FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 
WASHINGTON 
O FFICE OF 
THE CHAIRMAN 
The Honorable Charles E. Schumer 
United States Senate 
322 Hart Senate Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20510 
Dear Senator Schumer: 
November 17,2016 
Thank you for your letter regarding the Commission's efforts to improve the Wireless 
Emergency Alerts (WEA) system. 
At the September Open Meeting, the Commission adopted new rules that will improve 
WEA message content, delivery, and create a framework that will allow emergency managers to 
test, exercise, and raise public awareness about WEA. As your letter observes, the New York 
City Department of Emergency Management's use ofWEA in connection with the Chelsea 
bombing highlighted WEA' s current value, as well as opportunities for improvement. Under the 
new rules, emergency managers will be able to initiate alerts as long as 360 characters on 4G and 
future networks, and all alerts will soon be able to include embedded links, so that you will be 
able to click to see a photo of a missing child, a suspected terrorist, a map, or to call authorities. 
Pursuant to these new rules, alerts and warnings will also be more accurately geo-targeted to the 
areas where they are relevant and will be delivered immediately to consumers using 4G devices 
even when they are engaged in an active data session. This will allow emergency managers to 
send more informative messages to those individuals directly affected. 
I am proud of what we have accomplished to improve WEA, but I recognize there is 
more work to be done. As you correctly point out, much work remains to modernize the system. 
The Commission continues its work to strengthen WEA, and, as an example, has an open 
proceeding to determine how to include thumbnail-sized photos and symbols in WEA. 
I appreciate your leadership on the issue, and I am particularly pleased that we were able 
to answer your call to expedite enhancements to the WEA system. Please let me know if I can 
be of any further assistance. 
Sincerely, 
bz-
Tom WHeeler