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Cellphones Get Government Chips For Disaster Alert

Posted by timothy on from the shouldn't-the-opt-out-go-the-other-way? dept.

Jeremiah Cornelius writes "The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said the Commercial Mobile Alert System that Congress approved in 2006 will direct messages to cellphones in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other serious emergency. There will be at least three levels of messages, ranging from a critical national alert from the president to warnings about impending or occurring national disasters to alerts about missing or abducted children. The alert would show up on the phone's front screen, instead of the traditional text message inbox, and arrive with a distinct ring and probably a vibration. People will be able to opt out of receiving all but the presidential alerts."

5 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. No Texting While Driving! by billstewart · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, Officer, I was just reading this text while I was driving because it might have been from the PRESIDENT!

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  2. Re:What the? by jpapon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Like you, I yearn for the days of yore. Back when men were men, books were made out of paper, and people died from disasters the old fashioned way... surprised.

    --
    -- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
  3. you'll find out a lot more than you bargained for by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    actually, I fully expect the system will be hijacked to disseminate spam within hours after going live.

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  4. Re:Disable it by mtxmorph · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't know where the article gets this "chip" idea from -- that is completely bogus.

    The system uses the standard cell broadcast system (CBS) as its backend, and most phones have supported that forever. It is basically an application which sits on top of CBS.

  5. Re:Specificity by cbunix23 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I wonder what level of geographical specificity is possible? Hopefully this will broadcast to selected towers instead of selected phone numbers.

    I work on the Alcatel-Lucent product being used by AT&T, VZW, Sprint, and others. I've been involved with this product since day one. Alert areas can be as small as one cell, or it can be the entire United States. Target areas can be based on geocodes (states, counties, some cities, FEMA regions, NWS regions, and some others), polygons, circles. How FEMA and NWS end up using it is an open question, but I get the impression most of the alerts they will generate will go out at the county level. Just like the "tornado sirens" now. This may get refined over time to smaller areas as they gain experience with the system.