With the practice of text messaging by mobile phone exploding across the United States to the tune of 48 billion per month, federal regulators have moved to take advantage of its emerging popularity by approving a plan to implement a national emergency text alert system.
FCC implementing mobile phone text alert plan. Credit: Hey Paul/Flickr.
An Associated Press report outlines that the initial plan is built on the Warning Alert and Response Network Act of 2006, which is a federal law tasking the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) with introducing upgrades to the existing emergency alert system used across the US.
According to Kevin Martin, chairman of the FCC, the implementation of a text-based alert system arrives as “an important next step” in making sure the American public has all the information it needs to take appropriate action to protect itself during times of disaster or emergency.
The federal approval outlines network carriers are not obliged to adopt the alert system, but it would appear that the wireless industry in general is providing a good backbone of support for the plan.
The plan itself will deliver three different types of charge-free text alerts to mobile phone users. The first of these alert levels would arrive as a nationwide presidential message issued in the wake of an event as serious as a terrorist attack or natural disaster. The second alert level would cover all manner of imminent threats, and the third level would cover alerts related directly to child abductions.
The FCC suggests that the US alert system could be in place as early as 2010.
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