Mobile Emergency Alert Standards Adopted
The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Monday that they have adopted design standards for a new emergency alert system that can be received by and delivered over mobile phones. The Commercial Mobile Alert System allows federal, state and local government officials to send 90 character geographically targeted text messages to the public warning of imminent threats to life and property, Amber alerts, and presidential emergency messages, the agencies said.
"Today's announcement brings us one step closer to ensuring that Americans receive critical emergency alerts and warnings to protect themselves on the go, anywhere, anytime," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. As mandated by the FCC last year, those commercial mobile service providers that have opted to participate in the CMAS effort will have 28 months to develop, test and deploy the system and deliver mobile alerts to the public by 2012.
Steve Largent, president of the wireless industry group CTIA, said in a news release that his industry believes it can beat the timeline set by the FCC. "With today's announcement, wireless carriers and suppliers will seize this opportunity to work on finishing the development, testing, and deployment of the alerting system to benefit American consumers," he said.
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