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“Cell phone alerts during emergencies came one step closer to reality Thursday when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a framework for a national, mobile alert system.
The Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) is a voluntary system available to wireless providers that will send text out message blasts in the event of a national disaster like Hurricane Katrina, or the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.”

Alerts will be available in three forms: presidential alerts; imminent threat alerts and child abduction emergency or Amber alerts.
The system has its origins in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act, a bill Congress passed in 2006 as part of a larger port security bill. It allocated $106 million to create the voluntary, national emergency alert system.

Since then, the FCC has been working with wireless carriers as part of the Commercial Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC) to develop recommendations for how to execute CMAS.
At this point, CMAS plans to alert people via text message, but as capabilities develop, audio and video services might also be included. To make sure the notices reach those with disabilities, the alerts will also include a vibration cadence and audio attention signals, the FCC said.

Verizon Wireless , Sprint , and AT&T said Thursday that they would join CMAS.
“Wireless customers have come to rely on their mobile devices, especially in emergency situations, and this action by the FCC is a significant step toward ensuring alerts that serve the public interest will soon be available to wireless users,” Steven E. Zipperstein, vice president and general counsel at Verizon Wireless, said in a statement.
Tony Melone, Verizon’s chief technology officer, worked with the CMSAAC to help develop the technical documents on which many of the committee’s recommendations are based, Verizon said.
Sprint was also a member and active participant in the CMSAAC, according to a spokeswoman.
“Sprint is pleased that the FCC’s adoption of the mobile alert system was based largely on the SMS CMSAAC recommendations and we look forward to providing a mobile alert system that meets the nation’s needs,” she said.

“We are reviewing the details of the FCC’s order, but this is clearly a significant milestone and we applaud the FCC for its efforts,” Jim Bugel, AT&T’s assistant vice president for federal regulatory affairs, said in a statement. “While there is still much work to be done before such a system can be put into widespread use, we look forward to offering mobile emergency alerts to our customers.”
T-Mobile did not respond to inquiries by press time, but is reportedly on board.
“The many experts who dedicated their time and energy to this important effort have made today’s decision far more informed, and responsive to technical realities, than it otherwise would be,” Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement.

Participating carriers will have 10 months to comply with CMAS rules once a federal agency is designated to collect messages and transmit them to comply with the FCC’s order.
“It would have been better, of course, if we had a federal entity in place now to take on the role of alert aggregator and gateway,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a statement. “We are hopeful that we have initiated the dialogue that will allow an appropriate federal entity to assume that central role in an expeditious manner.”
Copps was also concerned. “If no agency assumes this role, the rules we enact today will never become effective and Americans will never receive the protection of emergency alerts delivered to their mobile phones,” he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been unwilling to take this role for statutory reasons, Copps said.
But the agency did not inform the FCC of this until “after the advisory committee had made its recommendation and after FEMA’s representative had voted in favor of the unified Federal gateway/aggregator scheme,” Copps said.
The FCC would do it themselves, but the agency “does not currently have experience with originating emergency alerts; has not received appropriations for operating an emergency alert system (as FEMA has); and does not have statutory authority to borrow money against the DTV Transition Fund to implement the WARN Act, as the Departments of Homeland Security and Commerce have,” Copps said.