Emergency Broadcast System Coming to Cell Phones
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Emergency Broadcast System is getting a modern-day upgrade -- moving from the television to the cell phone.
Communications company Alcatel-Lucent recently announced the creation of the Broadcast Message Center (BMC), a feature that enables government agencies to send immediate alerts to mobile phones in the event of a state, local or national emergency.
The messages, similar to the warnings that periodically interrupt television broadcasts, will be sent via text message using the BMC, and will be geographically-targeted. For example, an alert pertaining to a road closure in a particular town will only be distributed to mobile phones in that area, while a significantly larger group of people will receive text warnings in the event of a city-specific or nationwide crisis.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The BMC will act as a "secure interface between the emergency management agency" and the mobile phone carrier, the press release said. Warnings will contact people in the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, inclement weather, highway accident, business evacuation, school or campus emergency, Amber Alert and other crises.
Morgan Wright, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent, stressed the need for a messaging system that works with modern society.
"With the public increasingly relying on cell phones, it becomes mission critical for service providers to be able to share critical, time-sensitive information over these devices during times of crisis," Wright said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Broadcast Message Center has been tested already in San Diego and Tampa, and is currently in field trials with all the major mobile phone carriers, said Mark Hudson, Alcatel-Lucent spokesperson. Hudson told SecurityNewsDaily that the BMC is scheduled to be in operation by April 2012.
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