NextGen Broadcast datacasting via ATSC 3.0 is “an ideal” technology to complement wireless networks, filling coverage gaps and offering seamless delivery continuity during emergencies and disasters, ONE Media Technologies today told the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau in filed comments.

The wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group told the bureau datacasting via ATSC 3.0 can bolster delivery of emergency information that otherwise would rely only the “fragile” existing wireless system that “can be impaired or entirely disabled during times of crisis, when alerting is most needed.”

The filing pointed to wildfires in Maui and California as examples of cell tower destruction during disasters and network overload during the Jan. 6. 2021 riot when cell traffic swamped delivery of vital information as only a few instances that “highlight the perils of overreliance on cellular service.”

NextGen Broadcast, now covering about three-quarters of the U.S. population, can deliver “much needed redundancy and enhance the quality and targeting of… emergency alerts,” it said.

The ONE Media filing laid out the benefits of NextGen Broadcast-based Advanced Emergency Information (AEI) capabilities. Topping the list is the ability of NextGen Broadcast AEI to reach mobile devices regardless of cell coverage.

Read the full piece in TV Tech HERE