A press conference was held Tuesday, May 10th with U.S. Government officials and executives from some of the nation’s top mobile carriers. The topic of conversation was PLAN (Personal Localized Alerting Network), a plan (no pun intended) to roll out emergency text messages based on a cell phone’s location. PLAN is intended to be an add-on to the television emergency alert system WARN (Warning, Alert Response Network), operated by the FCC and FEMA and will be rolled out to all mobile phone subscribers by mid-2012.
The text message alerts will consist of 90 character messages and will fall into one of three categories:
- Messages from the President
- Imminent threats in a specific region
- Amber alerts (the country’s alert for missing children)
Alerts will have a unique ringtone and vibration so they can easily be distinguished from normal messages. All messages except those from the President can be disabled in your phone’s main settings screen. Apparently, everyone is allowed to ignore imminent threats and Amber alerts but if the President wants to share what he had for breakfast, all must listen!
Is PLAN a necessary emergency alert platform or an attempt by the US Government to ensure that media messages are heard by all?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
