[LINK] SMS - shortcomings in emergency services

[Ivan Trundle]

On 19/09/2008, at 8:18 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:

> I was led to believe although I never read any of them myself that the
> SLAs for SMS specify that the message does not have to be delivered
> for one or more days after it was sent.
>
> I know people who use SMS for emergency notification in parallel with
> other methods but that is not the same as large scale emergency use.
>
> I have a friend in South Australia who has proposed an interesting  
> out-
> of-band solution for emergency messaging on mobile phones that has a
> number of advantages over any SMS solution.  It uses specific towers
> and broadcasts messages in a small area.  It doesn't suffer from the
> problem of scale because it uses a broadcast out-of-band channel which
> is pretty immediate (and is currently used) and because it is limited
> to one or more towers involved in the emergency.  I believe the idea
> is being examined by phone companies at the moment.  It seems to me
> that they are proposing something similar.
>

There's a broader, more complex issue here: in times of emergency,  
power is often the first utility which is cut.

This limits the usefulness of mobile phones in an unusual way  
(experienced first hand): after a period of time, mobile phone  
batteries require recharging, and with no power outlets to service  
this request, mobile phones become useless (apart from the problem of  
not being able to use the service in the first place).

Modern mobile phones serve multiple purposes, and one of them is to  
provide 'at hand' illumination in times of crisis (again, experienced  
first hand) - which further depletes battery life.

In contrast, battery-powered radios suffer none of those consequences,  
and are thus better suited for broadcast messages. All that is  
required is for an element of ubiquity in the public's understanding  
of how communications are relayed in times of crisis: many expect the  
AM radio service to do this, but I'd imagine that there is a  
generational blind-spot here, or a lack of education.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure that there are many people in  
Australia who are aware of what the public emergency siren call sounds  
like (and I'll be happy if I never hear it again), let alone knowing  
where to hear it, and what to do once it is broadcast to all and sundry.

iT