Broadcasters Lobby FCC on EAS, FM Chips During NAB Fly-In

Broadcasters from 10 states on Thursday told FCC officials of the importance of activating FM chips in smartphones, a perennial issue for the industry, and about some emergency alert system (EAS) concerns. A meeting with Chief David Simpson and others in the Public Safety Bureau was part of NAB's fly-in to lobby (see 1602260038) the FCC that day (see 1602250038), an association spokesman confirmed. At the EAS/FM chip meeting, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State broadcaster association representatives said Simpson's backing of industry negotiations "led to the activation of FM chips in mobile phones offered by three of the four major wireless carriers, and continued industry efforts toward further increasing the availability of radio-enabled smartphones." AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile offer or are moving to offer devices with the chips activated, Commissioner Ajit Pai has said. Verizon didn't immediately comment Monday. On efforts to allow access to emergency information in languages other than English, broadcasters said there are "various risks concerning technology, accuracy and liability that raise obstacles to translating EAS alerts at the EAS Participant-level," said an NAB filing on the meeting, posted Monday in docket 04-296. It said those concerns are "as opposed to passing through multilingual EAS alerts that are created and disseminated by EAS alert originators." More such ex parte filings will be made in coming days on the broadcaster fly-in meetings, said the NAB spokesman.