WASHINGTON-South Korea’s National Emergency Management Agency said it will expand cell-broadcast disaster alerts to cover the whole country.
NEMA said the initiative has enabled mobile-phone subscribers to get information on typhoons, tsunami and other disasters on a real-time basis with the support of wireless carriers KTF, SK Telecom and LGT, which will bear the cost of delivery in contracts with NEMA.
NEMA said it launched the service for Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces on a trial basis early December, then expanded it to cover the east coast region down to Ulsan and North Gyeongsang province a few months later on the occasion of the cataclysmic tsunami that struck Southeast Asia.
During the trial basis service, NEMA said it conducted some 50 rounds of emergency CBS concerning heavy snowfall and mountain fire alerts and situations. With the service expanded nationwide, NEMA predicts 19.1 million subscribers to cellular telephony will benefit from information on disasters.
Holland also plans to use cell broadcast technology for nationwide emergency alerts.
The Bush administration has not settled on a nationwide wireless emergency alert platform in the three and a half years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some wireless firms advocate text messaging over cell-broadcast technology. Cell-broadcast proponents argue short message service technology is ill suited for emergency alert services. The Federal Communications Commission is considering the Emergency Alert Service.
