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Keep an eye open for a Wednesday POTUS alert – not on Twitter or on TV, but as text directly on your phone, as long as your provider is on board and you are within range of a tower active cell phone.
In a tweet, FEMA provided a link to detailed information on the alerts to be sent by SMS to country phones at 14:18. and 14:20
Messages are called Wireless Emergency Alarms or WEA and Emergency Alert System or EAS. The first will carry the White House imprimatur, according to the FEMA manual.
"The WEA test message will have a header that reads" Presidential Alert "and a text stating," THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed, "wrote FEMA.
So, if the commander-in-chief does not make any noise, why call it a presidential alert? To use a used sentence of a telephone advertisement, there is a precedent.
"The title" Presidential Alert "has its historical roots in the emergency alert system and its predecessor, the emergency broadcast system," wrote FEMA. "The actual event code is Emergency Action Notification or EAN."
And even if you can prevent this ex-infuriating doctor or irritating brother-in-law from sending you text messages, you can not unsubscribe from the Oval Office Beltway bells. But you do not pay for them either.
"The Communications Act of 1934 gave the President the power to use certain private sector communication systems for priority communications, such as sending out alerts and messages from the public. alert to the public, during national emergencies, "wrote FEMA. "… The 2006 Law on the Implementation of the Alert, Warning and Response System (WARN) prompted the Federal Communications Commission to adopt regulations that also allow the industry to wireless to participate in the distribution of alerts and public alerts. The WARN Act also established that the wireless alert service should allow wireless subscribers to no longer receive WEA alerts, with the exception of an alert issued by the president. "
The agency said that in the event of a real emergency, "a WEA presidential alert would be issued by order of the president and / or his representative, and activated by FEMA."
However, not all phones will receive Wednesday's alerts.
"Only WEA-enabled cell phones that are switched on and within reach of an active cell tower and whose wireless service provider is participating in WEA will be able to receive the test message," states the introductory guide.
The message of the emergency alert system will be longer.
This message will read: "THIS IS A TEST of the National Emergency Alert System. This system was developed by broadcasters and cable operators in voluntary cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communications Commission and local authorities to keep you informed in case of emergency. If this had been a real emergency, an official message would have followed the tone you heard at the beginning of this message. A similar wireless emergency alert test message was sent to all mobile phones in the country. Some cell phones will receive the message. others will not do it. No action is required. "
Preliminary tests of the warning system were conducted in November 2011, September 2016 and September 2017 in collaboration with the FCC, broadcasters and emergency management officials, according to the introductory guide.
It was not immediately known which cell providers were participating on Wednesday, but Sprint's customer service managers tweeted a link to the FEMA introductory guide.
Craig Silliman, vice president of public policy and chief legal counsel for Verizon, spoke in a statement released on Wednesday.
"Agencies like the National Weather Service and local governments are using these systems to provide vital information during and after natural disasters and other emergencies," said Silliman. "You have probably received one of these alerts if you have been about to deal with severe weather. Since 2006, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have adopted rules governing these wireless alerts for companies that agree to participate in the program. Verizon has been voluntarily participating in the program since the beginning and almost all handsets we sell to customers are able to provide alerts. "
Silliman noted that in 2015, "Congress and President Obama signed legislation mandating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to integrate the various federal government alert systems with each other. FEMA is currently testing the different warning systems as part of this integration effort. The test will follow long established wireless alerting guidelines, and FEMA and the FCC have been working with the wireless industry in recent months to coordinate the test. "
The purpose of these tests is "to evaluate the willingness to disseminate an emergency message nationwide and determine if improvements are needed," according to FEMA.
Trump, for its part, retweeted Tuesday a message from Homeland Security regarding the tests planned for Wednesday.
This message read as follows: "REMINDER: Tomorrow, on 3/10 at 2:18 pm EST, a national wireless emergency alert system test will be set up, in coordination with the FCC. You will receive a message on your phone with a tone and vibrations. This is not a text and your phone number is not shared with anyone. "
Travis Andersen can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.
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