Introduction.
The forty-six Named State Broadcasters Associations(“State Associations”), National Association of Broadcasters (“NAB”), National Cable and Telecommunications Association (“NCTA”), Society of Broadcast Engineers (“SBE”), American Cable Association (“ACA”), Association for Maximum Service Television (“MSTV”), National Public Radio (“NPR”), Association of Public Television Stations (“APTS”), and the Public Broadcasting Service(“PBS”) (collectively, the “Petitioners”), hereby respectfully request the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”) to act expeditiously to extend the March 29, 2011 deadline by which the thousands of companies nationwide (collectively, “EAS Participants”) must be able to receive Common Alerting Protocol (“CAP”) v1.2 Standard formatted Emergency Alert System(“EAS”) alerts. The current March 29, 2011 deadline was established under the Commission’s EAS regulations by virtue of the fact that on September 30, 2010, the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) published the technical standards and requirements for CAP-formatted EAS alerts to be used for the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (“IPAWS”). By the deadline, which is less than six months from now, all EAS Participants must have acquired, installed and tested the necessary CAP-compliant equipment. The Petitioners request that the Commission extend the deadline for at least an additional six months to September 30, 2011 or consider other appropriate relief, including, but not limited to, a longer extension as well as holding the deadline in abeyance until the FCC has completed its own CAP-related equipment certification process and has resolved its anticipated rulemaking proceeding concerning modifications to Part 11 of the Commission’s rules necessary to reflect the implementation of CAP.
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Attachment:101021 EAS CAP Petition Filed