MHA plans location-based SMS alerts for crisis situations

ALL content used in this not-for-profit blog remain the property of their respective owners.
http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/mha-plans-location-based-sms-alerts-crisis-situations-20

The mobile phone in your hand may soon save your life in a disaster.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is planning to tap mobile phone networks to warn the public of danger in an emergency.

While it is not the first time the authorities have sent out SMS alerts - the police have a subscription-based crime notification system - it will be MHA's first "location-based" system.

Under this system, warnings can be sent to active mobile phones in a particular area without users having to pre-register.

The system will allow "time-critical" messages to be broadcast in "any selected geographical area in Singapore", according to MHA tender documents on the new system that The Straits Times obtained.

Examples of crisis situations identified by the ministry as warranting such warnings include terror attacks and riots. The ministry also wants the notifications to be sent out quickly, at "no less than 30 SMSes per second".

Mobile phone users do not need to register in advance for the service and they are identified based on their last-known locations provided by the telephone companies' networks.

But users can opt out.

The ministry did not spell out when the system will be ready.