Comments on: SMS as part of Early Warning System

By: Chamath

Chamath — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 08:15:03 +0000

Readers interested in SMS and Sept 13th 2007 tsunami warning can read more here:
http://www.groundviews.org/2007/09/13/sms-news-alerts-during-emergencies-the-experience-of-jnw-and-the-tsunami-warning-of-13th-september-2007/

As well as Sanjana’s review :

http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2007/09/13/sms-alerts-during-emergencies-lessons-from-sri-lankas-tsuanmi-alert-on-13-september-2007/

By: Juxtaposing reality « ICT for Peacebuilding

Juxtaposing reality « ICT for Peacebuilding — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 08:54:39 +0000

[...] On the one hand, there are great ideas on using SMS technology for disaster warning and post-disaster relief coordination. [...]

By: Divakar Goswami

Divakar Goswami — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 05:51:01 +0000

The Indian Govt is promoting a multilingual (14 languages), sms-based alerting system. They claim it will be impervious to traffic jams and will be in place by 2007. In the first posting above in Jan 2005, I had said India had mobile teledensity of 5% and hence only a small fraction of our population will benefit from a mobile-based solutions. The mobile teledensity (CDMA GSM) in one and a half years in India has doubled (!!) and currently (Sept 2006) stands at 11.75% but this number is still too small for mobile-based solutions to reach most people in India. I hope the Indian govt's conception of a national early warning system does not rest solely on this sms-based solution and they put some hard work in also developing the last-mile of the hazard dissemination system. As LIRNEasia is doing in Sri Lanka.

Indian have a new disaster management system by 2007: Kapil Sibal
[...]
Sibal on Friday launched a multi-lingual disaster warning system using mobile phones.

The Indian Meteorological Department will post alerts on its Web site which will be sent as text messages to mobile phones and via wireless public address systems by India-based Geneva Software Technologies, marketing director Amar Singh said.

However, the alert will not be sent to everyone, as only those cell phone users who are likely to be in the affected area will receive the message.
Alert in regional languages

As soon as a warning is sounded, the software converts it into 14 different regional languages, mostly along the coastal regions, before finally transmitting it to your cell phones.

Moreover, even if one misses the message, he/she will get a recorded phone message.

"Our messaging centre identifies a local telecom tower and then sends the message," said R Amar Singh, Geneva Technologies.

Apart from natural disasters, the system can be used to alert people even in the case of terrorist strikes like the Mumbai blasts, and officials claim that it won't be affected by any network congestion.

Messages to get priority

"The message sent from the company will get priority and all other messages will be stopped," said Renu Bapana, Scientist, Technology Development Board[..]

By: Sanjana Hattotuwa

Sanjana Hattotuwa — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:02:50 +0000

There was a very interesting technology that I saw in action recently that used FM radio (stations) to transmit SMS messages to special watches that were able to receive the messages without any GSM / CDMA capability. The ability to use ordinary FM signals to broadcast SMS messages I thought was fascinating. I was told that the device that enabled a radio tower to broadcast SMS messages was about the size of a medium size brick, and would grow smaller as it evolved.

See http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2006/08/25/strong-angel-iii-interview-with-mark-frohardt-from-internews/

By: Trevor

Trevor — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 14:02:47 +0000

Hi,

This information may be of interest to people going to the beach and coastal areas, for vacation.
I came across a very interesting website to do with Tsunami Warnings via SMS to my mobile phone - http://tsunamisms.com

I’d been wondering if there was some service available that I could access while I was on vacation at the beach - I’d heard that there was.

…and a 3 month “Holiday” subscription only cost me $19 for peace of mind.

Definitely worth checking out - http://tsunamisms.com

Trevor.

By: Harsha Purasinghe

Harsha Purasinghe — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:25:26 +0000

Ralph,

I am someone who visited and had discussions about your SMS based tSunami warnning system during CommunicAsia in Singapore. Eventhough am yet to get a clear idea how your whole thing works (backend), it seems that it’s not a viable warnning method when it comes to country specific warnnings since many issues/areas needs to be covered.

Some basics facts are,

- Credibility of the warnning/Warnning Authority, Agency
- Addressing SMS congestion issues (overloads), are the systems configured through local/country specific operators to ensure priority SMS delivery?
- Addressing area specific warnnings
- Localization
- Practicality of the whole thing

If you look at this product for general warnning receive method for anyone who’s interested to receive tSunami alerts this might come handy as long as he’s willing to pay a price for it as well. (like tourists etc.) But still it all depends on how effective and credible is your information gathering mechanism and dispatching mechanism etc.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 12:41:29 +0000

The Tsunami Alarm System with SMS to mobile phones is finally there.

http://www.tsunami-alarm.info

Coupon code for discounts: INDONESIA607PR10

Please contact me for sales partner (Hotels, Newspapers, Journalists, Travel guides, Shops, …) issues.

Regards,
Ralph

By: Yasindu Laknath

Yasindu Laknath — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:33:11 +0000

hi i dont know how to connect my phone in to tsunami alert system if anybody knows please informe me yaslk@hotmail.com im sri lankan boy thanks

By: samarajiva

samarajiva — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:00:12 +0000

SMS used by victims buried under a massive mudslide to tell rescuers they are alive: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/international/asia/19filip.html?th&emc=th

By: Chanuka

Chanuka — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 04:51:29 +0000

Haven’t this made to the Guinness book of world records yet as the longest blog ever?

Just kidding. Some news in http://www.lankanewspapers.com goes to more than 400-500 comments.

By: samarajiva

samarajiva — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:51:51 +0000

From Kusal Epa:

Cellular Emergancey Alert System

The possibility of using SMS broadcast to alert users in a particular area in the event of a disaster is being promoted by CEASA - Cellular Emergency Alert System Association which has taken the initiative of promoting this concept in various countries. Further details are available in the website http://www.ceasa-international.com/

In normal SMS message sending quite a lot of network resources are used to individually address SMS messages to different users. The signicance of this system is that Cell broadcast facility which is available in the GSM system is used to alert users in a required base station area (cell) where the broadcast message is displayed in all phones. As this system uses less netowrk resources even in the event of mobile network being congested the possibility of alerting users is there.

Copied below is a news item of a Cellular Alert system trial in The Netherlands

Dutch test sending Disaster Text Messages

Agence France-Presse

THE HAGUE, Netherlands

The Dutch government started testing a special warning system that will send text messages to mobile phones to alert the population in the event of a disaster. The technology for the system, called “cellbroadcast,” allows the authorities to send text messages to mobile phone users in a specific area. On Wednesday the first tests started in Zoetermeer, a town in the west central Netherlands. “The advantage of this system is that it allows us to send messages without having to know the phone numbers of the users in the region. Instead of sending a message to a specific known cell phone you can send a text to all cell phones in specific zone,” Frank Wassenaar of the Dutch interior ministry told AFP.

The cell broadcast system will be used in addition to the other warning systems in place to be used if disaster strikes, such as sirens and special emergency broadcasts on radio and television. The project is a joint effort of the Dutch ministries of health, transport and economic affairs. The ministries will pay some $three million to use the cell broadcast technology over the next two years.

The government is working with mobile phone operators KPN, Vodafone and Telfort, which cover some 85 percent of all Dutch cell phone owners. In the future, tests with the system are planned in the Dutch capital Amsterdam and the south western province of Zeeland .

By: samarajiva

samarajiva — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 05:09:28 +0000

Another plea for the use of SMS in emergency warnings:

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/7088.asp

In Sri Lanka after the tsunami, SMS worked but was subject to delays (not all; but most SMS took 3-4 hrs to reach the recipient). The thread above discusses all aspects of the problem. Why are we not focusing on cell broadcasts?

By: samarajiva

samarajiva — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 07:39:18 +0000

Fadill, Please read the discussion thread above. The language issues are discussed in depth by people who are directly involved (LIRNEasia is not).

By: fadill

fadill — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 07:51:12 +0000

what are the technologies and tools we have to use to develop a system for send tamil/singala sms via phone to phone

By: Chanuka

Chanuka — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 08:49:21 +0000

Yes, Divakar is correct. In case of a disaster like caused by Katrina recently, the entire power system and the entire communication system will go down. So whatever the ‘last mile’ solution it will have no impact. But again, we do talk about warning here, so it is PRIOR TO the disaster, NOT AFTER that. Also not every disaster cut off the entire power system and the entire communication system. In some cases, some parts of these systems may still be up. It is a fact that the Police emergency call centre in Colombo (118) received so many messages immediately after the tsunami hit the coasts of Sri Lanka. Some of these messages were interrupted in the middle. So anyway, the point is, having a disaster warning system with some flaws is still much better than having none.

Let me also add that it will be natural for people to promote certain technologies or even products either for commercial reasons or sometimes because they just love the technology. With or without Katrina there are enough WiFi lovers among us. I do not think we should either accept or reject any technology just because one is promoting it.