It has certainly been a big 60 days for mobile emergency alerts in the U.S. On November 15, Sprint announced that they were the first carrier to launch Wireless Emergency Alerts, which “allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to accept and deliver warning messages to wireless networks from the President of the United States, the National Weather Service and state and local emergency operations centers.” One month later, the first end-to-end test of the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) took place in New York City. To the uninitiated, these may appear to be different alerting systems.

If you are thinking that you have heard of Wireless Emergency Alerts before, it is probably because you have. You may know them by one of two other names, CMAS or PLAN (the Personal Localized Alerting Network). They all refer to the same system: the mobile alerting component of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

“CMAS”

CMAS has been the primary name used in Federal communications because it was the original name and is the term most referred to by the FEMA IPAWS Program. (For this reason, we at AWARE will continue to refer to it as CMAS.)

“PLAN”

The term PLAN first came to the forefront in an announcement in New York City on May 10, 2011. An excerpt from the press release is included below:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator W. Craig Fugate, top executives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon and others convened at the World Trade Center site to announce PLAN–the Personal Localized Alerting Network [emphasis added]. PLAN is a free service that will allow customers with an enabled mobile device to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. This service will be available in New York City by the end of 2011, at least two calendar quarters before the rest of the nation.

“Wireless Emergency Alerts”

Additionally, the wireless carriers that disseminate messages in this system generally refer to Wireless Emergency Alerts, a term used in communications from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. AT&T also makes mention of the potential for confusion over the name of CMAS.

Why all the names?

The multitude of names for these wireless alerts is likely a product of the number of groups across the public and private sectors that are involved in this effort: the FCC, FEMA, DHS S&T, wireless carriers, and other stakeholders such as local emergency managers and first responders that will serve as originators of emergency alerts and warnings.

As the deployment of CMAS in April 2012 nears, public education about the capabilities and benefits of this system will be very important. Confusion over the different names for the system may pose a challenge to education mobile subscribers, and coordination between the government and industry partners will be key. As more testing is conducted over the next several months, there should be more clarity around this issue.

• Have you experienced confusion due to this naming issue?
• How much of a challenge do you think this naming issue poses?
• Do you prefer one name over another? Are any of the current names confusing?