A. Each commercial mobile radio service provider that is authorized to conduct business in New Mexico shall submit to the authorized requester, designated by the chief of the New Mexico state police pursuant to the AMBER Alert Law [29-15A-1 to 29-15A-5 NMSA 1978], the provider's procedure for receiving a wireless emergency alert, including an AMBER alert, and for disseminating those alerts to the provider's customers as provided in this section.

B. Every alerting authority that has the necessary computer software or other infrastructure shall use the federal emergency management agency's integrated public alert and warning system or its successor federal public alert system to communicate wireless emergency alerts.

C. Upon receipt of a wireless emergency alert initiated by an alerting authority, every commercial mobile radio service provider shall disseminate the wireless emergency alert to the provider's customers in the geographic area identified in the wireless emergency alert. Dissemination of a wireless emergency alert as provided in this section shall be undertaken in the most technically efficient manner possible, using standard network sharing protocol from authorized agencies or their respective communication contractors.

D. A wireless emergency alert disseminated pursuant to this section shall be disseminated at no additional expense to a provider's customer.

E. As used in this section:

(1) "alerting authority" means a state, local or tribal government that is authorized to use the federal emergency management agency's integrated public alert and warning system to communicate a wireless emergency alert;

(2) "commercial mobile radio service provider" means a federal communications commission licensee that provides commercial radio communication service for profit and that makes interconnected service available to the public in the state;

(3) "integrated public alert and warning system" means an internet-based system that provides for the dissemination of a wireless emergency alert; and

(4) "wireless emergency alert" means a public alert disseminated pursuant to the integrated public alert and warning system by an alerting authority through a commercial mobile radio service provider and includes:

(a) an extreme weather or other emergency alert;

(b) an AMBER alert; and

(c) an alert issued by the president during a national emergency.

History: Laws 2005, ch. 142, § 2; 2015, ch. 14, § 1.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, required each commercial mobile radio service provider to submit to the chief of the New Mexico state police its procedures for receiving and disseminating wireless emergency alerts and provided definitions relating to emergency alerts; in the catchline, added "Wireless emergency alerts"; in Subsection A, after "Each", deleted "cellular service company or paging service company" and added "commercial mobile radio service provider", after "New Mexico", deleted "and offers text messaging services to its customers shall file with" and added "shall submit to", after "AMBER Alert Law, the", deleted "names and telephone numbers of representatives that will be available at all times for notification of" and added "provider's procedure for receiving a wireless emergency alert, including", and after "AMBER alert", added "and for disseminating those alerts to the provider's customers as provided in this section"; in Subsection B, deleted "The authorized requester may designate one or more services to accept notification of an AMBER alert and deliver the notification to each cellular service company or paging service company. Connections with the services" and added new Subsection B; preceding the remaining language in the former Subsection B, added "Upon receipt of a wireless emergency alert initiated by an alerting authority, every commercial mobile radio service provider shall disseminate the wireless emergency alert to the provider's customers in the geographic area identified in the wireless emergency alert. Dissemination of a wireless emergency alert as provided in this section" and designated this paragraph as new Subsection C; in the present Subsection C, after the second occurrence of "shall" deleted "made" and added "undertaken"; deleted former Subsection C and added Subsections D and E.