In the wake of the deadly tornadoes earlier this month that ripped through Oklahoma and Kansas, the idea of using wireless technology as a warning system for natural disasters is receiving renewed attention.
Douglas “Bud” Weiser, who heads a volunteer organization dedicated to establishing emergency notification as a standard feature of digital wireless service, said he received a total of 167 phone calls from the media and emergency managers in the days following the disaster.
Weiser’s organization-the Cellular Emergency Alert Service association-has spent several years trying to convince the industry to take on what is now being called “wireless reverse 911.” Weiser said he believes carriers that deploy an emergency cell-broadcast feature on their wireless networks early would benefit from public good will and a unique point of differentiation.
CEAS-a has focused its attention on the Global System for Mobile communications community, saying the capability to provide limited cell broadcast already exists in their networks. But carriers have resisted deploying such a system for several reasons.
“The GSM community is certainly not opposed to any idea that can help improve public safety and minimize the tragic loss of lives from natural disasters,” said Mike Houghton, a spokesman for the North American GSM Alliance. “However, in this specific case of using GSM cell-broadcast capabilities to warn of imminent tornadoes, we have told the CEAS-a group numerous times before that there are certain steps that must be taken before wireless network operators can ever give proper consideration to such a system.”
Houghton said the GSM community’s concerns revolve mainly around the need for a standards process to ensure such a solution is safe and viable as well as the need for protection from liability. Houghton also pointed out that such a system only would be effective when wireless phones are turned on and near people, and when subscribers are awake.
“The highest and best uses of GSM and other wireless services relate to calling 911 and public safety officials during and after emergency situations,” said Houghton.
CEAS-a plans to appoint a new director this summer who is more in tune with the emergency management community. Because it feels it has not been successful at convincing the wireless industry to take on the idea, CEAS-a said it now plans to work through emergency management associations to promote the idea of wireless reverse 911.
Preston Cook, an emergency manager for Orange County, Fla., said he is interested in the idea of cell broadcast and is trying to talk with wireless carriers in his area to discuss the idea.
“We have a need to notify people that are on the move and not close to a TV or a weather radio,” said Cook, who noted increasing incidences of domestic terrorism also magnify the need for effective alert systems that can reach people that are not at home.
“We don’t want to depend on one system,” said Cook. “We need to find as many ways to alert people as possible.
“Redundancy is the name of the game,” he said.
Cook said while he has had little positive response from carriers, he hopes eventually a system will be deployed locally and then spread statewide or even nationally.
Meanwhile CEAS-a is working to establish a national cell broadcast center to be located in Franklin, Tenn., that would remove some of the burden for deploying cell broadcast from the carriers. At the center, emergency alerts would be translated and the cell broadcast initiated, said Weiser.
