Navigating CMAS

Last September, wireless operators had to notify the FCC about whether they intended to participate in the Commercial Mobile Alert System program, which would allow the president, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service and myriad local emergency agencies to blast text alerts across their networks in times of emergency. Congress created the program through the WARN Act in 2006 as another step in upgrading public safety and security infrastructure and bridging national and local emergency agencies. Participation in the program, however, is entirely optional, and most carriers opted out.

While that may seem to signal that carriers don't support the government's emergency warning initiatives, Eric Peterson, executive director of the Rural Cellular Association, said that's hardly the case. The problem is that government delays have pushed back the launch of the system until 2010, and FEMA, the agency in charge of implementing the government's part of the infrastructure, hasn't yet developed its message aggregator, nor has it released the technical specifications necessary to interface with it. Operators, Peterson said, simply had no idea what they'd be committing to.

“The notion that so many of them opted out has to do with not knowing what basic requirements they'd have to meet,” Peterson said. “It has nothing to do with any lack of commitment to public safety.”

Just because they opt out now, doesn't mean those same operators can't opt in later. In fact, they have plenty of incentive to do so. When the service finally does launch, operators that do not participate are obligated to make it very clear to their customers — in their mailed bills, online and in their stores — that they won't be receiving alerts from the president or the local sheriff's department. Regardless of the public relations incentive, Peterson said that most of the RCA's membership would like to participate in the program and not just for the public service benefits. Carriers will be able to use the platforms they put in place for other commercial applications as well, which should help them recoup their investments.

Implementing CMAS isn't as simple as routing government short message service (SMS) dispatches. SMS was designed as a peer-to-peer service, and while carrier SMS centers do handle one-to-many services such as text news alerts, they aren't designed to handle millions of simultaneous alerts. Peer-to-peer SMS also is a grossly inefficient way to handle such traffic, resulting in high operational costs and network congestion. But the biggest problem with current systems is that they track users by phone number, not location. A user whose cell number is registered in California may not need to receive forest fire alerts if he's traveling in Kansas. But he probably needs to get the tornado warning alert for the town he's staying in.

The most effective technology for dealing with these scenarios is cell broadcast, which can be implemented in different forms on both CDMA and GSM networks, said Joe Cobbs, vice president of business development for Velleros, a vendor that builds message alert gateways, including CMAS gateways. Cell broadcast essentially bypasses the home location register and other subscriber databases and transmits to all mobile users in a particular cell, regardless of their identity or roaming status. The technology would allow emergency agencies to target alerts on a cell-by-cell basis, so, for instance, an emergency alert for one county would only be sent to subscribers physically in that county. Cell broadcast isn't exactly a cheap technology to implement, though. It requires upgrades to the mobile switching center and the base station controller, as well as to the base stations themselves. A firmware upgrade for the handset also is required. Some operators may choose to do without cell broadcast, which would allow them to send national alerts but not to target specific local emergency alerts.

While cell broadcast would be the most expensive upgrade, there are several other costs to consider. Carriers will have to interface with the FEMA gateway when it is finally launched, buying their own CMAS gateways to aggregate incoming traffic, Cobbs said. While it makes sense for operators to opt out now until they are aware of the full cost of participating in CMAS, Cobbs believes they will eventually opt in, especially when they have a clearer picture of how they can use the capital investment for their own commercial services. Carriers, for instance, could sell alert services to municipalities looking to broadcast citywide messages to employees. In the wake of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, universities also might have a strong interest in alert systems, which university officials could use to instantly communicate with all students and staff.

“Operators don't want to view CMAS as just a cost,” Cobbs said. “They want to view it as a platform for delivering other services and enhanced revenue.”