New York will serve as the launch market for the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) service, which will be operational in that market by 2012, according to Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who spoke at a press conference. The remainder of the country will receive the service at the midpoint of 2012, he said.
Out-of-band-technology should allow the text messages to go through even if mobile phone networks are experiencing heavy traffic. People in the area of the emergency will receive text messages of 90 characters or less about the situation.
People will receive messages based on location, regardless of where their phone is registered. For example, a person with a New York area code would not receive an alert about a crisis in Manhattan when traveling in Chicago.However, people with a Miami area code would receive a text message if they were in New York during an emergency there.
U.S. carriers must provide the service by 2012, but major carriers AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Sprint and Verizon Wireless have already adopted it prior to New York roll out.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski joined Fugate at the press conference. Executives from the mobile service providers also appeared at the event. AT&T Wireless President and CEO Randall Stephenson, Sprint's president of network operations Steve Elfman, T-Mobile USA's President and CEO Philipp Humm; and Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam joined the government officials.
PLAN will serve as an adjunct to the television emergency alert system, which is managed by the FCC and FEMA.
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