Revolutionary Enhancements to Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA)

Countless lives have been saved through activation of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) for life-saving National Weather Service (NWS) alerts. Since the roll out of WEA in 2012, WEA has been activated over 50,000 times for weather and non-weather emergencies. While WEA began as a simple 90 character text-like message, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established new rules which allow for expansion to 360 characters, Spanish language, and a major enhancement to geographical targeting that will better target WEA to those impacted by life-threatening hazards.

The new rules are now going into effect, but there are important details regarding who will be able to take advantage of these enhancements and when. Attendees will also learn the significant role that social science played in NWS development of the new 360 character and Spanish language WEA. This is power-packed and high impact session you won't want to miss.