US gets disaster warnings by SMS
What do people do during disasters? Turn to their mobiles, of course. The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a plan that will see mobile networks used to transmit alerts during disasters or emergencies.
The system, called the Commercial Mobile Alert Systems, will see texts sent to mobile users including, presidential alerts, imminent threat alerts and child abduction alerts and possibly in the future, video and audio messages. The system will also be set up to deliver the messages to the blind and deaf.
There are two questions here: during disasters, will the network hold up? Anyone who was in London during the 7/7 bombings will attest how impossible it was to use the network for calls, texts or anything else. So does that mean there will be a priority system set up to ensure these messages get through? And secondly, the system delivering presidential alerts. During a crisis, surely the last thing people want to see is a George Bush’s gurning mug on their mobiles?
does that mean 1/3 of americans won’t know what to do
Posted by maverick on April 10th, 2008 at 11:03 am.[...] Minister Gordon Brown’s grilling by senior MPs on the Commons liaison committee. (69 clicks) US gets disaster warnings by SMSWhat do people do during disasters? Turn to their mobiles, of course… John McCain is “politically tone-deaf”John McCain made another stunning admission: that he [...]
Posted by DeafPulse.com - the one-stop pulse for all Deaf-related news and blogs. on April 10th, 2008 at 7:54 pm.Looking at the actual press release from the FCC: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-281433A1.pdf it is not 100% clear they are talking about SMS.
The phrases “text-based alerts”, “provided the subscriber’s mobile device is configured for, and technically capable of, receiving such emergency alerts” and “As technology evolves” suggests to me that they are not talking about SMS as we know it.
My guess is that this would be cell-broadcast (CBC) based - and as such none of your concerns would be an issue - as being broadcast based a single message can be received by all phones simultaneously.
There are issues regarding getting CBC switched on, but I think you can use OTA to remotely configure it.
Posted by Diarmuid Mallon on April 11th, 2008 at 10:41 am.