A Participating CMS Provider is required to receive and transmit four classes of Alert Messages: Presidential Alert; Imminent Threat Alert; Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alert; and Public Safety Message.

(a) National Alert. A National Alert is an alert issued by the President of the United States or the President's authorized designee, or by the Administrator of FEMA. National Alerts may be either nationwide or regional in distribution.

(b) Imminent Threat Alert. An Imminent Threat Alert is an alert that meets a minimum value for each of three CAP elements: Urgency, Severity, and Certainty.

(1) Urgency. The CAP Urgency element must be either Immediate (i.e., responsive action should be taken immediately) or Expected (i.e., responsive action should be taken soon, within the next hour).

(2) Severity. The CAP Severity element must be either Extreme (i.e., an extraordinary threat to life or property) or Severe (i.e., a significant threat to life or property).

(3) Certainty. The CAP Certainty element must be either Observed (i.e., determined to have occurred or to be ongoing) or Likely (i.e., has a probability of greater than 50 percent).

(c) Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alert. (1) An AMBER Alert is an alert initiated by a local government official based on the U.S. Department of Justice's five criteria that should be met before an alert is activated:

(i) Law enforcement confirms a child has been abducted;

(ii) The child is 17 years or younger;

(iii) Law enforcement believes the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death;

(iv) There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction to believe an immediate broadcast alert will help; and

(v) The child's name and other data have been entered into the National Crime Information Center.

(2) There are four types of AMBER Alerts: Family Abduction; Non-family Abduction; Lost, Injured or Otherwise Missing; and Endangered Runaway.

(i) Family Abduction. A Family Abduction (FA) alert involves an abductor who is a family member of the abducted child such as a parent, aunt, grandfather, or stepfather.

(ii) Nonfamily Abduction. A Nonfamily Abduction (NFA) alert involves an abductor unrelated to the abducted child, either someone unknown to the child and/or the child's family or an acquaintance/friend of the child and/or the child's family.

(iii) Lost, Injured, or Otherwise Missing. A Lost, Injured, or Otherwise Missing (LIM) alert involves a case where the circumstances of the child's disappearance are unknown.

(iv) Endangered Runaway. An Endangered Runaway (ERU) alert involves a missing child who is believed to have run away and in imminent danger.

(d) Public Safety Message. A Public Safety Message is an essential public safety advisory that prescribes one or more actions likely to save lives and/or safeguard property during an emergency. A Public Safety Message may only be issued in connection with an Alert Message classified in paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) of this section.

[73 FR 43117, July 24, 2008, as amended at 81 FR 75726, Nov. 1, 2016; 86 FR 46790, Aug. 20, 2021]

A Participating CMS Provider is required to transmit National Alerts upon receipt. National Alerts preempt all other Alert Messages. A Participating CMS Provider is required to transmit Imminent Threat Alerts, AMBER Alerts and Public Safety Messages on a first in-first out (FIFO) basis.

[86 FR 46790, Aug. 20, 2021]

A WEA Alert Message processed by a Participating CMS Provider shall include five mandatory CAP elements—Event Type; Area Affected; Recommended Action; Expiration Time (with time zone); and Sending Agency. This requirement does not apply to National Alerts.

[86 FR 46790, Aug. 20, 2021]

A Participating CMS Provider must support transmission of an Alert Message that contains a maximum of 360 characters of alphanumeric text. If, however, some or all of a Participating CMS Provider's network infrastructure is technically incapable of supporting the transmission of a 360-character maximum Alert Message, then that Participating CMS Provider must support transmission of an Alert Message that contains a maximum of 90 characters of alphanumeric text on and only on those elements of its network incapable of supporting a 360 character Alert Message.

[81 FR 75726, Nov. 1, 2016]

Participating CMS Providers are required to support Alert Messages that include an embedded Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which is a reference (an address) to a resource on the Internet, or an embedded telephone number.

[81 FR 75726, Nov. 1, 2016]

This section establishes minimum requirements for the geographic targeting of Alert Messages.

(a) This section establishes minimum requirements for the geographic targeting of Alert Messages. A Participating CMS Provider will determine which of its network facilities, elements, and locations will be used to geographically target Alert Messages. A Participating CMS Provider must deliver any Alert Message that is specified by a circle or polygon to an area that matches the specified circle or polygon. A Participating CMS Provider is considered to have matched the target area when they deliver an Alert Message to 100 percent of the target area with no more than 0.1 of a mile overshoot. If some or all of a Participating CMS Provider's network infrastructure is technically incapable of matching the specified target area, then that Participating CMS Provider must deliver the Alert Message to an area that best approximates the specified target area on and only on those aspects of its network infrastructure that are incapable of matching the target area. A Participating CMS Provider's network infrastructure may be considered technically incapable of matching the target area in limited circumstances, including when the target area is outside of the Participating CMS Provider's network coverage area, when mobile devices have location services disabled, and when legacy networks or devices cannot be updated to support this functionality.

(b) Upon request from an emergency management agency, a Participating CMS Provider will disclose information regarding their capabilities for geo-targeting Alert Messages. A Participating CMS Provider is only required to disclose this information to an emergency management agency insofar as it would pertain to Alert Messages initiated by that emergency management agency, and only so long as the emergency management agency offers confidentiality protection at least equal to that provided by the federal FOIA.

(c) In matching the target area, Participating CMS Providers may not limit the availability of 360 characters for the Alert Message text.

[81 FR 75726, Nov. 1, 2016, as amended at 83 FR 8623, Feb. 28, 2018]

When, pursuant to a roaming agreement (see § 20.12 of this chapter), a subscriber receives services from a roamed-upon network of a Participating CMS Provider, the Participating CMS Provider must support WEA alerts to the roaming subscriber to the extent the subscriber's mobile device is configured for and technically capable of receiving WEA alerts.

[78 FR 16808, Mar. 19, 2013]

Link to an amendment published at 88 FR 86837, Dec. 15, 2023.

Participating CMS Providers are required to transmit WEA Alert Messages that are issued in the Spanish language or that contain Spanish-language characters.

[81 FR 75726, Nov. 1, 2016]