Wireless Emergency Alerts and the Emergency Alert System

In this document, as directed by the Federal Communications Commission (Commission), the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) adopts implementation parameters for multilingual Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). The Bureau is requiring commercial mobile service providers who participate in WEA (Participating CMS Providers) to support multilingual templates for the most commonly issued and most time-sensitive types of alerts in English, the next thirteen most commonly spoken languages in the United States, and American Sign Language (ASL). The non-ASL templates must be customizable with event- specific information that utilize four fillable elements: the name of the sending agency, the location, the time, and an optional URL. The alert templates for ASL are non-fillable and signed by a Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI). The Bureau requires WEA-capable mobile devices to accompany the display of templates with the corresponding English- language fillable template. The Bureau also announces the effective date of a previously announced amendment that was contingent on this action. Together, these steps further the Commission's goal of ensuring that WEA remains an essential and effective public safety tool that allows alert originators to warn their communities of danger and advise them to take protective action.