WASHINGTON, D.C. — Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants that are customers of a particular equipment vendor have been granted a 90-day extension of a new requirement that prioritizes the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)-formatted version of an EAS message when it receives both a legacy version and a CAP-formatted version of the same alert.
As such, March 14, 2024 is the new deadline for participants using EAS equipment tied to Sage Alerting Systems.
For any other EAS participant, the deadline stands as December 12.
The extension for Sage users comes following a joint request from the NAB and low-power broadcast facility specialist REC Networks, submitted on November 14. The groups explained to the Commission that “an unexpected delay in the delivery of a firmware update” by EAS equipment vendor Sage necessitated the extension.
FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief Debra Jordan acknowledged the firmware update concerns, but at the same noted that all non-Sage broadcast customers must start transmitting EAS messages in the IP-based format come December 12, when available, and replace the current jargon in the legacy format for the national alert originator code, national test code, and national emergency code with the plan language versions.
