Nearly 30 years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the wireless trade association CTIA, started a conversation about the need for wireless location-based services. It wasn’t until 1988 that the FCC agreed on the ruling to require wireless carriers to enable subscriber location tracking through cell towers to be used for emergency response systems— and it would take yet another 10 years before we saw the advent of the “text message” and another 14 years for emergency alerting to become what it is today in our hyper-mobile world.

With extreme weather conditions affecting many Americans this summer, including devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma, destructive wildfires in Arizona, and flash flooding throughout the eastern part of the country, the FCC's Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system has been put to the test.

With hurricane season upon us, FEMA is releasing new ads to educate the public about Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), also known as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS). Throughout Hurricane Preparedness Week, which began last Sunday and continues through Saturday, June 1, the television and radio spots will identify how the alerts broadcast warning messages to all WEA-capable devices within a specific geographic area.

You may not know that the innocuous kiwi was first known as the Chinese gooseberry. And Chilean sea bass was originally called the much less appetizing Patagonian toothfish. Sometimes a name change is warranted to enhance a product’s marketability. The risk is that the new name may not catch on or simply cause confusion among the public. (What are we calling Prince these days?)

Now that the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) program–known to many as the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, or CMAS—is fully operational, it's clear that more must be done to educate the public about these potentially life–saving CMAS alerts.