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SRA International, Inc. Strategy and Performance Group (formerly Touchstone Consulting Group)
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last week that carriers not fully opted into the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS, also known as Wireless Emergency Alerts, or WEA) must notify their customers of this status by May 15, 2012.
According to the FCC’s public notice dated March 16th, wireless carriers that have elected not to participate in CMAS – either in full or in part – must provide ”clear and conspicuous notice” to new and existing subscribers of their non-election or partial election. As the quote below explains, this requirement will include both new and existing subscribers, meaning that the notice must be provided at the point of sale (for new customers) and via an amendment to existing subscriber’s service agreements. Continue reading »
Yesterday’s announcement by AT&T to acquire spectrum from Qualcomm for $1.9 billion suggests yet another move towards the inevitable smartphone-ization of America. The spectrum is in the posh 700 MHz band, noted both for good propagation across long distances as well as effective penetration into buildings. It covers 300 million users across the country, including 70 million people in the tech hungry cities of New York, LA, Boston, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Once the deal is approved, AT&T will devote this spectrum to its 4G LTE network build, in an effort to keep up with the torrid growth of seemingly infinite data demand (We’re looking at you, iPhone addicts).
A few thoughts:
1) General is better than specific: Qualcomm was using this spectrum for its FLO TV offering. Although we love the idea of watching the latest episode of The Jersey Shore or The Young and the Restless on a mobile device, does this offering really require a separate wireless data infrastructure? Was Qualcomm really planning to spend $800 million dollars building out a nationwide network to stream The Deadliest Catch to guys watching 3 inch televisions in waiting rooms? (Answer: YES.) Can’t we just watch TV with a smartphone app using the Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile cellular networks? (Answer: YES.) AT&T’s 4G network on this spectrum will allow for not only the mobile consumption of internet TV, but also video chatting, internet radio, email, social networking, office applications, and whatever else the dotcom gnomes are dreaming up. Even with FLO TV’s death, will we still be able to get CSI: Miami in the palm of our hands? (Answer: YES.)
2) Growing data demand requires growing data supply requires growing $$$: Qualcomm paid $683 million in FCC auctions between 2003 and 2008 for this spectrum, which had previously been allocated for use by analog TV broadcast channel 55. They just sold it yesterday for $1.9 billion. We’ll let the Qualcomm shareholders worry about their ROI and if FLO TV was a good idea or not, but this suggests that the spectrum is much more valuable in 2010 than it was in 2008. With technology analysts like Mary Meeker predicting that mobile internet users will overtake desktop internet users in the next five years, there is no wonder that this valuable 700 MHz block appreciated like crazy in the last few years. Forget gold, the savvy bulls are chasing spectrum to cash in on the mobile revolution. When it comes to social value, 4G mobile data is worth much more than dedicated mobile TV, which was worth much more than TV broadcast channel 55.
Given where the chess pieces are moving in telephony, and how fast they are moving there, where does CMAS fit? Will Cell Broadcast based text alerts make any sense at all in 2012? Are we building a carrier-pigeon infrastructure in a telegraph world? The industry is making big bets that you’ll have a high-bandwidth, multimedia-enabled smartphone by your side all day. What a great platform to deliver a time-critical, content-rich emergency alert. Hopefully, we won’t be so engrossed watching Dancing With the Stars on our BlackBerries to get the message.
Non-profit social media expert Beth Kanter posted an interesting analysis of social media’s role in emergencies on her blog yesterday.
Indeed, the geo-platform Ushahidi, which allows users to crowdsource crisis information to be sent via mobile devices, assisted many survivors, aid workers, and organizations during the Haiti crisis (most would say it played a critical role). AWARE Forum did a spotlight on the crowdsourcing phenomenon back in June.
However, the question is whether or not social media is becoming a viable outlet for all sorts of other disasters, crises, or emergencies? Can the Ushahidi effect extend to our daily lives?
According to a new American Red Cross survey, 49 percent of web users would either “probably” or “definitely” use social media to “let loved ones know they are safe.” Also, 69 percent of web users expected emergency responders to be “monitoring social media sites” to send help; in fact, 74 percent expected help within an hour of their tweet or Facebook post.
This is a brand new phenomenon, and it’ll be interesting to see how emergency responders adapt within the next couple of years (especially in conjunction with traditional 9-1-1 calls). The rise of social media has given the general public a viable and extremely fast way of broadcasting their status—good or bad—to their family and friends, but there are few cases where such status updates have been used for such utilitarian purposes.
Twitter was originally started as a quick SMS service within small groups, to the great benefit of fire departments: now are they ready to listen outward?
For the original article on Beth’s blog, go here.
Let us know in the comments what you think: is social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) a viable option for emergencies updates and responses in your daily life?
New Hampshire has just signed into law a statewide emergency notification system which will notify residents of local and statewide emergencies via landline phones, cellular phones and internet service phones. The system is expected to begin operating in Fall 2010!
By Associated Press July 08, 2010 2:00 AM
CONCORD — Gov. John Lynch signed a law Wednesday that will allow the state to send New Hampshire residents automated phone messages about pending emergencies.
The messages will warn about emergencies such as ice storms, tornado warnings or floods through automated phone calls.
New Hampshire already has a database of landlines. Cell phone and Internet service phone users can opt into the system. Communities that already have their own emergency notification systems are encouraged to use the state system when it is up and running.
The state system will be able to place calls to people statewide or focus on a specific part of the state.
“Nationally, there was (Hurricane) Katrina and 9/11, but locally we had the ice storm, we’ve had fires and we’ve had floods. We’ve had people missing,” said Rep. Melanie Levesque, D-Brookline, a telecom consultant who sponsored the bill. “In all of these cases, if we had had a system … we could save lives and property.”
With the new law, New Hampshire will be joining at least one other state, Connecticut, in setting up a statewide emergency notification system. Connecticut residents started registering on a Web site last week to receive emergency alerts.
The bill allows New Hampshire to spend up to $600,000 on software and other equipment to set up the service and work off of a 911 database of phone lines. The state still must seek bids, and Emergency Services Director Bruce Cheney believes the system will be operating sometime this fall.
The bill had faced some concerns from phone service providers, such as whether a large volume of calls would be able to get out at once. A clause was included in the bill saying that no person or corporation who transmits messages to the public in good faith would be found liable for damages if sued.
Cheney said he had wanted the system to require cell users to “opt out” of participating and messages to be sent to cell users based on their proximity to cell towers, but that was rejected in favor of an “opt in” system requiring cell users to sign up to participate.
As a result, some New Hampshire cell users may be notified even when they are on vacation out of state, he said. On the other hand, visitors may not get the message. Landlines will get the message based on location, Cheney said.
“In most cases, this is going to be used on a local level,” Levesque said. “It may be used on a county level.”
Every community would have access to the service, although more than a dozen have invested in their own systems. For example, Portsmouth uses the CodeRED community alert system, which makes 6,000 phone calls a minute, meaning everyone in the city can be notified of an emergency within two minutes, according to Police Chief Lou Ferland.
Portsmouth residents can opt in to the city’s database and can sign up by logging onto the city Web site at www.cityofportsmouth.com/police/cas.htm. Those without Internet access may call communications manager Gil Emery at 610-7411, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, to provide the information by telephone.
Required information includes first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code and primary phone number. Additional phone numbers can be entered as well.
sidents can opt in to the city’s database and can sign up by logging onto the city Web site at www.cityofportsmouth.com/police/cas.htm. Those without Internet access may call communications manager Gil Emery at 610-7411, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, to provide the information by telephone.
Required information includes first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code and primary phone number. Additional phone numbers can be entered as well.
The original story can be found here: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100708/NEWS/7080422/-1/NEWSMAP
Even PDAs and cell phones leave an emergency response-security void when absent or ignored. Wireless PA systems compatible with two-way radios can economically compensate for this weakness.
“Between Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech shootings, some of my security colleagues and I became concerned about how effectively we’d communicate with the community during emergencies,” says Tom Carey, Director of Security and Campus Safety at Bates College, a four-year independent liberal arts and sciences college in Lewiston, Maine.
“If a security incident occurred on campus, students, staff, or visitors could walk straight into trouble if we couldn’t get an emergency message to them in time,” adds Carey, who’s on the Domestic Preparedness committee of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), the leading voice of the campus public safety community. “While PDAs and cell phones are great, they leave a gap in emergency response for those not carrying or paying attention to them.”
When natural or man-made disasters occur, from tornado warnings to domestic or international terrorism, PDAs, cell phones and email are of little help to those without them or ignoring them. To better protect school campuses and the wider community, wireless PA systems compatible with existing two-way radio systems are economically filling the emergency response-security gap at some of the nation’s most pro-active campuses and municipalities.
Looking for Better Choices
Carey sought a fast, informative, comprehensive, and reliable emergency response system for Bates College, but was unsatisfied with the traditional choices.
More at: http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/MassNotification/BestPractices/?ArticleID=312&page=1
