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SRA International, Inc. Strategy and Performance Group (formerly Touchstone Consulting Group)
With the National Weather Service (NWS) issuing Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) alerts in cities and towns across the U.S. on a near-daily basis, and FEMA’s list of IPAWS Alerting Authorities growing every month, AWARE decided it was time to send our CMAS Secret Shopper to Philadelphia.
Because Philadelphia has yet to be added to FEMA’s list of IPAWS Alerting Authorities, we anticipated a lack of familiarity with CMAS, also known as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). However, we were surprised and delighted to discover that three of the four big four carriers’ local retail stores were showing a bit of brotherly love to WEA/CMAS – and we just may have NWS to thank for it. Continue reading »
In a mid-November FEMA webinar, the alert and warning community received an update on the extensive use of the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) by the National Weather Service (NWS) over the last several months and an encouraging report from FEMA on the growing number of alert originators and alert origination service developers that continue to request connection to FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).
A lot of us don’t give having an FM radio receiver in our mobile device a second thought, but for those caught up in the recent storms and ensuing power outages having FM available in their cellphones could have been a lifeline. So says the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which has been advocating for FM in mobile devices for years.
Tomorrow, June 30, 2012, is the official FCC deadline when broadcasters and cable operators must have equipment installed to receive EAS alerts in the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) format and must be monitoring for CAP alerts from FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). So how are we doing?
