[sbe-eas] CMAS Webpages for all 4 big carriers

[Ken Evans]

I have not seen anything recently about the CMAS phones or Wireless 
Emergency Alerts.  I have a Droid Bionic by Verizon and I noticed a new 
app on my phone Friday called "Emergency Alerts". It was not there a few 
months back when CMAS was the hot topic.   It is definitely the CMAS 
level alerting app Verizon will use for my phone.  In the settings it 
allow choices for Extreme Alerts, Severe Alerts, and Amber Alerts.  
Presidential alerts are mandatory.  No individual choices of which local 
events can be made, but you can turnoff the three local settings if you 
want, just not the Presidential messages.  And It seems to have appeared 
on my phone by itself.  So I figure they added it during the last 
Software update that Verizon did about two weeks ago.

But  it is not mentioned on the Verizon web site that Gary Timm listed 
below.

What gets me about CMAS is that it is not opt in, it is being set up as 
opt out.  At least for the local events you can opt out.  And the 
limitations of CMAS have made Emergency Managers locally not want to use 
it.  One Emergency Manager at the Maryland SECC meeting recently noted 
that because it can not selectively reach only the people in the 
effected area,  that he worries it will confuse the issues more and 
create unnecessary panic.  I.E.: Evacuate an entire county when only a 
small area of that county was endangered.  If this warning system is 
only based on SAME technology then this would be true unless county 
subdivisions numbers in the FIPS codes are used.    But would the CMAS 
warning include the subdivision number and show the specific warned area?

The NWS uses the polygons to show the locations of events on their web 
pages.  But can CMAS use GPS to target the phone users within the 
polygon?  Or does the whole county get it?  Or anyone on the local cell 
tower?  We had a Tornado warning here late Friday afternoon.  Narrowest 
warning band I ever saw the NWS do locally on their web site.   I did 
not get an alert via  CMAS (I suspect not active until CAP becomes 
effective, I did get the alert from my stations EMnet receiver on my 
phone).    I was just outside the warned area at the time, would I have 
been warned?  Would the entire county have been warned?  Or just those 
within the polygon zone?

Anyway, I just wanted to note the concern about the limitations of CMAS 
as a warning device.  And I am glad to see it was something that could 
be added to my phone's abilities.


Ken Evans


On 12/24/2011 12:29 AM, Gary Timm wrote:

> I did some searches.  Here are the web pages for CMAS for all four 

> Tier 1 carriers... and, the WEA logo!!

> Gary Timm

> AT&T:

> http://www.att.com/gen/public-affairs?pid=20107

> Verizon (shows the WEA logo):

> http://support.verizonwireless.com/clc/faqs/Wireless%20Service/emergency_alerts_faq.html

> Sprint (cool grahic explaining how CMAS works and has links in left 

> nav bar to more info):

> http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/buzzaboutwireless/services/messaging/wireless_emergency_alerts_-_cmas?view=overview

> T-Mobile (shows the WEA logo and enabled devices):

> http://www.t-mobile.com/Company/CompanyInfo.aspx?tp=Abt_Tab_CompanySafety&tsp=Abt_Sub_WirelessEmergencyAlerts 

> <http://www.t-mobile.com/Company/CompanyInfo.aspx?tp=Abt_Tab_CompanySafety&tsp=Abt_Sub_WirelessEmergencyAlerts>

> The WEA Logo:

>

>

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