On Fri, 8 Mar 2019, Matt Erculiani wrote:
The world is evolving and I don't think interrupting streaming is necessary
given all the other ways there are to alert a population.
The headline:
TLDR; Technology changes, so should emergency alerts. Think ahead to 2029.
The long story:
Technology changes over the decades. Emergency alerts have changed over
the decades. If you think all the other ways are sufficient, remember how
long it took to create all those other ways. And how much industry fought
all those other ways at every step.
The U.S. timeline (other countries have state-owned broadcasters, and
different timelines):
1950s - AM radio and civil defense sirens
1960s - FM radio and TV broadcasts were included in EBS
1970s - Weather alerts and NOAA weather radio
1990s - Cable TV (not satellite) was included in EAS.
2000s - Satellite TV was added to national EAS alerts, i.e. there has
never been a national EAS alert. But Satellite TV do not get state or
local weather alerts on most channels.
2012 - Mobile phones were included with WEA expansion
If streaming is how the public gets their information and entertainment
now, that should also be how they can get emergency alerts.
Almost no one under the age of 30 has a working AM radio in their homes or
apartments anymore. Few people listen to FM radio outside of their cars,
and "cord-cutting" means fewer people get local and weather alerts
watching entertainment programs on cable TV. Cities have been eliminating
outdoor warning sirens due to budget cuts since the 1990s (i.e. end of
the Cold War, and no more FEMA funds for sirens).
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), i.e., mobile phone alerts, are less than
10 years old. And mostly on the high-end expensive cell phones and the
most expensive carriers. People on NANOG may use mostly expensive
smartphones, but not everyone can afford smartphones. Only about 100
carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, carrier have WEA
working. In some U.S. territories and rural areas, no cellular providers
have WEA working. The largest cellular carrier in Alaska only activated
WEA in the last 6 months. Puerto Rico's largest cellular carrier
activated WEA just last month.
The mobile cell phone industry fought Wireless Emergency Alerts for over a
decade, from the 1990s until 2012 when it was implemented. Of course, now
the wireless industry claims it was all their idea. Both are true. The
cellular industry engineers made it happen, at the same time the cellular
industry lobbyists were fighting it.
If emergency alerts didn't change with the technology, it would still be
only AM radios. It usually takes at least a decade after technology
changes to make changes to the emergency alert parts of those systems.
It took more than 10 years after the 9/11/2001 attacks and Hurricane
Katrina, which were the motivating factors for government, to get WEA
working.
If you think WEA is sufficient, just remember how long it takes to change.
In 2029, what communication technology will be the dominant way people get
entertainment and information?
As I've said before, I think emergency alerts should be part of the
platform, not the add on service. Netflix and Hulu are the wrong layer
for emergency alerts. Emergency alerts should be part of the Smart TV and
Smart Speaker operating system platforms, i.e., at the Amazon Alexa,
Google Assistant, Apple Siri, etc. level.
If you are streaming Netflix or Hulu on your mobile cell phone, the cell
phone OS should be responsible for handling local emergency alerts. If you
are streaming Netflix or Hulu on your Smart TV, the Smart TV OS should be
responsible for handling local emergency alerts. If you are streaming
Netflix or Hulu on your Smart Speakers (ok, you can't but lets say
streaming an Audible book), your Smart Speaker OS should be responsible
for local emergency alerts. Your alerting opt-outs, geo-targeting, and
other preferences shouldn't need to change depending on which App you are
using on the platform.
NOAA Weather Wire and FEMA IPAWS emergency alerts, which are the alert
aggregation points for most U.S. alerting systems, include geographic
alert polygons within 0.1 mile. Emergency alerts can be very localized.
Although training for local government officials is skimped, underfunded,
ignored, etc.; so many still send alerts for entire jurisdictions, such
as statewide in the U.S. or province-wide in Canada instead of
geo-targeting specific areas.
Cell phones have ATIS and 3GPP standard for emergency alerts. Cable
set-top boxes have SCTE standards for emergency alerts. TVs with
antennas have ATSC standards for emergency alerts. Analog radio still
relies on broadcasters transmitting emergency alerts, i.e. that triple
burst of modem noise.
ISPs are also part of that, since ISPs know where their subscribers are
geographically located.
And yes, I'm a big believer in personal choice. Individual alert
opt-outs and geo-targeting is critical. I think Canada (and New Zealand,
and some other countries) are making a mistake by using the "mandatory"
alert setting for all alerts. I also believe emergency alerts should
be accessible to everyone, not just rich people with the most expensive
smart phones and carriers.
