Rule2023-27236
Emergency Alert System; Wireless Emergency Alerts
Primary source
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Published
December 15, 2023
Effective
December 15, 2026
Issuing agencies
Federal Communications Commission
Abstract
In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts rules for commercial mobile service providers that have elected to participate in the Wireless Emergency Alert system (WEA) (Participating CMS Providers) to support WEA messages in the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S. as well as English and American Sign Language. Participating CMS Providers are to support this expanded multilingual alerting by enabling mobile devices to display message templates that will be pre-installed and stored on the mobile device. The Commission also directs its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to seek comment on various implementation details of the multilingual alerting requirements and future expansion to additional languages. In addition, to help personalize emergency alerts, the Commission requires participating wireless providers to support the inclusion of maps in WEA messages that show the alert recipient's location relative to the geographic area where the emergency is occurring, and establishes a Commission-hosted database to provide the public with easy-to-access information on WEA availability. Wireless providers will be required to supply information on whether they participate in WEA and, if so, the extent of WEA availability in their service area and on the mobile devices that they sell. Last, to support more effective WEA performance and public awareness, the amended rules enable alerting authorities to send two local WEA tests per year that the public receives by default, provided that the alerting authority takes steps to ensure that the public is aware that the test is, in fact, only a test.
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 240 (Friday, December 15, 2023)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 86824-86837]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-27236]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Part 10
[PS Docket Nos. 15-94, 15-91; FCC 23-88; FR ID 189576]
Emergency Alert System; Wireless Emergency Alerts
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission
(Commission) adopts rules for commercial mobile service providers that
have elected to participate in the Wireless Emergency Alert system
(WEA) (Participating CMS Providers) to support WEA messages in the 13
most commonly spoken languages in the U.S. as well as English and
American Sign Language. Participating CMS Providers are to support this
expanded multilingual alerting by enabling mobile devices to display
message templates that will be pre-installed and stored on the mobile
device. The Commission also directs its Public Safety and Homeland
Security Bureau to seek comment on various implementation details of
the multilingual alerting requirements and future expansion to
additional languages. In addition, to help personalize emergency
alerts, the Commission requires participating wireless providers to
support the inclusion of maps in WEA messages that show the alert
recipient's location relative to the geographic area where the
emergency is occurring, and establishes a Commission-hosted database to
provide the public with easy-to-access information on WEA availability.
Wireless providers will be required to supply information on whether
they participate in WEA and, if so, the extent of WEA availability in
their service area and on the mobile devices that they sell. Last, to
support more effective WEA performance and public awareness, the
amended rules enable alerting authorities to send two local WEA tests
per year that the public receives by default, provided that the
alerting authority takes steps to ensure that the public is aware that
the test is, in fact, only a test.
DATES: Effective December 15, 2026, except for the amendments to 47 CFR
10.210(b), (c), and (d)), 10.350(d), 10.480(a) and (b), and 10.500(e),
which are delayed indefinitely. The Federal Communications Commission
will announce the effective dates of the delayed amendments by
publishing documents in the Federal Register.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information regarding this
Further Notice, please contact Michael Antonino, Cybersecurity and
Communications Reliability Division, Public Safety and Homeland
Security Bureau, (202) 418-7965, or by email to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fc91959f949d9990d29d92889392959293bc9a9f9fd29b938a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c6abafa5aea7a3aae8a7a8b2a9a8afa8a986a0a5a5e8a1a9b0">[email protected]</span></a>. For additional information concerning the
Paperwork Reduction Act information collection requirements contained
in this document, send an email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#0b5b594a4b6d6868256c647d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="89d9dbc8c9efeaeaa7eee6ff">[email protected]</span></a> or contact Nicole
Ongele, Office of Managing Director, Performance and Program
Management, 202-418-2991, or by email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#5f0f0d1e1f393c3c71383029"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="28787a69684e4b4b064f475e">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Third
Report and Order, FCC 23-88, adopted on October 19, 2023, and released
on October 20, 2023. The full text of this document is available by
downloading the text from the Commission's website at: <a href="https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-23-88A1.pdf">https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-23-88A1.pdf</a>.
This Third Report and Order addresses Wireless Emergency Alerts
(WEA). Though this Third Report and Order is not specifically changing
our Part 11 rules regarding the Emergency Alert System (EAS), the
document references both the EAS and WEA dockets and we have
historically sought comment on WEA in both dockets, including the
underlying FNPRM and NPRM to which this Third Report and Order
connects. The rules adopted here amend only Part 10 concerning WEA. We
will consider improvements for the Emergency Alert System (EAS)--to
include support for multilingual EAS--in a forthcoming item that will
amend Part 11 of our rules.
Final Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Analysis
This document contains new and modified information collection
requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA),
Public Law 104-13. It will be submitted to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for review under Section 3507(d) of the PRA. OMB, the
general public, and other Federal agencies will be invited to comment
on the new or modified information collection requirements contained in
this proceeding. In addition, we note that pursuant to the Small
Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44
U.S.C. 3506(c)(4), we previously sought specific comment on how the
Commission might further reduce the information collection burden for
small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
Synopsis
I. Third Report and Order
1. It is essential that the public be able to receive in accessible
language and format WEA Messages that are intended for them. It is also
important that those who initiate these messages and those who rely
upon them can access information about WEA's availability and
performance. Through the requirements the Commission adopts in the
Third Report and Order, the Commission intends to help the millions of
people with access and functional needs, including people who primarily
speak a language other than English or Spanish and those with
disabilities, better understand and take protective actions in response
to WEA messages; improve people's ability to understand and quickly
take protective actions in response to WEAs that they receive; and
provide the nation's alerting authorities with the information they
need to plan for resilient communications during disasters and use WEA
with confidence and foreknowledge. These requirements will meaningfully
improve WEA. The Commission also recognizes that even more can be done
and to that end, will consider improvements for the Emergency Alert
System (EAS)--to include support for multilingual EAS--in a forthcoming
item.
A. Making WEA Available to Millions of People Who Primarily Speak a
Language Other Than English or Spanish and Accessible to People With
Disabilities
2. To expand WEA's reach to millions of people who primarily speak
a language other than English or Spanish who may not be able to
understand the potentially life-saving alerts they receive, the
Commission requires Participating CMS Providers to support multilingual
WEA through the use of Alert Messages translated into the most common
languages (referred to in this item as ``templates''). These templates
would be pre-installed and stored on the mobile device itself. As
described below, where an alerting authority chooses to send a
multilingual Alert Message, the WEA-capable mobile device must be able
to extract and display the relevant template in the subscriber's
default language, if available. See, 47 CFR 10.500(e). If the default
language for a WEA-capable mobile device is set to a language that is
not among those supported by templates, the WEA-capable device must
present the English-language version of the Alert Message.
3. The weight of the record supports expanding WEA's language
capabilities
[[Page 86825]]
through the use of templates. Some alerting authorities are already
using templates to deliver alerts in multiple languages. The approach
the Commission adopts in the Third Report and Order improves upon other
available methods of multilingual WEA messages (e.g., through the use
of an embedded reference that takes the recipient to a website with
content in multiple languages), because the multilingual Alert Message
will be displayed to the user by default.
4. The implementation of multilingual WEA through the use of
templates, as described in the Third Report and Order, integrates two
features that are available today. First, it requires the establishment
of templates. Letters from some of the largest Participating CMS
Providers indicate that implementing template-based WEAs in multiple
languages is feasible. Second, it requires templates to be stored in
the device and triggered upon receipt of a WEA. As the Commission noted
in the 2023 WEA FNPRM, Wireless Emergency Alerts, Amendments to Part 11
of the Commission's Rules Regarding the Emergency Alert System, PS
Docket No. 15-91, 15-94, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 23-
30 (rel. Apr. 21, 2023) (2023 WEA FNPRM), through a partnership between
ShakeAlert and Google, Android mobile devices are already able to
display alert content pre-installed on mobile devices upon receipt of a
signal from a network of seismic sensors. This application demonstrates
how a template can be ``activated'' by a data element included in Alert
Message metadata, which would prompt the mobile device to display the
relevant template alert message in the mobile device's default language
chosen by the consumer.
5. Promoting multilingual WEA through templates will enhance the
flexibility that alerting authorities have in communicating with their
communities. There may be times where the benefit of delivering an
Alert Message to the public as soon as possible outweighs the need for
additional context that freeform text could provide. The Commission
does not require alerting authorities to use templates, but require CMS
Providers to support them should alerting authorities wish to use them
at their discretion. The Commission defers to alerting authorities on
how best to utilize these new WEA functions for their communities.
6. The Commission further declines to require Participating CMS
Providers to implement multilingual WEA using machine translation at
this time. The Commission will continue to examine the feasibility of
machine translation technologies and its application in connection with
multilingual alerting.
7. As a baseline, the Commission requires Participating CMS
Providers' WEA-capable mobile devices support templates in the 13 most
commonly spoken languages in the United States, based on U.S. Census
data, in addition to English templates. These languages include:
Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean, Russian,
Haitian Creole, German, Hindi, Portuguese, and Italian. This action is
consistent with the request of numerous members of Congress who wrote a
letter urging the Commission to make WEA capable of multilingual
alerting, noting that, without sending WEAs in languages beyond English
and Spanish, ``[l]ives are put at stake without this crucial
information about impending inclement weather events, stay-at-home
orders, AMBER alerts, and other emergencies.'' The Commission agrees
that that the 13 languages for which we require support today would
help make WEA content available to people who primarily speak a
language other than English or Spanish for the first time, and that
this change will most directly benefit those who have historically been
underserved by WEA. The Commission believes that this action will
mitigate a risk observed by researchers that individuals who primarily
speak a language other than English or Spanish may not understand
evacuation notices or instructions, raising the risk of harm.
8. In addition, the Commission requires Participating CMS
Providers' WEA-capable mobile devices to support templates in ASL. The
Commission received a robust record demonstrating that ASL templates
would increase the effectiveness and accessibility of WEAs for people
who are deaf and hard of hearing who use ASL. The Commission believes
there is no adequate substitute for ASL for many individuals in the
deaf and hard of hearing community, and unlike the other languages for
which we require support, however, ASL is not a language to which a
mobile device can be set. Because of this, the Commission requires
Participating CMS Providers' WEA-capable mobile devices to provide
subscribers with the ability to opt-in to receive ASL alerts. The
Commission recognizes that, unlike textual translations, English
language Alert Messages would be translated into ASL by video. To avoid
the risk that ASL templates could unnecessarily consume mobile device
resources for individuals that do not need them, the rules allow the
user's voluntary selection of the option to receive WEAs in ASL to
trigger the mobile device to download ASL templates to the device. WEA-
capable mobile devices need not be sold with ASL templates pre-
installed on them, so long as the templates are available to download
in the manner described here
9. A consumer's choice to receive Alert Message templates in ASL
should override the preferred language setting and the Alert Message
should be extracted in ASL. This approach is necessary to give meaning
to the consumer's choice. Template-based ASL Alert Messages would
function like other template-based Alert Messages in other respects.
10. The Commission directs the Public Safety and Homeland Security
Bureau (Bureau) to develop the specific implementation parameters for
template-based multilingual alerting. In this regard, the Third Report
and Order directs the Bureau to propose and seek comment on a set of
emergency alert messages for support via template as they would be
written in English, the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S.
(Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean,
Russian, Haitian Creole, German, Hindi, Portuguese, and Italian), and
ASL. In identifying this set of emergency alert messages for support
via templates, the Bureau should seek comment on which messages are
most commonly used by alerting authorities, as the 2023 WEA FNPRM
contemplated, as well as those which may be most time-sensitive and
thus critical for immediate comprehension. The Third Report and Order
also directs the Bureau to seek comment on whether this functionality
can be made available on all devices.
11. The Third Report and Order further directs the Bureau to seek
comment on whether the English version of the alert should be displayed
in addition to the multilingual version of the alert, and whether
templates can be customizable to incorporate event-specific
information. The Commission recognizes commenters in the record who
suggest that the multilingual template-based alert be displayed
together with the English-language alert that includes additional
details, to promote a fuller understanding of the nature of the
emergency. Through the incorporation of event-specific information into
templates, we also seek to address concerns that static template-based
alerts may not be flexible enough to be useful, and would reduce an
alerting authority's ability to create regionally and culturally
relevant messages. The Third Report and Order directs the Bureau to
assess and determine the parameters for what is
[[Page 86826]]
feasible and would best serve the public interest in this regard.
12. The Third Report and Order also directs the Bureau to seek
comment on the costs of supporting additional languages after the 13 we
identify today, as well as English and ASL. The Commission believes
that, after the relevant stakeholders standardize and develop the
technology necessary to support template-based multilingual WEA
messages, the costs for adding additional language support via this
process would be negligible, while the countervailing public interest
benefits would be significant. There may be many large immigrant
communities nationwide including some whose members have limited
English proficiency, that are not included in these 13 languages. There
is general agreement that additional languages should be supported, but
there are different approaches for identifying those additional
languages and the record did not coalesce around any particular
languages or methods. The Third Report and Order directs the Bureau to
seek comment on the best approach to determine which additional
languages should be supported and what those languages should be.
13. If minimally burdensome to implement, the Third Report and
Order directs the Bureau to designate additional languages--beyond
English, ASL, and the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the United
States--that should be supported through templates. The Third Report
and Order also directs the Bureau to seek comment on the timeframe in
which these additional languages could be supported. The Commission
also delegate authority to the Bureau to ask any additional questions
relating to the development and deployment of template-based
multilingual alerting that would clarify the technical processes by
which such alerts would be developed, updated, and delivered.
14. After an opportunity for comment, the Bureau will publish an
Order in the Federal Register that establishes the specific
implementation parameters for template-based multilingual alerting,
including identification of the final set of emergency messages for
multilingual WEA support, as well as their accompanying pre-scripted
templates. By proceeding in this manner, the Commission creates an
opportunity for interested parties to take an active role in ensuring
we have selected the correct messages to support through templates and
that we have accurately translated them. The Third Report and Order
requires Participating CMS Providers to comply with the requirements to
support template-based alerting, as well as English, ASL, and the 13
most common languages (Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic,
French, Korean, Russian, Haitian Creole, German, Hindi, Portuguese, and
Italian) within 30 months after the Bureau publishes its Order in the
Federal Register. The Third Report and Order also directs the Bureau to
identify the corresponding timeframe for supporting additional
languages.
15. The Commission believes that 30 months is reasonable to
implement the templates for the 13 languages, as well as English and
ASL. As the Third Report and Order notes, both alert templates and the
extraction of pre-loaded content on a mobile device to display an alert
are functionalities that are already in use today. The Commission
recognizes that additional work is necessary to combine these
functionalities to support multilingual WEA templates and that
implementation of this requirement will require updates to standards,
design development, and deployment efforts. The Commission observes
that mobile device manufacturers and OS vendors have previously proven
capable of developing new functionalities for WEA that required
standards development, design development, and additional deployment
efforts within 30 months. The Third Report and Order does not adopt all
the requirements that the 2023 WEA FNPRM proposed, including the
proposed performance reporting requirements.
16. Applying the 30-month compliance timeframe to all Participating
CMS Providers affords sufficient time to comply. Irrespective of
whether small and rural carriers choose to allocate resources to
participate in the standards process in which wireless industry has
routinely engaged to support compliance with the Commission's WEA
requirements, the record suggests that this process can be completed
within 12 months and will benefit all Participating CMS Providers
equally. The remaining 18 months in the 30-month compliance timeframe
include 12 months for software development and testing and 6 months for
deployment in regular business cycles. The Commission believes that any
delays that small and rural carriers may encounter in accessing the
network equipment or mobile devices needed to support the requirements
adopted today can be accommodated within the 6-month flexibility that
we offer to all Participating CMS Providers. In proposing to require
compliance within 30 months of the rule's publication in the Federal
Register, the Commission used the same record-supported analysis as it
has relied upon since 2016. The Third Report and Order also notes that
the Commission has historically not provided small businesses extra
time to comply with its WEA rules.
17. The Commission also agrees that languages should be maintained
and reassessed to keep pace with evolving communities and technological
capabilities. The Commission therefore anticipates that, in the years
to come, as technology evolves and as language needs change, the
Commission will continue to examine these issues to assess whether
further adjustments are warranted.
18. For a multilingual WEA to reach the intended recipient, the
subscriber must first set the phone to the default language of their
choice. Raising public awareness about this critical step is an
important component of ensuring consumers are able to take advantage of
multilingual alerts. Equally important is helping consumers understand
how to set a WEA-capable device to a default language that enables them
to receive multilingual alerts. The Commission encourages all
stakeholders involved in the distribution of WEA (CMS providers, device
retailers, alerting authorities, and consumer advocates) to conduct
outreach to educate the public about setting their WEA-capable devices
to their preferred language to receive multilingual alerts. The Third
Report and Order also directs the Bureau to work with the Consumer and
Governmental Affairs Bureau in creating a consumer guide that helps
consumers learn about how to set their WEA-enabled devices to their
preferred language and making the guide available in the 13 languages
that we are requiring for WEA today and ASL.
B. Integrating Location-Aware Maps Into Alert Messages
19. To help people personalize threats that potentially affect
them, the Third Report and Order requires WEA-capable mobile devices to
support the presentation of Alert Messages that link the recipient to a
native mapping application on their mobile device to depict the
recipient's geographic position relative to the emergency incident. The
map must include the following features: the overall geographic area,
the contour of the area subject to the emergency alert within that
geographic area, and the alert recipient's location relative to these
geographic areas. The Third Report and Order requires this
functionality only on devices that have access to a mapping
application, where the Alert Message's target area is specified by a
circle or
[[Page 86827]]
polygon, and where the device has enabled location services and has
granted location permissions to its native mapping application.
20. The record demonstrates a compelling public safety need for WEA
messages to include location-aware maps. Location-aware maps will
personalize threats so recipients will more quickly understand whether
an alert applies to them and hasten protective actions. Providing such
maps will spur people to take actions to protect their lives and
property more quickly than they otherwise might, including in
situations where a timely response can save lives. The Commission also
agrees with commenters that location-aware maps could mitigate the
effects of target area overshoot.
21. The Third Report and Order finds that it is technically
feasible to present location-aware maps, provided location services are
enabled and permissions for its use are granted to the native mapping
application. Notably, the Commission's Communications Security,
Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) VIII finds that it is
technically feasible to integrate location-aware maps into WEA, stating
that ``if the Alert Area is defined [by a circle or polygon,] the WEA
text could be displayed on the device along with a map of the Alert
Area and an indication on the map of the recipient's location.''
Further, the Third Report and Order requires this feature only where
the target area is described as a circle or polygon because, as CSRIC
VIII noted in its recent report on the feasibility of location-aware
maps in connection with WEA, pursuant to our rules and relevant
standards, these are the only target area descriptions that are
transmitted to mobile devices. Mobile devices will need these target
area descriptions to graphically depict the Alert Message's target area
within the native mapping application. Such a mapping capability should
only be required where location services are enabled and permissions
for its use are granted to the native mapping application, because most
modern devices require user permission for locations services to work.
The Commission defers to industry to specify through the standards
process exactly how WEA-capable mobile devices may connect the end user
to the WEA-enabled map. The Third Report and Order only requires that
Participating CMS Providers' WEA-capable mobile devices clearly present
the map or the option to access the map concurrent with the Alert
Message. A few ways this might be achieved are for WEA-capable mobile
devices to display a WEA-enabled map within the WEA message itself, to
display a clickable link to a native mapping application within the WEA
message, or to provide a link via a separate pop-up message that
directs the user to the WEA-enabled map. No additional information
would need to be broadcast over CMS Provider infrastructure to enable
this functionality under any of these approaches. Accordingly, whereas
the Commission proposed to codify this requirement as an Alert Message
requirement for Participating CMS Providers, the record shows that the
only changes needed to effectuate this functionality are in the mobile
device, so the Third Report and Order codifies it as an equipment
requirement instead. See Figure 1 below for an example of how a WEA
location-aware map could look.
[[Page 86828]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TR15DE23.017
22. Figure 1 is based on the look and feel of a common native
mapping application using default settings. The large circle represents
the Alert Message's geographic target area and the small dot with a
lighter shaded uncertainty area around it represents the user's
location. Consumers regularly use the mapping applications in which the
WEA target areas will be presented and are already familiar with how
those applications display user location relative to geographic
features.
23. The Third Report and Order requires Participating CMS Providers
to comply with this requirement 36 months from the rule's publication
in the Federal Register, as proposed. The Commission finds that 36
months allows more than sufficient time for Participating CMS Providers
to complete of all necessary steps to make location-aware maps
available to their subscribers, including technical design, standards
development, testing, and deployment. No commenter demonstrated that
compliance in this timeframe would be a technological impossibility.
Because the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS)
has already begun this work and the Commission believes this
requirement is less complex than others the Third Report and Order has
required to be implemented in similar timeframes, the Commission
believe that 30 months would be sufficient, however, the Third Report
and Order grants Participating CMS Providers an additional six months
to implement mapping to accommodate their concerns.
24. A WEA-enabled map may not be accessible to screen readers,
which means the map may not be useful to blind and low vision
individuals. To ensure that this mapping capability is accessible to as
many people as possible and that the inclusion of maps enhances the
effectiveness of WEA, the Third Report and Order encourages alerting
authorities to continue to include a text-based description of the
Alert Message's target area in their Alert Message. This is of service
to a broad range of users, including those individuals who choose not
to enable location services or grant location permissions to their
device's native mapping application, or those who use legacy devices
without such an application. This will contribute to the overall
clarity of the Alert Message and enable those with vision impairments
and other access and function needs to understand the geographic area
affected by an emergency by using screen readers to understand the
Alert Message's text. The Commission also expects industry to consult
with mobile accessibility experts in the process of standardizing and
developing this functionality to determine whether there are advances
in technology that would allow location information in the map, as well
as the user's location, to be accessible to screen readers.
C. WEA Performance and Public Awareness Testing
25. To allow alerting authorities to develop a better understanding
of how WEA operates within their unique jurisdictions and circumstances
and to engage in important public awareness exercises, the Third Report
and Order requires Participating CMS Providers to support up to two
end-to-end WEA tests, per county (or county equivalent),
[[Page 86829]]
per year, that consumers receive by default. Alerting authorities may
continue to use any Alert Message classification for these tests. A WEA
Performance and Public Awareness Test is not a new or discrete Alert
Message classification. In advance of conducting such a ``WEA
Performance and Public Awareness Test,'' an alerting authority must do
the following: (1) conduct outreach and notify the public in advance of
the planned WEA test and that no emergency is, in fact, occurring; (2)
include in its test message that the alert is ``only a test''; (3)
coordinate the test among Participating CMS Providers that serve the
geographic area targeted by the test, State, local, and Tribal
emergency authorities, relevant State Emergency Communications
Committees (SECCs), and first responder organizations and (4) provide
notification to the public in widely accessible formats that the test
is only a test and is not a warning about an actual emergency.
Participating CMS Providers and alerting authorities should consider
notifying domestic violence support organizations, so that these
organizations can in turn advise those at risk who may have secret
phones to turn off their phones in advance of the test. The Third
Report and Order observes that these conditions also attend alerting
authorities' conduct of EAS ``Live Code'' Tests, which the public
receives by default. Commenters state that these conditions are also
reasonable to apply in the WEA context. Permitting alerting authorities
to conduct limited WEA Performance and Public Awareness Testing as a
matter of course will boost alerting authority and consumer confidence
in WEA, allow alerting authorities to determine if the communications
tools they wish to use, such as website hyperlinks embedded in WEA
messages, will function as intended when needed, and provide WEA
stakeholders with a way to assess Participating CMS Providers'
performance of WEA. WEA Performance and Public Awareness Tests will
also allow alerting authorities to raise awareness about the types of
disasters to which a region is susceptible and provide alerting
authorities with the ability to verify how changes in wireless
providers' service offerings affect the local availability of WEA. By
making it easier for alerting authorities to conduct effective WEA
tests, this action will make WEA more effective overall.
26. The Third Report and Order limits the number of WEA Performance
and Public Awareness Tests that Participating CMS Providers must
support each year by county or county equivalent (for example, by
Tribal land), rather than by alerting authority, as proposed.
Incidental overshoot into a county due to another county's test does
not count against the number of tests a county is allowed to conduct
that intentionally cover that county.
27. However, limiting the number of permissible tests by alerting
authority may be insufficient to mitigate the risk of alerting fatigue
because people in counties over which alerting authorities have
overlapping jurisdictions could receive a large number of additional
WEA tests each year. The Third Report and Order recognizes that public-
facing tests can potentially result in consumers opting out of WEA or
diminish the perceived urgency of responding to emergency alerts. The
outreach that the Third Report and Order requires alerting authorities
to undertake in advance of issuing a WEA Performance and Public
Awareness Test also helps to address commenters' concerns about alert
fatigue. The Third Report and Order distinguishes the negative affect
that erroneous WEA tests can have on public confidence in WEA from WEA
Performance and Public Awareness Tests issued pursuant to the
requirements adopted today. Alerting authorities have the discretion
and judgment to test WEA in a way that serves the interests of their
communities.
28. With these revisions, the Commission removes regulatory
obstacles to WEA performance testing and reduce time and cost burdens
on alert originators by eliminating the need to obtain a waiver. Today,
alerting authorities may conduct end-to-end tests of the WEA system
only using a State/Local WEA Test, which the public does not receive by
default. Instead, only those people who affirmatively opt in to receive
State/Local WEA tests will receive them. Alerting authorities currently
must obtain a waiver to conduct WEA tests that the public receives by
default, which can be cumbersome and place an unnecessary
administrative burden on alerting authorities and CMS Providers. By
doing away with this paperwork requirement, the Third Report and Order
enables alerting authorities to more easily access this important tool.
29. The Commission's experience with ``Live Code'' EAS tests over
the years suggests that two WEA Performance and Public Awareness Tests
per year is sufficient to meet alerting authorities' public safety
objectives and that the preconditions pursuant to which they are issued
are effective at limiting the potential for public confusion. The
Commission has found that effective public awareness testing helps the
public to understand how to respond to WEAs in the event of an actual
emergency. Verizon states that public-facing tests can be a valuable
public education tool. Alert originators who wish to conduct additional
testing may continue to utilize the State/Local WEA test code, which
allows alert originators to send test messages only to those who
proactively opt in to receive them. As the Commission noted in the 2023
WEA FNPRM, the Commission continues to believe that State/Local WEA
Tests are valuable tools for system readiness testing and proficiency
training. To the extent State/Local WEA Tests are used for proficiency
training and alerting authorities' system checks, the fact that the
public does not receive State/Local WEA Tests by default is beneficial.
30. Alerting authorities can use WEA Performance and Public
Awareness Tests as a tool to gather data about how WEA works in
practice, as the Commission has done repeatedly over the years.
Multiple alerting authorities highlight the importance of receiving
data about how WEA performs in their local jurisdictions. State/Local
WEA Tests may be less effective than WEA Performance and Public
Awareness Tests for this purpose because the amount of data that
transmission of a State/Local WEA Test can generate is limited by the
number of people within the target area that have affirmatively opted
in to receive tests of this type. To further facilitate WEA testing for
this purpose, the Commission offers alerting authorities access to a
Commission survey instrument that has proven effective at gathering
data about WEA's reliability, accuracy, and speed. The Third Report and
Order directs the Bureau to develop translations of the survey
materials in the 13 languages we require Participating CMS Providers to
support for multilingual alerting as well as ASL.
31. While the Commission continues to evaluate the record on our
proposed performance reporting requirements, the Commission believe
that this revision of our testing rules will at least help address
alerting authorities' immediate needs for WEA performance information
in their jurisdictions.
32. The Third Report and Order requires Participating CMS Providers
to comply with this requirement within 30 days of the Federal Register
publication of notice that OMB has completed its review of these
information collection requirements, as proposed. No commenter objected
to this proposal.
[[Page 86830]]
D. Establishing a WEA Database for Availability Reporting
33. To equip alerting authorities with information that allows them
to prepare for reliable emergency communications during disasters, the
Third Report and Order requires all CMS Providers to refresh their WEA
election status by filing this information in an electronic database
hosted by the Commission. The WEA Database will be an interactive
portal where CMS Providers submit information about the availability of
WEA on their networks. CMS Providers are required to attest whether
they participate in WEA ``in whole'' (meaning that they have ``agreed
to transmit WEA Messages in a manner consistent with the technical
standards, protocols, procedures, and other technical requirements
implemented by the Commission in the entirety of their geographic
service area,'' and that all mobile devices that they offer at the
point of sale are WEA-capable), ``in part'' (meaning that that they
offer WEA but the geographic service area condition does not apply, the
mobile device condition does not apply, or both), or they may elect not
to participate. Currently, CMS Providers have filed their WEA election
attestations in a static format in a Commission docket, and many have
not been updated since they were first filed over a decade ago.
34. The WEA Database will aggregate WEA participation information
in one location for ease of access and understanding, increasing its
utility for emergency planning purposes and for the public. Alerting
authorities believe they need nuanced information about WEA's
availability, specifically if WEA is not available in every CMS network
in their alert and warning jurisdiction or in every geographic area in
their alert and warning jurisdiction, so that they can make alternative
arrangements to deliver emergency communications. While the Third
Report and Order acknowledges that much of the information that the WEA
Database will contain is already publicly available, the record shows
that we can significantly increase this information's utility by
aggregating it in one place. To the extent that this information is
already publicly available, however, the Commission agrees that it will
be minimally burdensome to provide. Aggregating this information in the
WEA Database will also directly benefit consumers. Accordingly, the
Commission finds that this requirement has potential to help people to
protect their lives and property by encouraging and promoting the use
of smartphones as emergency preparedness tools.
35. The Third Report and Order requires each CMS Provider to
disclose the entities on behalf of which it files its election,
irrespective of whether it elects to participate in WEA. WEA election
attestation disclosures must include (a) the name and WEA participation
of the CMS Provider; (b) the name and WEA participation status of any
subsidiary companies on behalf of which the CMS Provider's election is
filed, including when the subsidiary company is a Mobile Virtual
Network Operator (MVNO) or wireless reseller wholly-owned or operated
by the CMS Provider; (c) any ``doing business as'' names under which
the CMS Provider or its subsidiaries offer wireless service to the
public. The Commission agrees with the King County Emergency Management
that disclosing all of the names under which a CMS Provider does
business is necessary for consumers to meaningfully access the
information that the WEA Database contains because consumers will often
only know a corporate entity by the name under which it markets
service. Similarly, the Commission finds that requiring CMS Providers
to separately identify its WEA participation status and that of each of
its subsidiary entities is necessary to allow consumers to understand
potential nuances in WEA participation among subsidiary entities owned
or controlled by the same parent company (i.e., when the CMS Provider's
participation status is different from an entity on behalf of which
they file (e.g., where one participates in WEA ``in whole'' and the
other ``in part'')).
36. To empower alerting authorities with information about where
WEA is and is not available within their communities, the Third Report
and Order requires Participating CMS Providers to disclose the
geographic areas in which they offer WEA. CMS Providers that offer WEA
in an area that is geographically coextensive with their wireless voice
coverage area may satisfy this requirement by simply attesting to that
fact. For each such provider, the Commission will use the Graphical
Information System (GIS) voice coverage area map that the provider has
already submitted to the Commission in furtherance of their obligations
to the Commission's Broadband Data Collection. We agree with AT&T that
``[t]he use of the voice GIS coverage areas would minimize the
reporting burden on CMSPs while providing Alert Originators with
relevant information about the availability of WEA'' because many CMS
Providers likely already maintain information about their network
coverage in GIS format. Verizon believes that most Participating CMS
Providers do offer WEA in a geographic area that is coextensive with
their wireless voice coverage area. For all such providers, the burden
of compliance with this requirement will be negligible.
37. CMS Providers that offer WEA in an area that is not co-
extensive with their wireless voice coverage area must submit a
geospatial data file compatible with the WEA Database describing their
WEA coverage area to satisfy this requirement. The Commission disagrees
with Verizon and AT&T that the information about Participating CMS
Providers' wireless coverage areas that is publicly available today,
including via the Commission's National Broadband Map, is sufficient to
inform alerting authorities' use of WEA. CMS Providers that choose to
participate in WEA in part do not attest that their WEA service area is
coextensive with their wireless voice coverage area. Without the
additional attestation that the WEA Database will elicit, it would
therefore be unreasonable for an alerting authority to infer that any
information that these CMS Providers make available about their
wireless voice coverage area is representative of their WEA service
area.
38. The Third Report and Order requires Participating CMS Providers
to complete their WEA election attestation by submitting to the WEA
Database a list of all the mobile devices they offer at the point of
sale, indicating for each such device whether it is WEA-capable.
Participating CMS Providers will be able to fulfil this obligation by
listing the devices that they sell and their WEA capabilities via the
WEA Database's online interface.
39. Communities can only benefit from the many WEA enhancements
that the Commission has required Participating CMS Providers to support
to the extent that deployed mobile devices support them. Creating an
aggregated account of the WEA capabilities of the mobile devices that
Participating CMS Providers sell will allow alerting authorities to
understand the extent to which their communities will benefit from
messages crafted to take advantage of modern WEA functionalities, such
as a longer, 360-character version of an Alert Message, a Spanish-
language version of an Alert Message, or clickable hyperlinks.
According to New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM), this
information would ``allow for jurisdictions to supplement the alert
with additional messaging as needed.'' The Association of Public-Safety
Communications
[[Page 86831]]
Officials, Inc. (APCO) observes that this, in turn, will enable
alerting authorities to use WEA more effectively as one emergency
communications tool among many at their disposal. For these reasons,
the Commission does not share AT&T's concern that ``the Commission's
WEA Database is likely to suffer from the same underutilization as the
Commission's database of hearing-aid compatible devices.'' Further,
whereas the Hearing-Aid Compatible database is primarily intended to be
consumer-facing (and each consumer is likely most concerned with the
compatibility of devices that they are personally considering for
purchase from a particular provider), the publication of the WEA data
that will be collected in the WEA Database is primarily intended for
use by alerting authorities that need to have the wholistic view of the
WEA capabilities of mobile devices in use in their communities that the
WEA Database will provide.
40. The Third Report and Order directs the Bureau, in coordination
with the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the Office of Economics
and Analytics, to implement the requirements of this collection and the
publication of the data collected. The Third Report and Order further
directs the Bureau to publish information about how Participating CMS
Providers will be able to submit their data and to announce when the
WEA Database is ready to accept filings. The Third Report and Order
requires all CMS Providers, irrespective of whether they have already
submitted a WEA election attestation in the WEA election docket, to
refresh their elections to participate in WEA using the WEA Database
within 90 days of the Bureau's publication of a public notice
announcing (1) OMB approval of any new information collection
requirements or (2) that the WEA Database is ready to accept filings,
whichever is later.
41. Most CMS Providers have not updated their election to transmit
alert messages since filing their initial election in 2008. As a
result, the Commission is concerned that many WEA elections could now
be outdated and do not accurately reflect WEA's current availability.
The Commission agrees with Verizon that ``refreshing service provider
elections are sensible, given the time that has lapsed since service
providers submitted their elections over a decade ago and the many
intervening changes in the wireless industry.'' The Third Report and
Order also allows Participating CMS Providers to use the WEA Database
to notify the Commission of any change of their election to participate
in WEA, whether that change be an increase or decrease in WEA
participation. Participating CMS Providers must continue to notify new
and existing subscribers of their withdrawal using the specific
notification language required by the rules, which triggers a
subscriber's right to terminate their subscription without penalty or
early termination fee. A CMS Provider withdraws from WEA if its
participation status changes from ``in whole'' to ``in part'' or ``no''
or if it changes its participation status from ``in part'' to ``no.''
The Commission proposed to require compliance with this requirement
within 30 days of the publication of this public notice. On our own
initiative, however, the Third Report and Order extends this compliance
timeframe to 90 days to allow Participating CMS Providers the 60-days'
notice that our rules require them to provide to their subscribers in
advance of any withdrawal of their WEA participation. After refreshing
their elections, the Third Report and Order requires Participating CMS
Providers to update their WEA election information in the WEA Database
biannually as with the Commission's Broadband Data Collection (BDC).
The Third Report and Order directs the Bureau to assess, in
coordination with the Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
and Office of Economics and Analytics the extent to which updates to
geospatial voice coverage data in the Broadband Data Collection can
automatically populate in the WEA Database, reducing the potential
burden of compliance with this requirement. While the FNPRM proposed
for this information to be updated within 30 days of any change to a
Participating CMS Provider's WEA coverage areas or the WEA capabilities
of the mobile devices it sells, the Commission is persuaded that filing
every 6 months (biannually) is consistent with our BDC requirements
would accomplish our goals without unduly burdening Participating CMS
Providers.
42. The Commission is persuaded not to require Participating CMS
Providers to provide an account of their roaming partners via the WEA
Database at this time. The Commission agrees that ``given the
comprehensive roaming arrangements across the industry, maintaining
this information would be too unwieldy for individual providers and
result in confusing, duplicative information for consumers.''
43. The Commission is also persuaded not to require CMS Providers
to attest to the WEA capabilities of resellers of their facilities-
based services at this time, unless those resellers are wholly-owned or
controlled by the CMS Provider. The Third Report and Order agrees that
Participating CMS Providers should not be required to provide
information to which they may not have access, such as participation
information for entities they do not control. The record demonstrates
that Participating CMS Providers may not have access to WEA
participation information about Mobile Virtual Network Operators
(MVNOs) or wireless resellers, even when they have a direct business
relationship with such entities. According to Verizon, ``[f]acilities-
based providers do not directly control and may not have direct
visibility into the WEA capabilities of . . . MVNO/resellers' customer
devices, or all the particular facilities-based providers with whom the
MVNO/reseller has a business relationship,'' and that ``CMS Providers
do not ordinarily have visibility into whether a MVNO/reseller's mobile
devices are WEA-capable or the extent to which an MVNO/reseller is
provisioning its own wireless RAN facilities, for example through CBRS
spectrum.''
44. The Third Report and Order also agrees with Verizon, however,
that ``it is reasonable and appropriate for MVNO/resellers to publicly
disclose the WEA capabilities of the devices and the facilities-based
services they directly offer to their own customers'' because of their
significant role in the wireless marketplace. The Third Report and
Order observe that many MVNOs and wireless resellers have elected to
participate in WEA. The Commission encourages these entities to use the
WEA Database to keep their WEA election information up to date so that
alerting authorities and consumers can be informed about the extent to
which they should expect WEAs to be delivered via their networks.
45. The Third Report and Order determines that information
submitted to the WEA Database under the rules does not warrant
confidential treatment and should be available to the public, as
proposed. The Commission observes that the WEA availability information
that Participating CMS Providers would submit to the WEA Database is
already publicly available, although not aggregated with other WEA
information. The information that Participating CMS Providers would
supply to the WEA Database about their WEA coverage area is already
publicly available through the National Broadband Map, which makes
available for download the mobile voice coverage areas collected
through the Broadband Data Collection. Similarly, many Participating
CMS Providers already make publicly available
[[Page 86832]]
information about the WEA-capable mobile devices that they offer at the
point of sale. The Commission does not believe that the public
availability of this information raises any concerns about national
security or competitive sensitivity, and it would not include any
personally identifiable information or consumer proprietary network
information. No commenter objected to this proposal.
E. Legal Authority
46. The Third Report and Order finds that the Commission has ample
legal basis to adopt the targeted revisions to the rules adopted that
are designed to make WEA more accessible to a wider range of people,
including members of the public who primarily speak a language other
than English or Spanish and people with disabilities. These amendments
are grounded in the Commission's authority under the Communications Act
of 1934, as amended, as well as the WARN Act. The Third Report and
Order rejects commenters' assertions to the contrary.
47. The Competitive Carrier Association (CCA) contends that there
are limits on the Commission's authority to adopt enhancements to the
system given the timing specifications in the WARN Act and its
provision that the Commission ``shall have no rulemaking authority
under this chapter, except as provided in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), and
(f).'' See 47 U.S.C. 1201(a) and (d).
48. Consistent with the WARN Act, WEA ``enable[s] commercial mobile
service alerting capability for commercial mobile service providers
that voluntarily elect to transmit emergency alerts.'' The WEA system
is a voluntary program designed to deliver life-saving emergency
information to the public, and the Commission has worked hard to build
enhancements into the system since it was created. The system now
includes embedded links to additional information, Spanish-language
alerts, and geotargeting designed to help messages reach the intended
audience that needs the information to act in an emergency. Today's
improvements, which will help reach audiences that speak additional
languages or that have disabilities that could limit WEA's utility in
its present form, build on these prior efforts. Those providers opting
to support the system must be prepared to accommodate these
enhancements and to follow the rules that the Commission adopts.
49. With that important context in mind, the Commission finds no
merit in CCA's contentions. Contrary to CCA's view, the time periods
set out in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) only established deadlines for
initial actions on the directives described in those provisions.
Moreover, paragraph (f), which is also referenced in paragraph (d),
contains no deadline for the Commission's regulatory authority over WEA
technical testing. Under CCA's interpretation of the statute, the
Commissoin's WEA rulemaking authority would have lapsed after
establishing initial rules in 2008; yet this reading is inconsistent
with Congress's amendment of the WARN Act in 2021, when it directed the
Commission to examine the feasibility of expanding the reach of
emergency alerts using new technologies. In fact, a bipartisan group of
lawmakers representing both chambers of Congress has expressed keen
interest in continuing to upgrade WEA to support multilingual
capabilities. Over time, the Commission's enhancements to WEA and
Congress's recognition of the importance of the system, including those
enhancements, reflect Congress's endorsement of how the Commission was
exercising its authority under the WARN Act.
50. In any event, however, the Commission's legal authority
concerning emergency alerts is based not solely on the provisions of
the WARN Act but also on several provisions of the Communications Act,
which is the backdrop against which Congress adopted the WARN Act. In
particular, section 303(b) directs the Commission to ``[p]rescribe the
nature of the service to be rendered'' by licensees. The rule changes
in the Third Report and Order do just that--lay down rules about the
nature of services to be rendered by Participating CMS Providers. They
do so pursuant to the Commission's finding that the ``public
convenience, interest, or necessity requires'' doing so and in
fulfillment of the statutory purpose of ``promoting safety of life and
property through the use of wire and radio communications.'' To the
extent that section 602(d) of the WARN Act limits the Commission's
rulemaking authority, it does so only as to the authority granted under
that Act and does not limit the Commission's preexisting and well-
established authority under the Communications Act. To be clear, the
phrase ``this chapter'' in 47 U.S.C. 1201 refers to chapter 11 of title
47 of the United States Code and corresponds to the phrase ``this
title'' in the original Security and Accountability for Every Port Act,
which referred to title VI thereof, i.e., the WARN Act.
F. Assessing the Benefits and Costs
51. The Commission finds that the benefits from the improvements
made to WEA by the Third Report and Order exceed their cost. In the
2023 WEA FNPRM, the Commission estimated that the proposed rules would
result in an industry-wide, one-time compliance cost of $39.9 million
and an annually recurring cost of $422,500 to update the WEA standards
and software necessary to comply with the rules adopted in this Report
and Order. While the Third Report and Order does not adopt all the 2023
WEA FNPRM's proposals, such as including thumbnail images, modifying
the attention signal and vibration cadence capabilities, or requiring
any performance-related benchmarking or reporting, the Commission
believes that the 2023 WEA FNPRM's estimate remains a reasonable
ceiling for the cost of compliance with the rules adopted in the Third
Report and Order. The activities in which industry will engage to
comply with the requirements we adopt today (the creation and revision
of standards and the development and testing of software) are not
easily amenable to subdivision based on lines of text written or lines
of code programmed. While the WEA standards will undoubtedly require
less revision and less code will need to be written to comply with the
requirements adopted by the Third Report and Order, the Commission does
not attempt to quantify the extent of cost reduction that will result.
The record reflects the significant benefits arising from WEA support
for additional functionalities, including enhancing language support
and providing location-aware maps. These enhanced functionalities of
WEA will make WEAs comprehensible for some language communities for the
first time, helping to keep these vulnerable communities safer during
disasters. These enhancements will also encourage consumers to remain
opted-in to receiving WEA messages and incentivize emergency managers
that are currently not alerting authorities to become authorized with
FEMA to use WEA as a tool for providing information in times of
emergencies. With increased participation by both consumers and
emergency managers, WEAs will be more likely to be both sent and
received, leading to an incremental increase in lives saved, injuries
prevented, and reductions in the cost of deploying first responders.
The Commission bases its assessment of costs on the quantitative
framework on which the Commission relied in the 2023 WEA FNPRM. The
Commission sought comment on the costs and benefits of our proposed
rules
[[Page 86833]]
in the 2023 WEA FNPRM, but received a sparse record in response,
including no dollar figure estimates. Although most of the benefits are
difficult to quantify, the Commission believes they outweigh the
overall costs of the adopted rules.
52. The Commission believes that the rules adopted will result in
benefits measurable in terms of lives saved and injuries and property
damage prevented. The Commission agrees with Verizon that these rule
changes could offer ``tangible safety benefits to consumers and alert
originators.'' According to CTIA and Southern Communications Services,
Inc. d/b/a Southern Linc (Southern Linc), WEA has become one of the
most effective and reliable alert and warning tools for public safety
and the public. The requirements adopted in the Third Report and Order
will both promote the availability of those benefits for a greater
number of people and enhance their benefit for those for whom they were
already available. The Commission also recognizes that it is difficult
to assign precise dollar values to changes to WEA that improve the
public's safety, life, and health.
53. Making WEA Accessible to Millions of People Who Primarily Speak
a Language Other Than English or Spanish. Currently, the 76 CMS
Providers participating in WEA send alerts to 75% of mobile phones in
the country. Among the 26 million people who do not primarily speak
English or Spanish, nearly 15.4 million speak primarily one of the 12
languages that we integrate into the WEA system in addition to English
and Spanish. Assuming 66% of these individuals are covered by the WEA
system, approximately 11.5 million people who have been receiving WEA
messages in languages they may have difficulty comprehending would
understand the content of WEA messages under the proposed WEA language
support. The Commission agrees with Verizon that ``the public safety
benefits to non-English-speaking consumers and communities by improving
access to life-saving information are self-evident.'' Even if alerts
reach just 1% of this population per year (i.e., roughly 150,000
people) the potential of WEA to prevent property damage, injuries, and
deaths could be enormous. Further, over 12 million people are with a
hearing difficulty. Requiring Participating CMS Providers to provide
subscribers with the ability to opt-in to receive ASL alerts would help
effectively prevent property damages, injuries, and loss of life for
these individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
54. Integrating Location-Aware Maps into Alert Messages. Alert
messages that link the recipient to a native mapping application would
help the public to personalize alerts, allowing them to better
understand the geographic area under threat and their location relative
to it. The Commission agrees with ATIS and NYCEM that location-aware
maps will provide the public with a better understanding of the
emergency alerts they receive. It follows that this will likely cause
recipients to take protective action more quickly than they otherwise
would. This requirement will yield particular benefits in the most
time-sensitive emergencies, such as earthquakes and wildfires, where
every second can count.
55. WEA Performance and Public Awareness Tests. The Commission
agrees with AT&T and Verizon, among others, that adopting rules to
permit alerting authorities to conduct up to two WEA Performance and
Public Awareness Tests per year may improve alerting authorities'
awareness of and confidence in WEA and provide alerting authorities
with a tool to improve consumer education about and confidence in WEA.
This awareness and education will result in more prompt and effective
public response to WEAs when issued, potentially saving lives,
protecting property, and reducing the cost of deploying first
responders. Further, this rule may encourage more alerting authorities
to participate in WEA due to promoting a better understanding of it,
and with increased participation by alerting authorities, more of the
public will benefit from the lifesaving information conveyed by WEA.
The Commission also agrees with APCO that ``[t]esting is fundamental to
public safety communications and will improve the system's
trustworthiness and effectiveness.'' The Commission further believes
harmonizing WEA and EAS test rules would simplify alerting authorities'
efforts to test and exercise their public alert and warning capability
and allow EAS and WEA tests to be more closely and easily coordinated.
56. Establishing a WEA Database for Availability Reporting. The
Third Report and Order determines that the rules establishing a WEA
Database and requiring CMS Providers to refresh their WEA participation
election will equip alerting authorities with information they need to
plan for reliable communications during disasters and raise their
confidence in WEA. The Commission agrees with alerting authorities that
the WEA Database will allow them to know both where WEA is and is not
available within their alert and warning jurisdictions, allowing them
to maximize the public safety value derived from other emergency
communications tools. Creating an aggregated account of the WEA
capabilities of the mobile devices that Participating CMS Providers
sell will also allow alerting authorities to understand the extent to
which their communities will benefit from messages crafted to take
advantage of modern WEA functionalities, such as a longer, 360-
character version of an Alert Message, a Spanish-language version of an
Alert Message, or clickable hyperlinks. The Commission also agrees with
T-Mobile that ``this information will help the public and alert
originators understanding which wireless providers support WEA, where
the service is available, and what handsets can be obtained to reap the
full benefits of WEA.''
57. The Third Report and Order estimates that the rules adopted in
the Third Report and Order could result in an industry-wide, one-time
compliance cost of, at most, $42.4 million to update the WEA standards
and software necessary to comply with the rules adopted in this Third
Report and Order and an annually recurring cost of $422,500 for
recordkeeping and reporting. In the Third Report and Order, the
Commission takes appropriate steps to ensure that these costs are not
unduly burdensome. At the same time, as the Commission observed in the
2023 WEA FNPRM, CMS Providers' participation in WEA is voluntary. Any
Participating CMS Provider that does not wish to comply with the rules
we adopt today may withdraw their election to participate in WEA
without penalty, and incur no implementation costs as a result.
58. Consistent with prior estimates, the one-time cost of $42.4
million to update the WEA standards and software necessary to comply
with the proposals in the Further Notice includes approximately a
$845,000 to update applicable WEA standards and approximately a $41.5
million to update applicable software. The Third Report and Order
quantifies the $845,000 cost of modifying standards as the annual
compensation for 30 network engineers compensated at the national
average wage for their field ($$62.25/hour), plus a 45% mark-up for
benefits ($28.01/hour) working for the amount of time that it takes to
develop a standard (one hour every other week for one year, 26 hours)
for 12 distinct standards. The $41.5 million cost estimate for software
updates consists of $12.2 million for software modifications and $29.3
million for software testing. The Commission quantified the cost of
[[Page 86834]]
modifying software as the annual compensation for one software
developer compensated at the national average wage for their field
($132,930/year), plus a 45% mark-up for benefits ($59,819/year),
working for the amount of time that it takes to develop software (ten
months) at each of the 76 CMS Providers that participate in WEA. The
Commission quantified the cost of testing these modifications
(including integration testing, unit testing and failure testing) to
require 12 software developers compensated at the national average for
their field working for two months at each of the 76 CMS Providers that
participate in WEA. In quantifying costs for software development, the
Commission has used the same framework since 2016 for changes to
software ranging from expanding WEA's maximum character limit to
enhanced geo-targeting. Because the Commission received no comment to
the aforementioned costs framework that specifies a different
analytical framework or dollar figure estimate, the Third Report and
Order finds that it remains accurate to describe the costs attendant to
the rules the Commission proposed. Because the Commission does not
adopt all the rules the Commission proposed in the 2023 WEA FNPRM, the
Commission believes the rules we adopted in the Third Report and Order
will cost less than what was proposed in the 2023 WEA FNPRM, but do not
quantify how much less here.
59. The Commission determines that costs associated with our
adopted rules related to WEA availability reporting to be relatively
low for Participating CMS Providers that participate in WEA in whole or
that otherwise offer WEA in the entirety of their geographic service
area because such Participating CMS Providers have already provided the
Commission with the geospatial data needed to fulfill a significant
aspect of their reporting obligation in furtherance of their
obligations to support the Commission's Broadband Data Collection. The
Commission agrees with T-Mobile that ``[w]here WEA is available
throughout a wireless provider's network, the GIS files used for the
biannual Broadband Data Collection should serve this purpose. If a
wireless provider does not offer WEA throughout its network, it should
be allowed to submit a different GIS depicting WEA coverage.'' The
Commission determines that in the Supporting Document of Study Area
Boundary Data Reporting in Esri Shapefile Format, the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs estimates that it takes an average
of 26 hours for a data scientist to modify a shapefile. The Commission
believes submitting WEA availability information in geospatial data
format should require no more time than modifying a shapefile.
Therefore, the Commission believes 26 hours would be an upper bound of
the time required for a Participating CMS Provider to report its WEA
availability in geospatial data format. Given that the average wage
rate is $55.40/hour for data scientists, with a 45% markup for
benefits, we arrive at $80.33 as the hourly compensation rate for a
data scientist. The Commission estimates an aggregate cost of WEA
availability reporting to be approximately $$160,000 ([ap] $80.33 per
hour x 26 hours x 76 providers = $158,732, rounded to $160,000), which
may be recurring on an annual basis since availability may change and
need to be updated over time. Within these 26 hours, the Commission
believes that Participating CMS Providers will also be able to provide
the availability information required by the rules adopted today,
including lists of all the mobile devices the Participating CMS
Provider offers at the point of sale, list of the Participating CMS
Provider's DBAs and subsidiaries, and any changes of WEA service. Many
Participating CMS Providers already create and maintain this
information, and therefore, the Commission believes that providing this
information to the WEA Database would require minimal time burdens and
would be within the cost estimates.
60. No commenter objected to the belief that CMS Providers would
not incur any cost to comply with our proposal to allow alerting
authorities to conduct two public awareness tests per year. Based on
the foregoing analysis, the Commission finds it reasonable to expect
that these improvements will result in lives saved, injuries avoided,
and a reduced need to deploy first responders. The Commission concludes
that the expected public safety benefits exceed the costs imposed by
the rules adopted today.
G. Procedural Matters
61. Regulatory Flexibility Act. The Regulatory Flexibility Act of
1980, as amended (RFA) requires that an agency prepare a regulatory
flexibility analysis for notice and comment rulemakings, unless the
agency certifies that ``the rule will not, if promulgated, have a
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities.'' Accordingly, the Commission has prepared a Final Regulatory
Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) concerning the potential impact of the rule
and policy changes adopted and proposed in the Third Report and Order,
on small entities.
62. Congressional Review Act. The Commission has determined, and
the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs,
Office of Management and Budget, concurs, that this rule is non-major
under the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 804(2). The Commission
will send a copy of this Third Report and Order to Congress and the
Government Accountability Office pursuant 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A).
63. People With Disabilities. To request materials in accessible
formats for people with disabilities (braille, large print, electronic
files, audio format), send an email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#274144441217136741444409404851"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9afcf9f9afaaaedafcf9f9b4fdf5ec">[email protected]</span></a> or call the
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202-418-0530 (voice).
64. Additional Information. For additional information on this
proceeding, contact Michael Antonino, Cybersecurity and Communications
Reliability Division, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (202)
418-7965, or by email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6825010b00090d044629061c0706010607280e0b0b460f071e">[email protected]</a>.
H. Ordering Clauses
65. Accordingly it is ordered, pursuant to the authority contained
in sections 1, 2, 4(i), 4(n), 301, 303(b), 303(e), 303(g), 303(j),
303(r), 307, 309, 316, 403, and 706 of the Communications Act of 1934,
as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i), 154(n), 301, 303(b), 303(e),
303(g), 303(j), 303(r), 307, 309, 403, and 606, as well as by sections
602(a), (b), (c), (f), 603, 604 and 606 of the Warning Alert and
Response Network (WARN) Act, 47 U.S.C. 1201(a), (b), (c), (f), 1203,
1204 and 1206, that this Third Report and Order is hereby adopted.
66. It is further ordered that Part 10 of the Commission's rules is
amended as specified, and such rules will become effective thirty-six
(36) months after publication of this Third Report and Order in the
Federal Register, changes to 47 CFR 10.210 and 10.350, which may
contain new or modified information collection requirements, and will
not become effective until the completion of any review by the Office
of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act that the
Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) determines is
necessary, and changes to 47 CFR 10.480 and 10.500(e), which are the
subject of a further Bureau-level rulemaking, and will not become
effective until thirty (30) months after the Bureau publishes a
subsequent Order in the Federal Register. PSHSB
[[Page 86835]]
will publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing the relevant
effective date for each of these sections.
67. It is further ordered that the Office of the Managing Director,
Performance & Program Management, shall send a copy of this Third
Report and Order in a report to be sent to Congress and the Government
Accountability Office pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, 5
U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A).
Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
68. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as
amended (RFA), an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) was
incorporated into the FNPRM released in June 2023 in this proceeding.
The Commission sought written public comment on the proposals in the
NPRM, including comment on the IRFA. Comments filed addressing the IRFA
are discussed below. This present Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
(FRFA) conforms to the RFA.
A. Need for, and Objectives of, the Final Rules
69. In this proceeding, the Commission adopts rules to enhance the
utility of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system by making it more
accessible and enabling WEAs to provide more personalized alerts.
Specifically, the Commission requires Participating Commercial Mobile
Service Providers (Participating CMS Providers) to enable alerting
authorities to display translated Alert Message content via the use of
emergency alert message templates. In addition, these efforts to make
WEA messages more accessibility extend to the deaf and hard of hearing
community pursuant to the requirement that Participating CMS Providers'
WEA-capable mobile devices support templates in American Sign Language
(ASL). The Commission concludes that enabling the display of translated
Alert Message content via the use of emergency alert message templates
will allow alert originators to inform those communities that primarily
speak a language other than English or Spanish of emergencies and save
more lives. The Commission also adopts rules to require Participating
CMS Providers' WEA-capable mobile devices to support the presentation
of WEA messages that link the recipient to a native mapping
application. This requirement will allow alert originators to
personalize alerts, spurring people to take protective action more
quickly and to understand whether an alert applies to their them.
Further, to allow alerting authorities to understand WEA's reliability,
speed, and accuracy and to promote the use of WEA as a tool for raising
public awareness about emergencies likely to occur, the Commission
requires Participating CMS Providers to support up to two end-to-end
WEA tests, per county or county equivalent, per year, that consumers
receive by default, subject to the conditions described in the Third
Report and Order. The adoption of this rule promotes compliance and
presents a minimal burden for Participating CMS Providers. Finally, the
Commission adopts rules to require Participating CMS Providers to
submit certain information in the WEA Database. Requiring the
disclosure of data outlined in the Third Report and Order will allow
alert originators and consumers more insight into WEA's availability
and enable a transparent understanding of WEA.
70. In light of the significant public safety benefits, which
include the capacity to save lives, mitigate and prevent injuries, the
Commission believes that the actions taken in the Third Report and
Order further the public interest.
B. Summary of Significant Issues Raised by Public Comments in Response
to the IRFA
71. Three commenters specifically addressed the proposed rules and
policies presented in the IRFA. The Competitive Carriers Association
(CCA) argued that flexibility of implementing the proposed rules would
promote participation in WEA by smaller and regional carriers because
the supply chain and level of support for handsets for smaller and
regional carriers generally lags behind nationwide carriers. Further,
CCA stated the additional requirements would disproportionately burden
smaller and regional carriers that operate with small teams and limited
resources. CCA suggested increased time for compliance for non-
nationwide carriers.
72. Southern Communications Services, Inc. d/b/a Southern Linc
(Southern Linc) raised concerns similar to those raised by CCA, namely,
that the Commission should account for the disproportionate impact that
the proposed requirements in the 2023 WEA FNPRM would have on smaller
and regional carriers and the Commission should provide small and
medium-sized mobile service providers additional time to comply.
73. CTIA--The Wireless Association (CTIA) argued that to the extent
the proposals made in the 2023 WEA FNPRM would require a complete
overhaul of the WEA System, that such changes to the WEA system also
may disproportionately impact regional and smaller, rural carriers, who
often rely on third-party vendors to implement WEA functions and may
not be able to bear the additional technical and financial burdens,
rendering their ongoing voluntary participation in WEA infeasible.
74. The Commission considered the potential impact of the rules
proposed in the IRFA on small entities and we concluded that these
mandates provide Participating CMS Providers with a sufficient measure
of flexibility to account for any technical and/or cost-related
concerns. The Commission has determined that implementing these
improvements to WEA are technically feasible for small entities and
other Participating CMS Providers and the cost of implementation is
reasonable. To help facilitate compliance with the requirements in the
Third Report and Order, the Commission adopted a compliance timeframe
that is longer than the timeframe necessary to complete the
requirements based on the record. The 30-month timeframe allows 12
months for the appropriate industry bodies to finalize and publish
relevant standards, 12 months for Participating CMS Providers and
device manufacturers to develop and integrate software upgrades
consistent with those standards, and an additional 6 months to deploy
this technology in WEA-capable-mobile devices. The Commission believes
that the public interest benefits of expanding the reach and
accessibility of WEA significantly outweigh the costs that small and
other providers will incur to implement the requirements adopted in the
Third Report and Order.
C. Response to Comments by Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small
Business Administration
75. The Chief Counsel did not file any comments in response to the
proposed rules in this proceeding.
D. Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which
the Rules Will Apply
76. The RFA directs agencies to provide a description of and, where
feasible, an estimate of the number of small entities that may be
affected by the rules adopted herein. The RFA generally defines the
term ``small entity'' as having the same meaning as the terms ``small
business,'' ``small organization,'' and ``small governmental
jurisdiction.'' In addition, the term ``small business'' has the same
meaning as the term ``small business concern'' under the Small Business
Act.'' A ``small business concern'' is one which:
[[Page 86836]]
(1) is independently owned and operated; (2) is not dominant in its
field of operation; and (3) satisfies any additional criteria
established by the SBA. The types of entities that will be affected
include Wireless Communications Services, Radio and Television
Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing,
Software Publishers, Noncommercial Educational (NCE) and Public
Broadcast Stations, Cable and Other Subscription Programming, All Other
Telecommunications providers (primarily engaged in providing
specialized telecommunications services, such as satellite tracking,
communications telemetry, and radar station operation).
E. Description of Projected Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Other
Compliance Requirements for Small Entities
77. The Third Report and Order will adopt new or additional
reporting, recordkeeping and/or other compliance obligations on small
entities to report information about WEA availability in the WEA
Database. Specifically, the rules require all CMS Providers to: (1)
refresh their WEA election of whether to participate in WEA ``in
whole'' or ``in part'' or not to participate in a Commission-hosted,
publicly available WEA Database; (2) disclose the entities on behalf of
which it files its election, irrespective of whether it elects to
participate in WEA, including names of subsidiary companies and the
``doing business as'' names under which a CMS Provider offer wireless
service; (3) disclose the geographic areas in which they offer WEA; (4)
submit to the WEA Database a list of all the mobile devices they offer
at the point of sale; and (5) use the WEA Database as a means of
providing notice of withdrawing their election to Participating in WEA.
78. The Commission determined that costs associated with the
adopted rules related to WEA availability reporting to be minimal for
small entities that participate in WEA in whole or that otherwise offer
WEA in the entirety of their geographic service area because such small
entities may have already provided the Commission with the geospatial
data needed to fulfill a significant aspect of their reporting
obligation in furtherance of their obligations to support the
Commission's Broadband Data Collection. Where WEA is available
throughout a wireless provider's network, the GIS files used for the
biannual Broadband Data Collection should serve this purpose. If a
wireless provider does not offer WEA throughout its network, it should
be allowed to submit a different GIS depicting WEA coverage. The
Commission determined that in the Supporting Document of Study Area
Boundary Data Reporting in Esri Shapefile Format, the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs estimates that it takes an average
of 26 hours for a data scientist to modify a shapefile. The Commission
believes submitting WEA availability information in geospatial data
format should require no more time than modifying a shapefile.
Therefore, the Commission believes 26 hours would be an upper bound of
the time required for a Participating CMS Provider to report its WEA
availability in geospatial data format.
79. The Commission reasons that no additional, ongoing or
annualized burdens will result from this reporting obligation for small
entities and other Participating CMS Providers because the requirement
that we adopt today does not change the approach that Participating CMS
Providers must take to updating their elections once this one-time
renewed election is completed. For example, the rules adopted in the
Third Report and Order do not impose annual certification of a CMS
Provider's participation in WEA, but rather require reporting in the
WEA Database only in event of a change of a CMS Provider's
participation in WEA. The Commission is not currently in a position to
determine whether the rules adopted in the Third Report and Order will
require small entities to hire attorneys, engineers, consultants, or
other professionals to comply.
F. Steps Taken To Minimize Significant Economic Impact on Small
Entities, and Significant Alternatives Considered
80. The Commission continues to adopt measures to improve WEA and
continues to meet its obligation to develop the nation's emergency
preparedness and response infrastructure by making WEA more accessible
by adding multilingual (including ASL) functionality, integrating
location-aware maps, enabling Performance and Public Awareness tests,
and establishing a WEA Database for Participating CMS Providers to
report information about WEA availability. While doing so, the
Commission is mindful that small entities may incur costs; the
Commission weighed these costs against the public interest benefits of
the new obligations and determined the benefits outweigh the costs. The
specific steps the Commission has taken to minimize costs and reduce
the economic impact for small entities and alternatives considered are
discussed below.
81. In adopting the rule to enable alerting authorities to display
translated Alert Message content via the use of emergency alert message
templates, the Commission found the record demonstrates that machine
translation is not yet ripe for use today in WEA. The use of alert
message templates should minimize the impact of the adopted
requirements for small entities because it will limit developing
software and standards to enable machine translations. Because the
alert message templates will be produced by the Public Safety and
Homeland Security Bureau after taking into account public feedback,
small entities will not need to expend resources to translate emergency
messages and develop template alert messages.
82. In response to concerns about our proposed compliance
timeframe, the Third Report and Order provided additional time. The
Commission believes the additional time will help minimize the burden
on small entities. Additionally, the rules adopted in the Third Report
and Order are technologically neutral to provide small entities the
flexibility to comply with our rules using technologies offered by a
variety of vendors.
G. Report to Congress
83. The Commission will send a copy of the Third Report and Order,
including this FRFA, in a report to be sent to Congress pursuant to the
Congressional Review Act. In addition, the Commission will send a copy
of the Third Report and Order, including this FRFA, to the Chief
Counsel for Advocacy of the SBA. A copy of the Third Report and Order
and FRFA (or summaries thereof) will also be published in the Federal
Register.
List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 10
Communications common carriers, Radio.
Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary.
Final Rules
For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal
Communications Commission amends 47 CFR part 10 as follows:
PART 10--WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS
0
1. Effective December 15, 2026, the authority citation for part 10 is
revised to read as follows:
Authority: 47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i), 154(n), 201, 301,
303(b), 303(e), 303(g),
[[Page 86837]]
303(j), 303(r), 307, 309, 316, 403, 544(g), 606, 1201, 1202, 1203,
1204, and 1206.
0
2. Delayed indefinitely, amend Sec. 10.210 by revising paragraph (a)
introductory text, redesignating paragraph (b) as paragraph (d), adding
new paragraph (b), revising paragraph (c), and revising the newly
redesignated paragraph (d).
The revisions and addition read as follows:
Sec. 10.210 WEA participation election procedures.
(a) A CMS provider that elects to transmit WEA Alert Messages must
elect to participate in part or in whole, as defined by Sec. 10.10(l)
and (m), and shall electronically file in the Commission's WEA Database
attesting that the Provider:
* * * * *
(b) A CMS Provider that elects to participate in WEA must disclose
the following information in their election filed in the Commission's
WEA Database:
(1) The entities on behalf of which the Participating CMS Provider
files its election, including the subsidiary companies (whether those
subsidiaries are wholly owned or operated CMS Providers, Mobile Virtual
Network Operators, or wireless resellers) on behalf of which their
election is filed and the ``doing business as'' names under which a
Participating CMS Provider offers WEA;
(2) The geographic area in which the Participating CMS Provider
agrees to offer WEA alerts, either as:
(i) An attestation that they offer WEA in the entirety of their
voice coverage area as reported to the Commission in the Broadband Data
Collection or any successors; or
(ii) Geospatial data submitted to the Commission through the WEA
Database.
(3) The extent to which all mobile devices that the Participating
CMS Provider offers at the point of sale are WEA-capable, as
demonstrated by the following:
(i) The mobile devices, as defined in Sec. 10.10(j), that the
Participating CMS Provider offers at their point of sale; and
(ii) The WEA-capable mobile devices, as defined in Sec. 10.10(k),
that the Participating CMS Provider offers at their point of sale.
(c) If the terms of a CMS Provider's WEA participation change in
any manner described by paragraph (b) of this section, it must update
the information promptly such that the information in the WEA Database
accurately reflects the terms of their WEA participation. Updates (if
any) for the period from August 16 through February 15 must be filed by
the following March 1, and updates for the period from February 16
through August 15 must be filed by the following September 1 of each
year.
(d) A CMS Provider that elects not to transmit WEA Alert Messages
shall file electronically in the Commission's WEA Database attesting to
that fact. Their filing shall include any subsidiary companies on
behalf of which the election is filed and the CMS Provider's ``doing
business as'' names, if applicable.
0
3. Delayed indefinitely, amend Sec. 10.350 by adding paragraph (d) to
read as follows:
Sec. 10.350 WEA testing and proficiency training requirements.
* * * * *
(d) Performance and Public Awareness Tests. Participating CMS
Providers may participate in no more than two (2) WEA tests per county
(or county equivalent), per calendar year that the public receives by
default, provided that the entity conducting the test:
(1) Conducts outreach and notifies the public before the test that
live event codes will be used, but that no emergency is, in fact,
occurring;
(2) To the extent technically feasible, states in the test message
that the event is only a test;
(3) Coordinates the test among Participating CMS Providers and with
State and local emergency authorities, the relevant SECC (or SECCs, if
the test could affect multiple States), and first responder
organizations, such as PSAPs, police, and fire agencies); and
(4) Provides in widely accessible formats the notification to the
public required by this paragraph that the test is only a test and is
not a warning about an actual emergency.
0
4. Delayed indefinitely, revise Sec. 10.480 to read as follows:
Sec. 10.480 Language support.
(a) Participating CMS Providers are required to transmit WEA Alert
Messages that are issued in the Spanish language or that contain
Spanish-language characters.
(b) Participating CMS Providers are required to support the display
of a pre-scripted alert pre-installed and stored in the mobile device
that corresponds to the default language of the mobile device.
0
5. Effective December 15, 2026, amend Sec. 10.500 by adding paragraph
(i) to read as follows:
Sec. 10.500 General requirements.
* * * * *
(i) For Alert Messages with a target area specified by a circle or
polygon, when a device has location services enabled and has granted
location permissions to its native mapping application, Participating
CMS Providers must support the presentation of a map along with an
emergency alert message that includes at least
(1) The shape of the target area,
(2) The user's location relative to the target area, and
(3) A geographical representation of a target area in which both
the targeted area and user are located.
0
6. Delayed indefinitely, further amend Sec. 10.500 by revising
paragraph (e) to read as follows:
Sec. 10.500 General requirements.
* * * * *
(e) Extraction of alert content in English and the subscriber-
specified default language, if applicable.
(1) Storing pre-scripted alerts in English, Spanish, Chinese,
Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean, Russian, Haitian Creole,
German, Hindi, Portuguese, and Italian.
(2) Allowing the subscriber to choose to receive pre-scripted Alert
Messages in American Sign Language (ASL) instead of or in addition to
their mobile device's subscriber-specified default language setting.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2023-27236 Filed 12-14-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P
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