Interesting People mailing list archives
more on wondering what that did for californians AB 2231 Emergency alerts
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 17:58:00 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: Thomas Lakofski <thomas () 88 net> Date: April 1, 2006 5:19:32 PM ESTTo: David Farber <dave () farber net>, Tamara.Odisho () asm ca gov, Paul Saffo <paul () saffo com>
Subject: Re: [IP] for californians AB 2231 Emergency alerts I used to work for a mobile company. I'm not an expert but I remember some aspects of the underlying technologies. This may interest IP too.
From: Paul Saffo <paul () saffo com> Date: March 31, 2006 12:19:57 AM EST To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: (For IP) AB 2231 Emergency alertsTamara and her colleagues have several questions, and would love feedback from anyone who might have advice/suggestions. Here are her questions (note that I have not edited them as I am merely a conduit):
1. Can wireless companies? infrastructure handle such a statewide text-message emergency alert? In other words, will this jam up the system?
Yes, but probably not with bulk SMS. Despite global SMS volume being more than a trillion messages globally last year, the way it is implemented means it is unsuited to sending large volumes of messages in a confined geographical area. There is another GSM service, 'cell broadcast' which is supported by the majority of handsets, which would be appropriate for this purpose. It would require some setup by the telephone company; both of their infrastructure as well as subscriber's handsets. This could be done for new handsets before they reach customers, or could be done withoutuser intervention by sending a special message to a subscriber's handset.
2. Do wireless providers have the technology to area specify the emergency alerts, ie, if there?s an earthquake in Los Angeles, would wireless providers be able to only send out the text message to Los Angeles residents?
The cell broadcast technology is location specific by nature, and would be enabled regionally down to the granularity of individual cells. This may make for some difficulty in rural areas where cells are wider-spaced, but for the purpose it would seem sufficient. Even with SMS, LBS (location-based services) have been available for a number of years. The service does have to be supported by the carrier and would require integration work for any location-targetted emergency broadcast system. It would also require a list of subscriber's numbers which were nominally 'local' for the area to cross-reference against location data, which is relevant to the next point.
3. Are technological capabilities available to broadcast the text message to a certain area/region and send the message to providers not registered in that area code, ie Thailand tsunami had vacationers from all over the world, if an emergency alert was sent out, would all vacationers be able to receive the message?
The cell broadcast would require each handset to be configured to receive the messages per the above, but if this were done the message would be received by handsets regardless of their origin. With SMS this would not be impossible, but difficult and potentially costly to the phone company if they are to alert roamers by sending SMS to their (potentially international) telephone number.
4. If a wireless company sends out the alert, would they be limited to a specific number of characters?
Yes. SMS has a limit of 160 characters for plain text messaging, cell broadcast has a 93 character limit per 'page' but can have multiple pages. Technical details on the service can be found by searching for 'SMS cell broadcast'.
5. If necessary, would text message be able to be delivered in multiple languages?
I don't see an obvious way to implement this, but one may exist.
6. Do you have an estimated cost to the providers of what this type of implementation system would cost the providers?
Given its fit for purpose I would expect cell broadcast to be the simplest and cheapest option. Integration with emergency broadcast systems, and configuration of subscriber handsets would presumably be the significant costs for startup. I can't see that running cost would be anything other than marginal.
Anyone who has suggestions should feel free to contact Tamara directly at Tamara.Odisho () asm ca gov , or if you prefer, email me and I will pass your comments on.
Hope this helps, -- Thomas Lakofski +4470 9228 8229 'Reality is that which, gnupg 550C DD74 4C38 FAC2 E870 when you stop believing in it, 1024D/527D151D 360C A37B BB79 527D 151D doesn't go away' --PKD ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on wondering what that did for californians AB 2231 Emergency alerts David Farber (Apr 02)