Text Message Broadcasts Could Provide Disaster Alerts

March 31st, 2006

A feature already built-in to most cellphones could be used to alert every mobile phone user in a specific region to impending disasters, such as the tsunami that devastated south east Asia on 26 December, say experts.

The combination of a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean and the ability to broadcast text messages to every mobile phone in the area has the potential to save many lives should another tsunami strike.

At an emergency summit held in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday, world leaders called for the development of such an early-warning system. One such system already guards the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though without the text message component.

Early warning sensors would be relatively simple and, at a cost of about $20 million, relatively inexpensive to set up. But experts say these must be combined with an effective means of alerting the population to imminent danger.

The GSM cellphone standard already enables phones to receive short data messages from the nearest cellphone base station on a separate channel from normal voice and text message communications. The Cellular Emergency Alerts System Association (CEASA), a non-governmental organisation based in the UK, is campaigning to have the system turned into a disaster warning service.