific to the emergency
that is taking place where you can get really detailed
information.
As we go to shelter-in-place, which is what the
recommendation for is in this emergency, you see what it means
to shelter-in-place, specific instructions on what you should
do in terms of staying inside, in terms of turning off your
ventilation systems and protecting yourself.
But if you do feel impacted, you might need first aid, and
this is what it tells you what you need to do. In this case,
the advice is to seek immediate medical attention, so therefore
you also have hospital information as well as wait times. So
all of this is being included in this single advanced emergency
alert, as well as the additional information you see here on
numbers where you can call to get assistance.
Now, had this been an AMBER Alert, you might see the
picture of the missing child, you might see a picture of the
suspect, or a map of where they were last seen. So there is a
great deal of information that can be presented in an advanced
emergency alert using Next Gen TV.
The next step in making these improvements a reality is FCC
approval of the petition that NAB jointly filed with America's
Public Television Stations, the Consumer Technology
Association, and the Advanced Warning and Response Network
Alliance.
Before I conclude, I want to mention one important item
within the oversight jurisdiction of this subcommittee: the
recently completed broadcast incentive auction. The FCC has
begun the process of relocating or repacking the nearly 1,000
broadcast television stations. Put simply, the $1.75 billion
repack budget and 39-month timeline are likely insufficient for
such a massive endeavor, and congressional action is needed.
Thank you again for inviting me here today. I look forward
to answering any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Matheny follows:]
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Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields back.
Dr. Khatibi, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF FARROKH KHATIBI, PH.D.
Mr. Khatibi. Chairman Blackburn and Ranking Member Doyle,
thank you for affording Qualcomm the opportunity to participate
in today's hearing.
Qualcomm is a licensor of highly innovative wireless
technology and manufacturer of cutting edge chips of wireless
devices.
My name is Farrokh Khatibi, director of engineering at
Qualcomm. I have been actively involved in the development of
Wireless Emergency Alert, WEA, standards since early 2007.
Recently, I was the co-lead of CSRIC V Working Group 2 on
emergency alerting platforms where we completed three reports
on WEA security, social media and complementary alerting
methods, and wireless emergency alert and geo-targeting.
By the way of background, WEA grew out of the Warning,
Alert and Response Network, WARN Act, which became law as Title
VI of the SAFE Ports Act in 2006.
Taking advantage of the ubiquity of the mobile platform,
Congress put in place a framework for wireless carriers to
provide a voluntary public safety alerting system utilizing
current wireless network technology. That system allows
individuals to receive geo-targeted text-like messages alerting
them of imminent threat to safety in their area. The alerts can
be originated from local, state, or Federal agencies.
The WEA system represents a successful partnership of
public and private entities. Since its launch in 2012, WEA has
benefited American wireless subscribers in a number of
instances in which WEA has alerted citizens in the path of
impending natural disasters, assisted in the rescue of abducted
children, and issued shelter-in-place information during public
safety incidents.
Currently, there are three types of alerts sent through the
system: alerts issued by the President of the United States;
alerts involving imminent threat to safety of life issued in
two different categories, extreme threats and severe threat;
and of course, AMBER Alerts.
With your permission, I would like to highlight two
important aspects of WEA. First, emergency alerts are broadcast
only to the cell towers in the coverage area that best match
the zone of an emergency. All WEA-capable phones that are in
that coverage area of the cell site in the zone will receive
WEA.
The second important aspect of WEA is that it uses cellular
technology and the wireless provider network to broadcast from
cell towers to mobile devices in the area. Broadcasting the
alert ensures an efficient and timely distribution of the alert
compared to sending the alerts point to point, such as SMS.
The wireless industry has worked for years to evolve the
service to add new and greater capabilities. For example, after
careful coordination with alert originators and our Federal
partners, the wireless industry is taking steps to offer
capabilities that will include extending the alert message
length from 90 to 360 characters for 4G LTE; improving geo-
targeting; including embedded references, such as URLs and
phone numbers, in WEA messages; add a new alert category for
public safety information messages; add Spanish language
alerts; providing state/local alert originators the ability to
conduct individual tests of the WEA system in their
jurisdiction.
The wireless industry is committed to enhancing WEA. To
that end, the industry has taken the lead to study potential
future enhancements to WEA, such as enhancement to end-to-end
security, event codes, and device-assisted geo-targeting.
Chairman Blackburn and Ranking Member Doyle, thank you
again for the opportunity to participate in today's hearing.
Qualcomm looks forward to working with the wireless industry,
the FCC, the subcommittee, FEMA, and others in the public
safety community to ensure that WEA continues to offer a unique
and useful way to help protect the American public. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Khatibi follows:]
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Mrs. Blackburn. We thank you.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER GUTTMAN-MCCABE
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. Thank you. And good morning, Chairman
Blackburn, Ranking Member Doyle, and members of the
subcommittee. It is a privilege and honor to appear before you
today to discuss the future of emergency alerts.
During my testimony, I will wear two hats. Most
importantly, I will represent AC&C, a small business technology
company based in Baton Rouge, founded in 1991, that has
developed a transformational software upgrade that I believe
will drive the next iteration of wireless emergency alerting.
In addition to representing AC&C, I also appear before you
as an early advocate of the wireless emergency alert service.
This issue is close to my heart. Today's hearing marks the
seventh time that I will appear before Congress to discuss, at
least in part, the issue of wireless emergency alerts.
I first tackled this issue working on the WARN Act with
Representative Shimkus and his team--thank you, sir--and I was
part of the original committee that developed the framework for
the WEA service. The emergency alerting platform has evolved in
the years since the adoption of the WARN Act. It will evolve
further with the recent actions of the FCC and with the
industry's commitments in the recent CSRIC V.
Still more will be done after Chairman Pai's leadership
when the FCC finalizes its further notice of proposed
rulemaking that focuses on the upgrades involving device-
assisted geo-targeting. When implemented, that upgrade will
dramatically transform the service.
I am not alone in this thinking. Public safety
representatives from across the country have identified the
need to be able to more accurately geo-target alerts as the
single most important upgrade that could happen to the WEA
service.
The Big City Emergency Managers organization, which
represents the 15 largest cities in the country, said it
succinctly: Simply put, device-based geo-targeting provides the
lightest lift with the biggest return.
AC&C, the company I represent, has designed and developed a
device-based geo-targeting solution entitled PG Alert. It
leverages the current cell broadcast technology to push
information to the general alert area, and the device takes
over using its location awareness to decide who the alert is
relevant for and how the alert is displayed on the device. The
device can then compare its physical location to the alert area
coordinates and play the message only when the person is within
the alert area.
For consumers, the upgrade will confirm why the person is
receiving the alert by showing the device's position within the
alert area on a well-defined map. For public safety alert
originators, the most significant benefit will be the ability
to contain alert messages to their jurisdiction regardless of
size. This will make the system effective for alerts of any
size--buildings, streets, college campuses, and more--and will
remove the over-alerting problem.
For wireless carriers, AC&C's product is a low-cost
software upgrade to WEA that not only will address most of
public safety's calls for improvements to the service, but also
will enable the industry to take advantage of the cell
broadcast technology that exists in their networks.
Additionally, the ability to precisely geo-target alerts
will limit the network impact of the WEA service, particularly
as carriers begin to include URLs and other embedded
information in the WEA message.
We at AC&C are not alone in thinking that this device-
enhanced upgrade makes sense. In September, then Commissioner,
now Chairman Pai, stated that citizens and public safety
officials alike are opting out of the wireless system
altogether.
According to Chairman Pai, the city of Seattle says that it
doesn't use WEA because of over alerting. The city of Houston
says that it has shied away from using WEA because of the high
likelihood of over alerting. Harris County, Texas, reports that
it chose not to use WEA during four recent disasters solely due
to significant concerns over the granularity of alerts.
Chairman Pai said we need to do more than just codify the
status quo, and he drove the FCC in the September order to move
ahead with a device-based approach to geo-targeting, and in the
attached FNPRM to, quote, additional comment on ways we can
implement our commitment to device-assisted geo-targeting.
In December, AT&T added support to the idea of device-
assisted geo-targeting, suggesting that a managed WEA
application on the device could be the solution as it could
take the WEA message and then, quote, determine the handset's
location using existing capabilities and APIs already available
in the mobile device. Once the managed WEA app has identified
the handset's location, it can determine whether the handset is
in the alert area and display the message. The handset is not
in the area, it can ignore the message.
In conclusion, we believe that the future of wireless
emergency alerting is in the device, and that future is bright.
We understand that the industry is working on a device-enhanced
upgrade to the WEA service, and we look forward to continuing
to work with the industry and the FCC to integrate the
intelligence of the mobile device into the WEA service.
It is our belief that these device-enhanced capabilities
will provide significant consumer, public safety, and wireless
industry benefits, and help future-proof the WEA service.
I again thank you for the invitation to provide my thoughts
on the future of emergency alerts, and I welcome any questions
that you might have. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Guttman-McCabe follows:]
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Mrs. Blackburn. Thank you all for your testimony. And now
we are ready for the test portion of this hearing, right? We
get to ask the questions and you all get to give us the
answers.
Dr. Khatibi, I am coming to you first. Mr. Matheny pointed
out the Gatlinburg fires and talked about that as one of his
examples of the WEA alerts and some being impeded by network
congestion. That is understandable. A catastrophe happens,
everybody wants as much information as they can get, people are
trying to find family, networks get clogged, and so you have
got a strain on the network.
I want you to just discuss this, the situation, the
process, and then the upgrades that you see as necessary for
continuity and for information flow during those times.
Mr. Khatibi. Thank you, Chairman Blackburn. So as I
mentioned in my testimony, we are working on evolving the WEA
technology as it is today, so we are adding more capabilities
to it. For example, we are going from 90 to 360 characters,
potentially allowing URLs and phone numbers so that people can
get more information on it. And so the industry is in a
continued mode of evolving the technology to serve public
safety.
But in addition to that, I would like to point out that the
way I look at public safety is a big puzzle, and we are being
part of it. So ATSC 3.0, other services would all complete that
picture. So from the perspective of having public safety, I
think is all these pieces combined together which form the
public safety tools that we need to provide to our customers.
So we are evolving WEA as well as enabling other
technologies to it and improve, in addition to what we are
doing.
And as I said, for example, addition of 360 characters, the
public safety community has come to us and say that is very
important to them and that would allow them to provide a lot
more information to the public.
Mrs. Blackburn. OK.
Mr. Khatibi. Thank you.
Mrs. Blackburn. Thank you.
Mr. Matheny, back in 2011, Gordon Smith told this
subcommittee that the NAB--he was speaking on behalf of the
NAB--did not seek any sort of mandate for mobile devices to
incorporate a DTV. And as the industry transitions to the ATSC
3.0, is it still the case that you prefer market forces as
opposed to mandates to look at how we holistically address
this? And so go ahead with that.
Mr. Matheny. Yes, absolutely, Chairman Blackburn, that is
the case. We are not looking for a mandate of any sort. We
believe that the benefits of Next Gen TV will be attractive
enough for themselves, and that is why, if you look at the
petition that we filed in concert with CTA and APTS, as well as
AWARN Alliance, it is a voluntary move, and so we are not
seeking a mandate.
Mrs. Blackburn. OK. I want to have each of you answer
something. We have talked a lot about the potential in
emergency alerting, and what we have not talked about is how to
educate consumers. And I want to bring this up because, as we
are looking at broadband expansion, one of the things we hear
about is adoption rates and the necessity to educate consumers
on the need for these adoption rates.
But as we look at the different abilities and capabilities
in the formats for getting the word out in times of tragedy and
catastrophe, I think that education for the consumers is going
to be an important part of this. So very quickly, since we have
only got a half minute left, just go right down the line, what
are you all doing to educate people on alert systems and how to
use them?
Mr. Matheny. So I think local broadcasters are part of the
communities that they serve, and through our free and local
newscasts, we are in constant communication in educating folks
about the possibilities.
Mrs. Blackburn. OK.
Mr. Khatibi. That is an excellent question, and we are
working very closely with FEMA and DHS to make sure that the
consumer understands WEA and understand what to do as a result
of that, so that is very important to us. Thank you.
Mrs. Blackburn. OK.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. And, Chairman, I would agree with both
of my colleagues' statements. I would also add that it is very
important for us to actually educate public safety alert
originators.
What we found on the WEA side is that less than 60 out of
tens of thousands of potential alert originators have used the
service in the last 7 years. So I think, primarily, we need to
do some educating on the public safety side so in instances
like Gatlinburg or the Orlando shootings or the floodings in
Louisiana, that the local public safety entities actually use
the service.
Mrs. Blackburn. Did you say 60?
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. Sixty out of tens of thousands. Perhaps
as many as 40,000 entities in the United States could sign up
to use WEA and only--actually, I think the number is 52, so I
am trying to be conservative and say 60, but I think only 52
have actually ever used it in 6 years.
Mrs. Blackburn. If you will, check those numbers and then
get that back to us.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. Certainly, Chairman.
Mrs. Blackburn. My time has concluded.
Mr. Doyle for 5 minutes.
Mr. Doyle. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Dr. Khatibi and Mr. Guttman-McCabe, in both of your
testimonies, you discussed the new advanced wireless alerting
features that the FCC voted to allow last year; for instance,
longer messages, geo-targeting, public safety alerts, and
Spanish language alerts. What is the timeline for these
features coming online and how is the rollout going?
Mr. Khatibi. Ranking Member Mr. Doyle, Congressman Doyle,
so we are working very closely with FCC. As a matter of fact,
we had a call with FCC just a couple of weeks ago, and we have
been scheduling weekly, sometimes twice a week meetings just to
make sure they comply with the timeline that FCC had put forth
to us.
So we are very motivated, and we are trying to get the
standards, which is the document that describe the technology,
finished soon, within the next 6 to 9 months. And that has
required a lot of resources, and industry has put a lot of
resources because we believe this is very critical.
Mr. Doyle. Yes, sir.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. And Ranking Member, some of it is
happening sequentially. So some of the capabilities will be
unlocked when the industry goes to 360 characters, and so I
think that is sort of the lynchpin for some of the upgrades,
not only that were in the order in September, but that are
under consideration in the further notice that was released at
the same time.
Mr. Doyle. And tell me, as part of the FCC's further notice
on this rulemaking, the Commission considered the addition of
multimedia content, true multilingual support, including sign
language. What are your thoughts on these proposed next steps?
Mr. Khatibi. And thank you. I may take that first?
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. Certainly.
Mr. Khatibi. I thought you may want me.
So at this point, to support multimedia, we allow enabled
URLs, which is basically a pointer to Web site, and that could
potentially take you to a place where you can get additional
multimedia resources available to you.
And with respect to other languages, we are also working on
Spanish language alerts to be available to areas where they
have large Spanish language population.
Mr. Doyle. Thank you.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. And Ranking Member, the one thing that
I would highlight from the FNPRM and one of the main focuses
was on geo-targeting, the ability to target alerts to very
precise areas. That, to me, public safety has been relentless
in its pursuit of geo-targeting throughout the record, and so
that perhaps is the most important in the FNPRM.
Mr. Doyle. And this is for all the witnesses. One issue I
have been very passionate about over the years is working and
supporting the autism community. Currently, a number of states
support Silver Alerts for the elderly, those with dementia, and
autistic individuals. And while these alerts are supported by
the Emergency Alert System in several states, they are not
supported by wireless alerts.
I just want to ask the panel their thoughts on expanding
the alerting system to include these alerts.
I think we are all keenly aware of alerting fatigue, but
when you have a friend or a family member or a loved one who is
missing and could be a danger to themselves or to others, it
seems critical that we use the tools available to us to address
this issue. So I am just curious about the panel's thoughts on
this issue, Silver Alerts.
Mr. Matheny. So I can speak to my time at WRAL-TV, and I
know that we published a number of Silver Alerts, either
through actually publishing via EAS or addressing them in our
own air news coverage, and so we think that is part of the
service to the community.
Mr. Khatibi. Thank you. And from the WEA perspective, we
would like to consider that as something that we need to work
going forward. We haven't done anything on it yet. We just
recently added a number of new alerts, but we haven't done the
Silver Alert. But with your permission, we would like to
discuss that and see what we can do.
Mr. Doyle. Great. I would appreciate that.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. Certainly. And it was not a type of
alert that was established when the committee originally put
together the framework for the three types of alerts.
Mr. Doyle. Mr. Khatibi and Mr. Guttman-McCabe, wireless
alerting has operated as an opt-in model for both carriers and
consumers. What can you tell us about the effectiveness of this
model and how have carriers done in implementing this model and
how have consumers reacted? Is there sufficient consumer
education for them so that they know this is an option that
they can enable? And based on the numbers you were talking
about, it doesn't seem like many people are enabling these
features. So how do we get more information out?
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. Certainly, Ranking Member. On the
carrier side, it is a voluntary service. I believe strongly in
that approach to these types of requirements, strongly enough
that I wrote a law review article well after I left law school.
Partway through the process, I wanted to shoot myself for
having committed to that.
But I believe strongly that you get the best and the
brightest in the evolution of the system if you engage in
industry, like the wireless industry and others, in a voluntary
manner. So the carriers have done their part. They have jumped
on board, and it is well disseminated. The carriers have done
their part.
On the consumer side, it is not. It is actually the
opposite; it is opt out. So the system is designed that you
will get the alerts, and you can opt out of two of the three.
You cannot opt out of the Presidential alert, but you can opt
out of the AMBER Alerts or the imminent threat. Oftentimes, we
are quiet about that as an industry, as a society, because we
don't want people to actually opt out of the service.
So it is in the phones the ability to opt out. We hope and
pray that most people do not, because as much as it may bother
you to be awakened at 2:00 in the morning, it is important, if
it is an AMBER Alert, to the parents and to society that we
find that child. Some people complain, but we hope people don't
opt out. The education, I believe, again, needs to be on the
public safety side of the equation.
Mr. Doyle. Thank you so much.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman's time is expired.
Chairman Walden for 5 minutes.
Mr. Walden. Thank you. Again, thank you all for your
testimony and for helping us out in these matters.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe, given the difference in technical
platforms, the inclination is discussed alerting in terms of
technology silos like EAS or WEA. What are we missing when we
approach emergency alerting in this manner?
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. I think it was either Mr. Matheny or
Dr. Khatibi that said it earlier. I think we need a patchwork
quilt of approaches, to be quite honest. I think many of us in
this room probably have children. I have two teenage daughters.
They spend a great deal of time on social media, troubles the
heck out of me, but they do.
I think that they will get a fair amount of their
information from social media, but I think that there needs to
be a primary alerting mechanism like EAS, like WEA. And I don't
think we are missing anything at the moment. I do think we need
to continue to evolve these services, and that is happening.
Mr. Walden. OK. Obviously, you are well informed on all
these matters. The FCC has proposed a list of upgrades to WEA,
including multimedia alerting and multilingual alerting.
Obviously, these sound like good additions, but are there other
considerations that we should have that should be included in
WEA alerts?
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. Certainly. And I know the industry is
considering it. But currently, the way WEA is structured, is it
treats the device, in essence, as a dumb terminal. So if an
alert is broadcast using the cell broadcast system, if a device
is in the area, place it. It doesn't do anything to it. It
doesn't interpret it. It doesn't decide if I should get it or
shouldn't get it. It doesn't add any rich content to it. It
doesn't push you to a broadband connection. All of that is
under consideration.
And I think once we unlock the intelligence in the device,
we will get an evolution of this service along the lines that
Mr. Matheny is talking about with regard to ATSC 3.0. And so I
do think we are going to see an evolution in the next several
years as the intelligence in the handset comes in and we are
able to take advantage of people's choices on their device,
like Spanish as the primary language, like text-to-speech if
you have a disability, or larger font, things like that.
Mr. Walden. Well, Mr. Matheny, you mention in your
testimony the ability of Next Gen TVs to be awakened, woken up,
to alert users even when they are powered off. I think the idea
of devices in our homes that can be turned on remotely is
probably a new one to a lot of consumers. Can you explain
further how this functionality works?
Mr. Matheny. Sure. So thank you, Chairman Walden, for that
question. I think that what you can think of is that your
television will be turned off and it will actually be in sort
of a sleep mode, and at the same time, it can still listen for
a discreet, I am going to call it a beacon signal, that will
then trigger it to turn on. And that is something that is new
to Next Gen TV, and it is something that was very deliberately
built in.
And so what we think is that, truly, in a time of disaster
emergency, that ability to wake up a device and to provide
that, more info, and the types of targeted information that
really makes it actionable, is vital and important and will
save lives.
Mr. Walden. Thinking back to my radio days, we had
receivers that had a little device on them, a triggering switch
so when they got the multitone actuator, it triggered a relay
and turned on the audio. I guess that is all you are talking
about here.
Mr. Matheny. Yes. We are talking about in a very specific
situation of activating and turning on the device to present
emergency alerts.
Mr. Walden. Are TVs able to be turned on for other
purposes?
Mr. Matheny. No.
Mr. Walden. OK. We hear these things about cameras on
televisions and all that. Can you speak to any of that, since
we are on this topic, in general terms?
Mr. Matheny. All I can speak to really is the capabilities
of Next Generation television. The idea of having an internet
connected or smart TV with other capabilities, that would fall
outside of the realm of Next Gen TV, and those aren't really
items that I should speak to here.
Mr. Walden. Got it. OK.
I think that is all I have, Madam Chair, so I will turn it
back to you.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields.
All right. Mr. Pallone, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Nearly 5 years ago, Hurricane Sandy ripped through the
northeast, devastating so many people across the region. Radio
and TV broadcasting played a crucial role in saving lives by
letting people know how to stay out of harm's way, and the role
of broadcasting can't be overstated. Losing this signal is
simply unacceptable.
And that's why I released a discussion draft bill last year
called the ``Viewer Protection Act,'' and this bill makes sure
everyone can stay connected no matter what. I appreciate that
some broadcasters are looking at new ways to deliver their
content, but my goal, once again, will be to view this from the
eye of a consumer.
So I wanted to ask Mr. Matheny, can you commit that if the
FCC adopts this new technology, no viewer in the country,
especially the most vulnerable who can't afford a new TV or new
equipment, will lose their existing signal?
Mr. Matheny. Thank you, Ranking Member Pallone. One of the
key aspects of the rollout of Next Gen TV is the idea of
simulcasting, and so broadcasters will continue to broadcast in
the current standard as Next Generation TV also rolls out, and
we believe that no one will be disenfranchised.
Mr. Pallone. All right. And then let me ask. I mentioned
earlier, oftentimes the best way to protect people is to make
sure that they know how to get out of the way before a disaster
strikes. In addition to receiving emergency alerts from
broadcasting stations, another powerful way to inform people
are through alerts on their cell phones through the wireless
emergency alert system.
So I wanted to ask Mr. Khatibi a few questions. I know that
you have done a lot of work on the systems that deliver these
wireless emergency alerts. How would the proposed new broadcast
standard fit into that existing system?
Mr. Khatibi. Thank you for that question. As we discussed
earlier, I think the whole public safety is a patchwork of
different elements. So wireless emergency alert is designed to
provide the consumer immediate information about the alert that
they are receiving, about the incident. Beyond that, if there
is a need to get additional information through broadcasting TV
and so forth, that can complement WEA.
So from our perspective, wireless emergency alert is the
first line of defense where we get the information in a timely
fashion, and then additional information, you can get it
through the URL provided or through broadcasting.
Mr. Pallone. Now, will consumers have to buy new TVs or
other equipment to receive these new broadcast station alerts?
Mr. Khatibi. I would defer that to my colleague, Mr.
Matheny.
Mr. Matheny. So to get an advanced emergency alert of the
nature that we showed earlier, yes, that would be delivered via
the Next Generation system. And so either a new TV set or a new
tuner device would be required to receive the advanced alert.
Mr. Pallone. Now, what new advances are on the horizon for
the wireless emergency alert system that will benefit
consumers, and will these new features require consumers to buy
new phones?
Mr. Khatibi. So if I may, I will take that one. So as I
mentioned, there are a number of activities that we are
including, for example, going from 90 to 360 characters,
including other languages, such as Spanish, providing
additional alert type messages. And a number of those do not
require new handsets, but some of them may require handsets as
they come into the market. But we are trying to create as many
services as possible within the existing handsets that we have.
Thank you.
Mr. Guttman-McCabe. And Ranking Member, if I may, AT&T
mentioned in December that there are other capabilities in the
device that they believe should and ultimately, I believe, will
be connected to WEA that will drive some of the rich content
and some of the benefits that Mr. Matheny is talking about that
are just software upgrades. So they wouldn't require any
additional equipment or change-out in devices.
Mr. Pallone. All right. Thank you very much.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields back.
Mr. Lance, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Lance. Thank you, Madam Chair. And good morning to the
distinguished panel.
And, Dr. Khatibi, I want you to know I was honored to be at
Qualcomm in Somerset County in the district I serve last week,
and I understood some of what I was shown, but not everything.
It was very advanced, and I must say, your colleagues there are
wonderful innovators and great scientists, and you should be
very proud, as I am sure your colleagues on the panel are proud
of their distinguished employees.
And to you, Dr. Khatibi, following up on Congressman
Pallone's questioning, the hurricane in 2012 we call Sandy was
devastating to our region of the country, as I am sure everyone
in the room knows. Afterward, it became apparent, if it had not
been apparent before the natural disaster, that there was great
room for improvement.
Do you think things would have been different, given
technology advancements and upgrades made by carriers to WEA
and to their networks since then? And I would be very
interested in your views on this.
Mr. Khatibi. Thank you for that question. That is actually
a very interesting question. You know, for example, let's take
a couple of examples, going from 90 to 360 characters. That
provides the consumer more information in a timely fashion and
potentially having different languages. So, part of our
enhancement, part of our evolution is to understand what are
the consumer requirements, what are the public safety views on
what improvements should be made. And as we go to 5G, et
cetera, we continue to see and understand from our alert
originators what are the features that we like to see, and that
is part of our path going forward to include all those
features.
So for the last few years, we have been very closely
working with FEMA and DHS to understand what are the
characteristics they would like to see included, and we have
been enhancing our system continuously to allow those features
to happen.
So the answer to your question is, yes, I believe all this
enhancements that we are doing right now will surely, will have
benefitted Sandy and other disasters that we have had, and we
are hoping that in the path that we have going forward, going
to 5G, et cetera, we will continue improving and addressing the
needs.
Mr. Lance. And the sooner we get to 5G the better, I
presume.
Mr. Khatibi. Absolutely, yes. We are putting a lot of
resources to make sure that 5G is deployed as soon as possible,
and more importantly, that 5G has the capabilities for public
safety that we require and we expect.
Mr. Lance. Thank you very much. And for the panel in
general, is there a risk to innovation and to consumers if the
FCC forces wireless providers to use a particular targeting
technology? And perhaps we will start on this side of the
panel.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Certainly. I am not in favor of them
forcing anything.
Mr. Lance. Nor am I.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Yes. And I do believe that when you look
at capabilities and you identify needs, the FCC's job is to
frame those needs, whether it is public safety's needs or
consumers' needs, and I think that should be the focus.
Mr. Lance. Thank you. Others who would like to comment?
Mr. Matheny.
Mr. Matheny. I would just say that we are not in favor of
mandates of that nature, and often, technology outpaces those
types of things. And so we would like to be able to use the
best available as we continue to innovate broadcasting.
Mr. Lance. Thank you. I think it is the consensus of this
subcommittee, it is certainly my belief that it is difficult
for those in public policy to anticipate what is going to
happen in technology. And the reason that we are as advanced as
we are over the last 20 years is based upon technology that
tends to run ahead of statutory law.
Finally, how do we balance the costs and burdens of the new
capabilities that you have described the fact that Congress
made WEA a voluntary service?
Yes. Yes, sir.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Sir, I think the word you use, balance,
is the correct word. I do, again, believe this should be a
voluntary service. And to your point earlier about if the FCC
or Congress gets too granular in their requirements, often they
miss the mark.
First example was we believe when we set the service that
you could overalert and that would be fine, because wireless
consumers are mobile. What we missed as an industry was that
public safety wouldn't use it if you were overalerting because
you would go outside of their constituency. So I do think there
needs to be a balance.
Mr. Lance. Thank you. I am over my time by 17 seconds.
I yield back. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mrs. Blackburn. And we will try to make it up.
Mr. McNerney, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. McNerney. I thank the chairwoman.
Mr. Matheny, I am impressed by the advancements of the ATSC
3.0 standards. In fact, the examples that Mr. Gutman-McCabe
gave about the geotargeting granularity was very impressive.
But I am worried about affordability.
In my district, over 21 percent of the households are
living on an annual income of less than $25,000 a year. These
individuals are not likely to be able to afford the new
technology that is required, this means they won't have the
same access to improved lifesaving information in emergency
circumstances.
Mr. Matheny, how can we ensure that adopting the new
standard will not further marginalize those who can't afford
these services?
Mr. Matheny. Thank you, Congressman. The key tenet of the
transition plan is the idea of a simulcast. And so broadcasters
will continue to broadcast in the current generation of
standard while also beginning to broadcast in the next
generation standard. And so that type of approach will keep
everyone able to receive free local broadcasting with the
emergency alerts and having access to information.
Mr. McNerney. Well, the new K4 TV, for example, is going to
cost a couple thousands dollars, at least initially. I don't
see how people can afford that. And it sounds like you are
counting on that as part of your system, as a part of the
safety system.
Mr. Matheny. So I think what we are trying to do in our
approach is to transition to a new technology that is going to
have greater capabilities while also making sure that no one is
left behind and everyone has access to our broadcasters.
Mr. McNerney. It is good to know.
Dr. Khartibi, how much do you anticipate the new standard
chip will cost to manufacture?
Mr. Khartibi. I am sorry, Congressman. I am not a
technologist, so I don't have any cost numbers available to me.
So I cannot answer that question. I don't have that number.
Mr. McNerney. Well, would you anticipate the device
potentially requiring other alterations in these devices and
these other components are going to have to be altered as well?
Mr. Khartibi. Absolutely. So providing these features of
public safety it is part of our schedule of features that is
coming up. So our chips are getting more and more sophisticated
as we go along.
So adding those new features even all the way to 5G is
going to be very small incremental. It is not that you are
designing a new chip just for support public safety. We are
designing a system, and that system for public safety will make
sure that it is part of that evolution.
Mr. McNerney. OK. To change the subject a little bit, Mr.
Khartibi.
The emergency alert system has been hacked into in the
past, and I understand that the new standard will enable
information to be pushed into a much wider range of connected
devices. I am concerned that this has the potential for
increased cybersecurity risk. Does the new standard address
potential cybersecurity concerns?
Mr. Khartibi. Very good question, Congressman.
So I was chairing at CSRIC V group on cybersecurity, and as
part of that, we identified potential cybersecurity issues. And
industry as a whole, we are making sure those cybersecurity
issues are addressed. So we are working diligently to ensure
that cybersecurity is addressed as we go forward.
Mr. McNerney. Very good.
Mr. Matheny, how are broadcasters planning to educate
consumers about the new standard?
Mr. Matheny. The first step that we need to do is to get
FCC approval to use the new standard. And so Chairman Pai has
established a target date of the end of the year to actually
have that rulemaking out.
We believe that once that is done, stations will begin to
go on the air and they will begin to use their airwaves to talk
about what they are doing and the benefits of NextGen TV.
Mr. McNerney. It sounds like it is a voluntary program.
Mr. Matheny. It is a voluntary program, yes.
Mr. McNerney. Well, OK.
Dr. Khartibi, in your written testimony you mentioned that
the wireless industry is taking steps to improve geographical
targeting. Can you explain how these improvements compare to
the geographical targeting of the 3.0 standard?
Mr. Khartibi. Actually, it is more on the wireless
emergency alert that what we are trying to do is we started as
a county level and now we are going to a smaller cell sector
level. So we have already improving to a much more granular
level at the existing deployment of wireless emergency alert.
Mr. McNerney. It is pretty exciting. I just want to make
sure it is affordable for my constituents.
Mr. Khartibi. Thank you.
Mr. McNerney. Thank you, I yield back.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields back.
OK. Now we have got Mr. Long, you are recognized.
Mr. Long. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
On May the 22nd of 2011, it was my oldest daughter's
birthday. And we had a birthday party. Next Monday will be
another birthday for her on May 22. And at that birthday party,
alarms went off in Springfield, Missouri, and there was word
that there was a tornado right at the edge of town. And the
reason they thought there was a tornado at the edge of town,
because there had been one 70 miles away, and we were getting
debris from that tornado 70 miles away. In Springfield that hit
Joplin, Missouri, on May 22nd of 2011. That was my
indoctrination into being a Congressman.
I had been here 5 months at the time and went down there as
soon as it was daylight the next day, and stayed on the ground
next day, missed a whole week of votes here in Washington. It
was the single deadliest tornado in U.S. history since modern
recordkeeping began in 1950. Over 160 people lost their lives.
If I remember right there were 8,000 homes destroyed, 500
businesses destroyed. And unfortunately, this is not an unheard
of story in our part of the country, in tornado ally.
I retweeted a report of a tornado in Oklahoma last night.
After event assessments by FEMA determined that improvements
were needed to better communicate the risks of impending storms
to the public, Mr. Matheny, what kind of increased emergency
alerting capabilities could ATSC 3.0 provide if a similar
catastrophe, and let's hope it doesn't, strikes such as the
Joplin tornado?
Mr. Matheny. Thank you, Congressman Long. First, if I
could, my son shares a birthday with your daughter.
Mr. Long. Oh, very good.
Mr. Matheny. And if I reflect back on my childhood, my
father was a founding member of the rescue squad in a small
town that I grew up in: Zebulon, North Carolina. And I remember
vividly the loss of life suffered by a tornado that hit Zebulon
when he was in that role.
As it relates to what NextGen alerting can do, it really
does come back to the demonstration that we showed earlier, the
idea that we can wake up a device that is sleeping. We can
provide more information. In the case of a tornado, it might be
a map of exactly where the warning is taking place. We can
target the alerts, very much like the technology that was being
discussed from AC&C.
We can use that same sort of technology so that we are not
alerting an entire television market but we are alerting the
people that are specifically impacted. And we can deliver them
more actionable information that really let's them know what is
happening and what they need to do.
And then, finally, we can extend that beyond just the home
television set to a variety of different devices from the
automobile to computers to tablets, et cetera, anything that
might have a NextGen TV tuner in it.
Mr. Long. OK. Thank you.
And, Dr. Khartibi, what wireless emergency alerts mean for
my constituents, and can you discuss what changes have been
made to the wireless emergency alerts since then to provide
better information to alert recipients?
Mr. Khartibi. And thank you, Congressman.
I think the most important thing I want to mention is that
this is the most ubiquitous device that we have. We all have a
cell phone, at least one, sometimes two. And having the ability
to receive imminent threat information on your cell phone is
critical to the point that we want to make sure that that
information is available to you in a timely fashion and that
saves a lot of lives.
But beyond that second part of your question, we are
continuing to enhance more characters so that you can have a
lot more information. It used to be that we only had 90
characters, now we have 360 characters. We potentially are
going to allow URL computers so you can surf, get more
information, additional languages, getting a little bit better
constraints.
So we are enhancing as we get more demands, we understand
the public safety requirements more. To improve the technology
to make it more useful for the consumer.
Mr. Long. All right. Thank you.
And Madam Chair, I yield back.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman yields back.
Ms. Eshoo for 5 minutes.
Ms. Eshoo. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
First, I just want to make a couple of comments before I
get to our witnesses with my questions. And I think that they
are both topics that were raised by other members, but I would
like to add my voice to it as well.
And that is that for our subcommittee, this is a wonderful
hearing in our subcommittee. Certainly, the future of emergency
alerting is very important in our country for so many reasons.
But this is the committee that has oversight responsibility
of the FCC. The FCC has not been here since last July. That is
a long time ago, and there is a lot happening at the FCC.
Tomorrow, they will take up and begin the effort to unravel
net neutrality. I believe that this subcommittee, and under
your leadership, Madam Chairwoman, that we have a hearing, an
oversight hearing, with the FCC.
Both my colleagues, Congresswoman Matsui and our ranking
member, Mr. Doyle, and myself have sent a letter to the
chairman of the full committee and yourself to request that the
subcommittee hold a hearing to examine the proposed acquisition
of tribune media by Sinclair broadcasting. This is a $3.9
billion deal that would create the single largest television
broadcast company in the country. And I think that, again, this
important subcommittee should be able to review and be able to
ask questions.
So I want to underscore the importance of having that
hearing as well. So let me get to my questions.
Thank you to the witnesses not only for your testimony but
for the work that you have done in this field.
In 2015, hackers were able to successfully disable a French
broadcast television station. The new broadcast standard could
enable hackers to do much more than simply take a station off
the air including giving them a pathway into consumers' homes.
So my question is, how prepared are all of the members of
the industry, not just large station groups, to defend against
potential cybersecurity threats that the next generation
standard may bring?
Mr. Matheny. Thank you, Congresswoman Eshoo.
Broadcasters take very seriously the cybersecurity issues.
Ms. Eshoo. Well, everyone does. And I have got a minute 50,
so I want to get to all three and ask another question. So if
you could just be brief. Thank you.
Mr. Matheny. OK. So we have lots of educational programs
that are taking place and operate hardened physical facilities
already, and so we take it very seriously and are working hard
to ensure that even with the NextGen standard, we maintain top
cybersecurity.
Mr. Khartibi. I would also agree on wireless emergency that
cybersecurity is extremely important, and we have already
started activities to ensure that it is a safe and secure
process. Thank you.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. I would echo Dr. Khartibi on the
wireless side, Congresswoman.
Ms. Eshoo. I have heard some allege that the FCC's net
neutrality protections could cause emergency alerts to get
stuck behind some other traffic on the internet during an
emergency. I would assume that the exception for a specialized
service would make sure that that doesn't happen.
So I would like to go to Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Have you ever
heard of emergency alerts or any other types of emergency
communications being hampered by the net neutrality
protections?
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. I have not. I mean, I have studied
emergency alerts for a long time and net neutrality for a long
time, and I haven't actually really focused on the intersection
of the two, to be quite honest.
Ms. Eshoo. But you know of none, is what you are saying?
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Correct.
Ms. Eshoo. Broadcasters are going to have the ability to
use devices such as GPS information to geotargeting emergency
alerts. This raises important privacy questions that are new to
the industry.
What other types of information will broadcasters be
capable of collecting from consumers, and what safeguards will
broadcasters put into place to protect information that is
collected by consumers?
Mr. Matheny. So we believe that the idea of using location
can really help with alert fatigue and serves a real value to
providing meaningful----
Ms. Eshoo. This is on the privacy side is what I am asking.
Mr. Matheny. Yes. And so from a privacy perspective,
broadcasters would have no greater access to information than
they already have through their Web sites or other online
offerings. And so there is already well documented security
measures in place.
Ms. Eshoo. Thank you.
And I yield back.
Mrs. Blackburn. The gentlelady yields back.
Let's see. Mr. Collins, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Collins. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses. For the last couple of
years, pirate radio has been top of mind when it comes to me.
And we all know that our former chairman, Mr. Wheeler, showed
no inclination whatsoever to deal with the issue.
The good news is Ajit Pai does recognize the impact pirate
radio can have. And I think today's radio really highlights a
major issue on the emergency alert system and the potential
interference. And so I maybe would want some comments from you
as we move forward and try to get these pirate radio stations
off the air.
But we have certainly had reports. A lot of this is coming
out of New York City, that in northern New Jersey, there was
trouble with a station on the EIS because of pirate radio
interference coming in the New York City area.
And so, the other issue we have noted is that if somebody
is listening to pirate radio, they don't broadcast EAS alerts.
So somebody in that instance wouldn't get them to begin with.
As we move forward, and I know Ajit Pai is going to move
forward to try to shut these pirate radios down, kind of new
sheriff in town in that regard.
But if you could weigh in. And maybe I will start with Dr.
Khartibi on industry's concern with something like pirate radio
interfering with public safety in the EIS, EAS alerts.
Mr. Khartibi. Thank you, Congressman. I think the important
part of wireless emergency alert is that it is a very secure
system that is originated from authorities to wireless devices
that are functioning on spectrum that are assigned to wireless
carriers.
So from that perspective we can decouple somewhat from
pirate radio, because all the information is sent through a
channel that is licensed by FCC to their carriers.
And the information is coming from an authority that we
understand as its originator. So from that perspective, the
good news is at that wirelessly, what we are immune from
potentially pirate radios. Thank you.
Mr. Collins. Now, they are not using license spectrum, they
are stealing spectrum.
Mr. Khartibi. Yes. But they are operating as a different
spectrum than your devices function. Obviously, they can jam
and so forth, which they can provide but the spectrum they are
using for FM, AM and so forth, they are not the same spectrum
we are using for wireless devices.
Mr. Collins. Yes.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe, do you have any comments?
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Congressman, just at the macro level, I
think collectively, we as a society have to work to ensure that
there is not misinformation when it comes to the delivery of
emergency alerts.
I know on the FEMA side they work hard with wireless
carriers to confirm that those originating alerts are actually
qualified and authorized to do so.
So I think the pirate radio example would fall into a
category of potential misinformation alerts and, we have got to
be aware and try to reduce or eliminate them.
Mr. Collins. Yes.
Mr. Matheny?
Mr. Matheny. So as we are very concerned about pirate
radio, and we think that the examples that you cited are ones
that are of vital concern, especially when you consider the
daisy chain effect of the EAS system and the idea that a pirate
radio station might be operating on a frequency that not only
interferes with a station but it could be an originating
station that then prevents downstream stations from receiving
that alert.
So we absolutely share that concern. I think I would add to
that that more and more cell phones have FM chips activated in
them. And so the idea that you are able to listen to FM radio
on your cell phone and millions upon millions of people are
doing that today already, that is it becomes a concern for that
type of information getting to cell phones as well.
Mr. Collins. Yes. I want to thank all the witnesses.
And I yield back.
Mr. Johnson [presiding]. I thank the gentleman for yielding
back.
I now yield 5 minutes to our distinguished colleague from
California, Mrs. Walters.
Mrs. Walters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to thank the subcommittee for holding this
hearing and the witnesses for sharing their insights.
Over the years, my district in California has experienced a
number of weather-related disasters, including flooding,
earthquakes, and wildfires. As recently as last month, an AMBER
Alert for a missing 1-year-old girl was issued throughout the
region including Orange County. In each instance the
distribution and accuracy of emergency alerts are critical to
ensuring the safety of all individuals. As technology evolves,
so will the way we communicate emergency information.
As a new member of the committee, I look forward to
learning more about your issues and how we can work together to
build upon the existing emergency alert system.
It is safe to say that Californians are pretty much waiting
for the next big earthquake to hit. Particularly in my
district, which sits near a major fault line. Schools hold
earthquake drills, companies host earthquake safety sessions,
and my office has hosted earthquake preparedness seminars for
my constituents.
Along those lines, I understand, Dr. Khartibi, that you are
doing some work on earthquake detection. Can you tell me a
little bit about what you are working on as it relates to the
earthquake early warning system?
Mr. Khartibi. Thank you, Congresswoman. Thank you for
asking that question, because I live in San Diego, and very
close to the water, so I want to make sure that we have a
system in California to detect and warn people on earthquakes.
So we are working very closely with California OES
operation system as well as USGS and earthquake authorities to
design a system that we can alert a consumer on earthquake,
astronauts detected and we go through a lot of details. There
is a way we can detect the earthquake before you can actually
get the shaking so we can give advanced warning to the folks
who are in the imminent danger to take action before the actual
shaking gets to them.
So as I said, this is very near and dear to my heart and we
are working very closely, the industry as a whole, to implement
a system to detect and alert consumers very similar to real but
a lot more efficient and a lot faster on earthquake systems.
Mrs. Walters. OK. Thank you.
Mr. Matheny, can you talk a little bit about how NextGen
broadcast alerts can provide more information to recipients?
Mr. Matheny. Yes. Thank you, Congresswoman.
So we think that with the demonstration that we showed
earlier and the idea that we can not just present scrolling
text or basic information, we are able to really provide
actionable information and that could come in the form of maps.
It could come in the form of evacuation routes. It could come
in the form of video on demand, even.
So if you are talking about a complex issue, the ability to
have that video downloaded in the background and to play for
the user and combine that with the targeting of information
such that if you are in one part of the broadcast area and I am
in another, we may get different advice based on our exact
situation. So there are a lot of capabilities that NextGen
alerting will offer.
And in particular, I put that in the context of, again,
being able to wake up a device, so to get someone's attention,
whether or not their device is turned on or not.
Mrs. Walters. Thank you.
And I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Johnson. I thank the gentlelady for yielding back.
I now recognize Mr. Costello for 5 minutes.
Mr. Costello. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Matheny, you focus today on the advanced alerting
capabilities of NextGen TV broadcast and the standard for it.
If I understand correctly, broadcasters have to first ask the
FCC for permission to innovate on their standard and achieve
any of these benefits. Where is that issue at the FCC, and who
else is supporting the Next Generation TV standard?
And then, finally, can you clarify whether broadcasters are
asking for any additional spectrum, funds, mandates, or relief
from any mandates?
Mr. Matheny. Thank you, Congressman.
We, along with the Consumer Technology Association, the
association for public television stations, as well as the
AWARN alliance filed a petition. There is a notice of proposed
rulemaking out now.
Chairman Pai has targeted the end of the year for having
rules to enable broadcasters to begin to use the next
generation standard. So we are hopeful that that timeline can
hold and going into next year we will be able to have stations
doing deployment.
As it relates to further asks, our ask is one that is
voluntary and does not require any mandates or additional
spectrum or new funds. So we are taking a voluntary approach to
this and, again, hope that deployment can begin next year.
Mr. Costello. Mr. Khartibi, in your testimony you touched
on the recommendations from the CSRIC working group on the WEA
security in terms of end-to-end security.
Can you further describe current vulnerabilities and
recommendations to mitigate them, the risk of malicious code
within the supply chain ancillary questions? What about outside
actors originating false WEA alerts or blocking real WEA
alerts. And would developing more precise jurisdictional alerts
help contain those cybersecurity concerns, or might they, by
contrast, make it even a worse situation or accelerate it from
spreading to neighboring jurisdictions.
Mr. Khartibi. Thank you, Congressman. It is a very good
question.
So during the CSRIC V discussion that we had on
cybersecurity, we looked at potential security issues end to
end, from alert originators all the way to the carriers all the
way to the users, and you provided a couple of excellent
examples of where security issues could come up.
What we are doing at the industry, we are working very
closely with FEMA and DHS to address those security issues and
make sure that we have a very secure end-to-end system.
And as you mentioned, one of the points that we are trying
to make sure we address is that the alert originators are
authorized alert originators. Because we have seen through
social media and so forth, people can take advantage of sending
some false alerts to actually cause more damage.
Mr. Costello. Right.
Mr. Khartibi. So we are addressing that to make sure that
alert originators for real is a secured alert originators.
Mr. Costello. Right, we will have to follow up on that in
terms of--I am sorry. Go ahead, please.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. I was just going to say, Congressman,
the latter part of your question involved the geotargeting more
granular alerts. And as I said earlier, we are finding that
public safety is not using the capability because they can't
constrain or confine the alert to their jurisdiction.
Mr. Costello. Right.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. And we have had many, many cities, and
we have had Seattle said they have 18 microclimates, so they
can't send alerts, so they don't use it. Harris County, Texas,
has said, we haven't used it, because even though we have had
five presidential declarations of emergency, because we can't
confine it.
So I do think you have to look at that issue with a balance
and say the greater the granularity the more likely it actually
gets used. That may open the door for some bad actors, but
FEMA, I think, has a very robust process for making sure that
doesn't occur.
Mr. Costello. Thank you, gentlemen.
Mr. Johnson. I thank the gentleman for yielding back.
I am going to yield my time for a few questions.
Dr. Khartibi, one of the things you mentioned in your
testimony is enhancing end-to-end security. Could you describe
that work and what it is aimed to address?
Mr. Khartibi. Yes. Thank you for the question.
So part of the CSRIC V work that we did, we looked at all
the end-to-end security, potential security issues that could
be introduced. We haven't seen any of those, but we went on and
said, OK. What if? And how can we mitigate those security
issues?
So we created a report that said, what are the potential
issues and how can it be mitigated, and industry now, taking a
lead to make sure those security issues would not happen.
So we are doing the best we can. And cybersecurity, you can
never be 100 percent, but we are doing all we can to make sure
that wireless emergency alert is from a very secured authority
and gets to the consumer in a secure way. We have a huge report
on that. And, as I said, the industries continue to work on
that. Thank you.
Mr. Johnson. Thank you. I also notice that in your
testimony that the FCC's CSRIC working group did reports on
social media and complementary alerting methods. Could you
discuss concerns regarding trustworthiness and security with
regard to social media as an alerting tool?
Mr. Khartibi. Yes. I think you pointed exactly the issue
with social media.
So social media can be helpful and at the same time it can
be misused. So we had a very interesting discussion during
CSRIC V on how potentially even the public safety can take
advantage of information that is going on. For example, in the
San Bernardino shooting, there was a lot of information going
on on social media that the public safety could use.
At the same time, bad people can take advantage of the
social media and spread bad information and cause even more
damage. So we need to understand how to help take advantage of
social media but not to the point that actually social media is
not authority like wireless emergency alert, so that is the
balance that we are trying to find.
Mr. Johnson. OK, thank you.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe, anything to add to that?
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Yes, Congressman. I heard a great quote
with regard to the intersection of social media and emergency
alerting, and Dr. Khartibi, I think, really hit at it. But the
quote is, ``With the use of social media when it comes to
emergency situation, there is a potential for viral
misinformation.'' And I think that is a threshold concern that
I and others who have worked on this issue have.
Dr. Khartibi, I think, hit on it well, and he said it can
provide an additional alternative or an add-on benefit. But the
primary has to be, I believe, the EAS system that Mr. Matheny
and NAB's members provide as well as the wireless emergency
alert that many of us have worked on. I think that has to be
the primary, because it is authorized, it is confirmed.
FEMA ensures that the person who originates the alert is
actually allowed to--and I think that is a process that ensures
that we get correct information, not viral misinformation.
Mr. Johnson. Sure.
Mr. Matheny?
Mr. Matheny. So I would say that trust is the key issue,
and that is something that, as the study that was released this
morning shows that broadcasters remain the most trusted source
for information by a 4X margin. So I think turning to
broadcasters to provide that trusted information about what is
taking place is key, and broadcasters are providing that not
just over the air with the free over-the-air signals but also
on numerous platforms including social media.
Mr. Johnson. OK. All right. Thank you.
Mr. Khartibi, continuing with you, then, advancements in
wireless emergency alerting sound promising, but we have also
heard today the limitations of wireless communication, like
network congestion in times of emergency.
How is wireless industry working to overcome these
limitations?
Mr. Khartibi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So what we are doing right now is as we are evolving to 5G,
we are trying to find out what other potential issues we can
improve the system to make sure that 5G does not inherit all
the issues that we had in 4G.
So we are continuously thinking about what are the paths we
can get so that wireless emergency alert which can save people
and potentially disaster areas. That has no issues with
congestion.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Yes. And I would just add, Congressman,
the alert itself goes over a different element of the wireless
network, not the same network that you and I would use either
for broadband access or for texting or for voice.
It is a cell broadcast, so it is a different component of
the network that doesn't have the issues of congestion. Those
issues may happen after an event, but not with regard to the
WEA service.
Mr. Johnson. OK. And I thank you.
My time has expired. I now yield 5 minutes to Mr. Guthrie
from Kentucky.
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, Mr.
Chairman, for yielding. I appreciate everybody being here.
There was a healthcare subcommittee for the same committee
going on, so I have been back and forth. So I think you just
started talking about this.
But, Dr. Khartibi, can you walk us through how a WEA alert
is broadcast by a service provider?
Mr. Khartibi. Yes, I would be happy to do so.
So as my colleague, Mr. Gutman-McCabe mentioned, we have a
separate channel that we can broadcast the information. And the
best part about it is that when it is broadcast to a particular
cell site, all the devices, regardless of where their home
location is, would get that.
So, for example, I just arrived from San Diego last night.
If there is a chemical spill here, all our devices would get
that alert including mine. So there is no subscription needed.
It just broadcasts to the specific cell sites that would have
that information and all the devices would receive it.
Mr. Guthrie. OK. And to Dr. Khartibi again, or Mr. Gutman-
McCabe, one of the arguments for ATSC 3.0 is that if the
technology incorporated into mobile devices they could be
awakened in times of emergency. And I think one earlier might
have mentioned this too when I was in earlier, so that alerts
can be delivered.
Do you see this as currently feasible, or is there any risk
that this capability could drain battery power during a time
when a commercial power outage is already compromising
strength?
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Congressman, it is certainly something
that we talked about when we put the committee together is
awakening the device, and I think we called it a zombie device.
The reality is the overwhelming majority of Americans for
better or for worse don't turn off their devices. And so we did
study it at the time, somewhat robustly as we also studied
incorporating a broadcast chip and satellite chip and FM chip,
and we looked at those different capabilities and settled on
the cell broadcast service as the right capability to deliver
alerts on the mobile wireless platform.
Mr. Guthrie. OK. And my final question for you, again, Mr.
Gutman-McCabe, anybody can answer this, is what kind of impact
were the advances that you discussed to have on the consumer
devices? Do you anticipate it would increase the size or cost
of a handset?
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Congressman, no. What we are looking at
is simply a software upgrade. AT&T said in December that it
could use existing APIs and capabilities in the device. So what
we are trying to do is integrate software that would allow the
intelligence in the handset to become part of WEA.
And to address, actually, a number of the significant
upgrades that Mr. Matheny has discussed, including the ability
to geotarget, including the ability to deliver rich content,
including the ability to personalize the alert.
So all of these things are available in--and are part of
the capabilities of the device, to be quite honest. Linking
that to WEA is what is under consideration at the FM PRM at the
FCC, and we think that is the next iteration, the next stage.
Mr. Guthrie. OK. Thank you very much. I appreciate your
answers, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Johnson. I thank the gentleman for yielding back.
Now yield to Mr. Olson from Texas for 5 minutes.
Mr. Olson. I thank the chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses. Mr. Gutman-McCabe, you and I are
right there. You mentioned Harris County. Harris County is
about 20 percent of my district; Texas, 22.
Is on track. It is exploding with growth. We think we will
have 1 million people by 2020, that is 250,000 over a normal
congressional district. It is the most ethically diverse
district in America. It is very geographically diverse. We have
20-story buildings, suburbs, cotton farms. Our big emergencies
are typically weather.
We have a saying in Texas: If you don't like the weather,
just wait 15 minutes; it will change. And that change will be a
hurricane, a tornado, a drought, a flood, hail, earthquakes.
But our office of emergency management back there have told
me and the FCC that geotargeting alerts is the most important
thing to the future of wireless emergency alerts since
geotargeting can summon a car or order pizza like my son does
through my phone or my other phone, and that could arrive at my
door.
It seems like my public safety people back home in Harris
County should be able to use location capabilities and our
devices to target alerts mostly in smaller areas. And since
these capabilities are already in most devices like both of
these, will that be allowed, will that be in order, will that
capability be in order with our wireless communication alert
service? What are the challenges going forward? What is going
to happen? What are the challenges?
And feel free to talk. It is not just for Mr. Gutman-
McCabe.
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. So first of all, your Francisco Sanchez
is your person that works on this issue in Harris County. And
he is fantastic. He has actually worked with Dr. Khartibi on
the CSRIC working group, and he is a great public servant.
I have said throughout the hearing, I think getting that
ability to geotarget will unleash a world of benefits to this
service. And I do believe the capabilities are there, and I do
know that Dr. Khartibi and the wireless industry are working on
it, the issue is going to be, obviously, timing.
It was a big deal when AT&T stepped out and said these
capabilities exist in the device, that they are there, and that
the industry can take advantage of those capabilities to
manufacture this upgrade and this capability.
Obviously, the issue is going to be when, but I know the
industry is working on it.
Mr. Olson. Dr. Khartibi, you have been drawn in this
conversation. You care to add something to it?
Mr. Khartibi. First, I would like to also echo the fact
that I had the pleasure to work with Mr. Sanchez as part of
CSRIC V. We were the coleads on it, and it was a real pleasure
working with him.
And I would like to also--and as Mr. Gutman-McCabe
mentioned that industry is working on providing better location
services. We went from a county level to cell site level and we
have thoughts about, for example, device base on how to
potentially improve it even further. So this is definitely
industry is taking a lead on it, and we are working very
closely with FEMA and DHS to improve that. Thank you.
Mr. Olson. Thank you. You want anything there, Mr. Matheny,
or are you fine?
Mr. Matheny. No. I would just say that the same benefits of
geolocation apply to next generation television, and the idea
that we can provide target alerts that would help with alert
fatigue but also would provide more actionable information to
the affected individuals.
Mr. Olson. Thank you, gentlemen.
One message from Mr. Sanchez, he wants to remind all of you
that the Houston Astros has the best record in pro baseball
today.
I yield back.
Mr. Johnson. I thank the gentleman for yielding back.
Mr. Bilirakis from Florida, recognized now for 5 minutes.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it
very much.
As a district on the Gulf Coast, a significant portion of
my constituents live on or near the water, they live near the
water or on the water, and fortunately, they experience major
flooding. Currently, evacuation routes are limited to only a
few east/west roads and bridges. Unfortunately, about a 40
mile-per-hour wind. The bridges close to the public, which
further restricts emergency routes. So it is a big, big problem
in our area.
Due to this, I am very interested in the 2016 FCC's
examination of new event codes for storm surge warnings and
extreme wind warnings.
Dr. Khartibi, what progress has industry made to support
these codes?
Mr. Khartibi. Thank you, Congressman, for that question.
We have done a lot of progress on that. As a matter of
fact, right now, we are almost completing the standard. When I
say standards, Mr. Gutman-McCabe work for, we have done
prescription so that all manufacturers start implementing it.
So we have completed the standards, and that means that now we
can make sure that all devices and all handsets would have that
capability shortly and the networks as well.
So we are very much on our way to including those event
codes in our devices and in our network.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you very much.
In addition to flooding, just last week my district
experienced wildfires. Throughout the ordeal, Pasco County
government shared information on social media about road
closures, smoke conditions, and also livestreamed a press
conference online, our firefighters did an outstanding job as
they always do, to put out these fires. So saved many lives. We
were so grateful to them.
Again, Dr. Khartibi, could you describe the integration or
coordination of wireless emergency alert system messages and
the ever-changing information on the ground being shared by the
local governments on, again, the online community?
Mr. Khartibi. Yes, sir. That is an excellent question.
It is designed so that we can potentially have input from
both local, state, and Federal input. And we receive some
statistic that there has been 850 alert originators so far and
over 30,000 alerts sent. So we allow, definitely, local
authorities definitely have access to provide timely
information to consumers in scenarios we described.
Mr. Bilirakis. OK.
One last question. Due to my area's limited evacuation
routes, and we are working on fixing that, but I am intrigued
by the development of more accurate geotargeting of emergency
areas. By mitigating alert spillover outside the target zone,
we can prevent unnecessary road congestion. So the question is
for Mr. Gutman-McCabe.
You discussed the ability to geofence any shaped emergency
zone and better target populations. Is it feasible in the near
future to send two separate messages to two distinct groups
within a specific tower coverage area? Again, how granular can
we go?
Mr. Gutman-McCabe. Certainly, Congressman.
So the answer is yes, it will be, this ability to geotarget
and get more granular is put into the device. Think of it as
two people on the same street can order Uber and get two
different Ubers to the same area, or I can order an Uber in my
house and walk across the street and order a second one and get
both of them. It is the only limitation is the ability of the
device to identify its location, and the devices are getting
more and more accurate.
So the public safety, and the FCC is proceeding, has
identified exactly that type of scenario that you have just
highlighted, which is we want the west side of this street to
move west, and we want the east side of this street to move
east, and that is the way we avoid congestion.
And so evacuation routes or, you know, splitting an order,
shelter in place to this block, evacuate, you know, to the next
block. And you can imagine that type of situation applying
itself in all sorts of emergency scenarios; shootings, things
like that.
That horrific shooting in Orlando is a perfect example.
Public safety would like to target an alert right to that
specific nightclub and say to that nightclub, you know, there
is a shooter in the building. We are coming in, you know, duck.
And then outside that building, it would be, do not go near the
building. And so in that situation, you would have a donut hole
in a donut sort of message. That capability is on the horizon.
I know the industry is working on it, and we believe, but
more importantly, public safety believes it will be
informational.
Mr. Bilirakis. Very good. Exciting stuff. Thank you.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Johnson. Thank you. The time has expired. And now
seeing there are no further members wishing to ask questions
for the panel, I thank all of our witnesses for being here
today.
Pursuant to committee rules, I remind members that they
have 10 business days to submit additional questions for the
record. And I ask that witnesses submit their responses within
10 business days upon receipt of these questions.
Seeing no further business before the subcommittee today,
without objection, the subcommittee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:51 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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