Re: NDAA passed: Internet and Online Streaming Services Emergency Alert Study

[Max Harmony via NANOG <nanog () nanog org>]

On 02 Jan 2021, at 19.18, Matthew Petach <mpetach () netflight com> wrote:
> I think the challenge here is that there's a category of people 
> who don't have cell phones, who don't have cable TV, but 
> receive content over their internet connection.  I happen to 
> live with someone like that, so I know it's a non-zero portion
> of the population.

Emergency alerts are also on OTA TV (and radio), not just cable. People whose sole communications device is a computer 
can subscribe to FEMA'S IPAWS feed. People who can't (or don't want to) do that can use a weather radio (despite the 
name, NWS broadcasts all hazards alerts, not just weather). The most likely answer to "how do we get streaming services 
to provide emergency alerts?" is to make them redistribute the IPAWS feed and update their software to make the updates 
human-readable. It would probably be cheaper to just tell people where to find free IPAWS software instead of making 
every streaming service add the feature, and, as a last resort, give people who need them free weather radios.