[LINK] Telstra to do SMS message

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Jan Whitaker wrote:
> At 10:17 AM 3/03/2009, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>> The point of the SMS seemed to be to tell people to tune into ABC 
>> Radio, by way
>> of preparation. In the event of an emergency being declared - this 
>> is he emergency
>> channel (there may even be/useful to have provisions for all 
>> stations to take the
>> same feed) for communication.
> 
> There was a caller on morning radio complaining that he got the 
> message, missed a major work day to go to his house in Jamieson and 
> found nothing there to be worried about. I sort of scratched my head 
> at that, but he repeated at least five times that he had never 
> received such an alert before and took it quite seriously. It was 
> interpreted as a 'cry wolf' situation and he wasn't at all happy about it.
> 
<snip>

Well that is a problem with what appears to be a personalised SMS, from the police.
Perhaps the message needed to indicate it was an all phones (broadcast).

Rereading the message, Robin relayed, it looks like there could be room for
improvement and maybe even a url to look up. Guess they did not want to
provide a phone number.

It was probably too late to suggest securing/preparation of homes.

Also, perhaps a localised autoreply feature for SMS, could provide further info.

> Police:Extreme weather in Vic expected Mon night & Tues.High wind
>     & Fire Risk.Listen to local ABC Radio for emergency updates.Do
>     not reply to this message

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202