November 16, 2017 – “The Commission’s vote today lays the ground work for major improvements in America’s emergency alerting system. The Northern California wildfires, hurricane devastation in Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the Las Vegas mass murders, the Houston floods, the Gatlinburg wildfires – these disasters provide more depressing examples that our current alerting systems are not adequate for protecting people and property.

“Using ATSC 3.0, we and our public safety partners will begin the technical development of the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) in 2018. By delivering geo-targeted, rich-media emergency messages to a wide range of enabled consumer devices, including 4K UHD TVs, home gateways, tablets, smart phones, and connected cars, AWARN, when fully deployed, will save lives and speed disaster recovery.”

The AWARN Alliance was one of the original joint petitioners in April 2016 that requested the Next Gen TV proceeding that led to the Commission’s vote today. The Alliance includes commercial and public broadcasters who reach 90 percent of U.S. households, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Consumer Technology Association, the Interactive Television Alliance, LG Electronics, and a growing number of U.S. and Korean technology companies and service providers. The AWARN Advisory Committee of America’s largest alerting authorities provides technical and operational input to the AWARN Alliance.

Contact John Lawson:
Office: (703) 347-7070
Mobile: (202) 302-1654
Email: jlawson@AWARN.org

Contact Fiona James:
Office: (703) 347-7070
Mobile: (202) 904-0061
Email: fjames@AWARN.org