SMS sign of the times

[David Farber <farber () tmail com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Jay Solomon <rsolomon () dsl cis upenn edu>
To: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>, Eric Rosenthal 
<eric () creative-technology net>
Subject: SMS sign of the times
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 13:47:19 -0500

> Thursday, 13 February, 2003, 14:26 GMT
> Text service warns of attacks
>
> Cats will keep people away from danger areas
>
> Londoners are getting a text message service that will tell them what 
> to do if terrorists attack the capital.
>
> The City Alert Texting System (Cats) will warn people where attacks are 
> taking place and pass on information about what to do to people caught 
> in an incident.
>
> Londoners sign up to the commercial service using the postcode of the 
> areas in which they live and work.
>
> Once the system is working in London, it will be rolled out to other 
> cities across the UK.
>
> Watching London
>
> The Cats service will pass on emergency news alerts to subscribers 
> about life-threatening events taking place in London.
>
> "We were horrified by what happened in New York on 11 September which 
> demonstrated the vulnerability of major urban areas in open societies," 
> said Cats founder David Pieterse.
>
>
> SMS would tell people what to do after an attack
>
> The Cats service will alert all the people affected by a disaster or 
> attack and then give them advice about how to cope with its aftermath.
>
> Notification of an attack or incident will be followed by a plan of 
> action message that lets people know what they should do next.
>
> The information could tell people to evacuate an area, avoid particular 
> locations or even give those directly affected directions to hospitals 
> or aid stations.
>
> Mr Pieterse said the 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway left 
> 5,000 people searching for the location of their nearest hospital.
>
> The service has already been trialled with the help of the London Fire 
> and Emergency Planning Authority.
>
> Signing up to the service costs £1.50 for each postcode that people 
> register. For most networks the cost will be reverse-billed to their 
> phone account. However, Virgin customers will have to pay by cheque.
-- Dave

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