Mobile providers resisting SOS alerts

Iria · Jan 10, 2006, 10:52 PM

BERLIN - South Korea, the Netherlands and possibly even tiny Appleton, Wisconsin, are starting to use a little-known but widely available technology called cellular broadcasting to send emergency text messages to mobile phone users threatened by weather, industrial accidents or terrorism.

But the global advance of the mobile phone emergency alerts, which are also being considered by India, Malaysia and Finland, is being resisted by some cellphone operators, who fear government regulation, increased costs and legal liability from false alarms, experts said. Some carriers, they said, are concerned that the technology could undermine the conventional short messaging system, or SMS, which generates the bulk of operators' revenue from wireless data.

"Basically, operators have fought cell broadcasting because they haven't figured out a way to make money from it yet," said Gordon Gow, a lecturer in telecommunications at the London School of Economics.

"But it's really the logical way to extend early warning systems. When you're on a beach, you won't have a TV or radio, but you probably will have a mobile phone."

Cell broadcasting is a standard, but largely unused, part of every GSM and CDMA digital phone network that can transmit uniform text warnings either to all users or to defined regions. It is different from SMS in that the broadcast relays the message indiscriminately to every phone in a cell tower's receiving area, typically a 3.2-kilometer, or 2-mile, radius, without having to know individual phone numbers. A cell broadcast usually causes phones to ring before a 162-character message scrolls across phone displays. Callers must have their phones switched on and have activated the function to receive the messages.

"This is just the beginning," said Mark Wood, a spokesman for the Cellular Emergency Alert Systems Association, a London-based group of engineers and software makers advocating cell broadcasting. "The technology exists in most phones today and is essentially free. It could have helped save lives, for example, in last year's tsunami."
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Read More / Source: International Herald Tribune

Jan 10, 2006, 10:52 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Mobile providers resisting SOS alerts BERLIN - South Korea, the Netherlands and possibly even tiny Appleton, Wisconsin, are starting to use a little-known but widely available technology called cellular broadcasting to send emergency text messages to mobile phone users threatened by weather, industrial accidents or terrorism. But the global advance of the mobile phone emergency alerts, which are also being considered by India, Malaysia and Finland, is being resisted by some cellphone operators, who fear government regulation, increased costs and legal liability from false alarms, experts said. Some carriers, they said, are concerned that the technology could undermine the conventional short messaging system, or SMS, which generates the bulk of operators' revenue from wireless data. "Basically, operators have fought cell broadcasting because they haven't figured out a way to make money from it yet," said Gordon Gow, a lecturer in telecommunications at the London School of Economics. "But it's really the logical way to extend early warning systems. When you're on a beach, you won't have a TV or radio, but you probably will have a mobile phone." Cell broadcasting is a standard, but largely unused, part of every GSM and CDMA digital phone network that can transmit uniform text warnings either to all users or to defined regions. It is different from SMS in that the broadcast relays the message indiscriminately to every phone in a cell tower's receiving area, typically a 3.2-kilometer, or 2-mile, radius, without having to know individual phone numbers. A cell broadcast usually causes phones to ring before a 162-character message scrolls across phone displays. Callers must have their phones switched on and have activated the function to receive the messages. "This is just the beginning," said Mark Wood, a spokesman for the Cellular Emergency Alert Systems Association, a London-based group of engineers and software makers advocating cell broadcasting. "The technology exists in most phones today and is essentially free. It could have helped save lives, for example, in last year's tsunami." ____________ Read More / Source: International Herald Tribune