Pages
Stay In Touch
More
(c) Copyright Touchstone Consulting Group
Given New York City’s status as the first in the U.S. to test (and soon deploy) CMAS, we wondered if the big four carriers’ local retail stores were ready tell customers about CMAS. To find out, we armed ourselves with CMAS/Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) information printed from each of the carrier’s own websites and visited two Upper East Side retail stores for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon this week for part one of our CMAS Secret Shopper Series.
The overall conclusion: there’s a general lack of awareness about CMAS in the carriers’ retail locations. Continue reading »
Continue reading »
As you probably know, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off today in Las Vegas. Each year CES is one of the most anticipated expos in the tech world, exhibiting all kinds of new gadgets that shape the market over the coming year. It also usually features noteworthy innovations relevant to the world of alerts and warnings. This year is no different.
Following up to our November article about the initial wireless carrier announcements around the upcoming Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) launch, it looks like all four major carriers now sport information on their websites explaining the system and how it will work. Of note, it looks like the preferred term for the system is “Wireless Emergency Alerts” rather than CMAS, but most use both terms interchangeably. (The term “Personal Localized Alerting Network” or “PLAN” does not appear.)
Continue reading »
Today Sprint publicly announced the launch of a new functionality for its network: Wireless Emergency Alerts, which is the term many wireless carriers are using for the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) / Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). The announcement comes as FEMA prepares for the nationwide deployment of CMAS in April 2012. Sprint describes the WEA/CMAS capability as follows:
Wireless Emergency Alerts allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to accept and deliver warning messages to wireless networks from the president of the United States, the National Weather Service and state and local emergency operations centers. Sprint customers will be able to effectively and accurately receive warnings and safety information via text alerts to mobile phones that are equipped with the enabling software and based on their geographic location.
Continue reading »
While vacationing with her family at the beach this summer, one of our AWARE editors experienced first-hand a prime situation in which alerts to mobile devices–like those that will be enabled by the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS)–will be critical. But with a goal of reaching as many members of the public as possible, the limitations of CMAS were equally as evident.
Continue reading »
