(a) Alert Message. An Alert Message is a message that is intended to provide the recipient information regarding an emergency, and that meets the requirements for transmission by a Participating Commercial Mobile Service Provider under this part.

(b) Common Alerting Protocol. The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) refers to Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Standard CAP-V1.1, October 2005 (available at http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#capv1.1), or any subsequent version of CAP adopted by OASIS and implemented by the WEA.

(c) Wireless Emergency Alerts. The Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system refers to the voluntary emergency alerting system established by this part, whereby Commercial Mobile Service Providers may elect to transmit Alert Messages to the public.

(d) Commercial Mobile Service Provider. A Commercial Mobile Service Provider (or CMS Provider) is an FCC licensee providing commercial mobile service as defined in section 332(d)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(d)(1)). Section 332(d)(1) defines the term commercial mobile service as any mobile service (as defined in 47 U.S.C. 153) that is provided for profit and makes interconnected service available to the public or to such classes of eligible users as to be effectively available to a substantial portion of the public, as specified by regulation by the Commission.

(e) County and County Equivalent. The terms County and County Equivalent as used in this part are defined by Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 6-4, which provides the names and codes that represent the counties and other entities treated as equivalent legal and/or statistical subdivisions of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the possessions and freely associated areas of the United States. Counties are considered to be the “first-order subdivisions” of each State and statistically equivalent entity, regardless of their local designations (county, parish, borough, etc.). Thus, the following entities are considered to be equivalent to counties for legal and/or statistical purposes: The parishes of Louisiana; the boroughs and census areas of Alaska; the District of Columbia; the independent cities of Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia; that part of Yellowstone National Park in Montana; and various entities in the possessions and associated areas. The FIPS codes and FIPS code documentation are available online at http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/index.htm.

(f) Participating Commercial Mobile Service Provider. A Participating Commercial Mobile Service Provider (or a Participating CMS Provider) is a Commercial Mobile Service Provider that has voluntarily elected to transmit Alert Messages under subpart B of this part.

(g) “C” Interface. The interface between the Alert Gateway and CMS provider Gateway.

(h) CMS provider Gateway. The mechanism(s) that supports the “C” interface and associated protocols between the Alert Gateway and the CMS provider Gateway, and which performs the various functions associated with the authentication, management and dissemination of WEA Alert Messages received from the Alert Gateway.

(i) CMS provider infrastructure. The mechanism(s) that distribute received WEA Alert Messages throughout the CMS provider's network, including cell site/paging transceivers and perform functions associated with authentication of interactions with the Mobile Device.

(j) Mobile Devices. The subscriber equipment generally offered by CMS providers that supports the distribution of WEA Alert Messages.

(k) CMS Provider participation “in whole.” CMS Providers that have agreed to transmit WEA Alert Messages in a manner consistent with the technical standards, protocols, procedures, and other technical requirements implemented by the Commission in the entirety of their geographic service area, and when all mobile devices that the CMS Providers offer at the point of sale are WEA-capable.

(l) CMS Provider participation “in part.” CMS Providers that have agreed to transmit WEA Alert Messages in a manner consistent with the technical standards, protocols, procedures, and other technical requirements implemented by the Commission in some, but not in all of their geographic service areas, or CMS Providers that offer mobile devices at the point of sale that are not WEA-capable.

[73 FR 43117, July 24, 2008, as amended at 73 FR 54525, Sept. 22, 2008; 78 FR 16807, Mar. 19, 2013; 83 FR 8623, Feb. 28, 2018]