WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration last week quietly released a long, overdue report that recommends mobile phones, pagers, the Internet and other technologies for delivering emergency alert warnings to citizens.
The “Effective Disaster Warnings” report was placed on a Web site of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last Wednesday, the day after the presidential and congressional elections.
No press release was issued by the White House, which oversaw the report, or by any other federal agency.
The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, according to an informed source, is said to have deliberately waited until after the election to release the report in order to insulate it from political second-guessing.
Despite prodding from the Clinton administration, the mobile phone industry to date has refused to promote wireless emergency alert service on a widescale basis.
The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association insists the market will fill the void, though that has not occurred to date.
Technical problems and legal liability have been cited by industry as obstacles to wireless emergency alert service. But the White House report said it is technically possible to provide such service today.
“CTIA is not about to champion this until it realizes what it [wireless emergency alert service] can do for them and until it gets over the fear of a government mandate,” said Peter Ward, chairman of the Working Group on Natural Disaster Information Systems.
