Pollyana

One of the recommendations that came out of this year's bushfire tragedy in Victoria was that a national warning system for such events needed to be developed. This had actually been talked about for years in the individual States (in Qld it was discussed in some detail after Tropical Cyclone Larry) but it has now finally come into being.

There will be a lot more about it in the media over the coming weeks/months, but the launch is this week so I thought I'd just make people aware of it.

Emergency Alert is being launched this week, and communities can now be alerted to flood, cyclone and bushfire emergencies via a voice message on landline phones and text messages on mobile phones.

The system can send 300 text messages per second to mobile phones and up to 1,000 voice messages per minute to landlines
Warnings at first can only be sent to landlines and mobile phones based on billing addresses, but authorities are hoping to launch the second stage of the system next year where all mobile phones in an area under threat can receive warnings, allowing visitors to be notified.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...02/2759416.htm
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-n...1202-k4de.html

Daydreamer123

Thats interesting! How would it work if you are on a pre-paid phone?

lonndongeek

If there's no billing address associated with a mobile it won't work, hence stage 2.

Pollyana

When you buy a SIM card here even if its a pre-paid one, you have to activate it by registering your name and address. Its those addresses which will be used to start with until the technology catches up. Once Stage Two goes live it will work on the signal the phone is receiving, rather than on the location of the registered address.

Until Stage Two comes in therefore, people still using UK registered SIM cards, or ones registered in another area won't receive the right alerts - UK registered won't get any, those from other areas will get alerts for where they are registered. There is a push to bring in Stage Two asap, but I think they've done well to get the system this far in such a short time, as its a huge undertaking.

Daydreamer123

Cool thanks.

I wasnt saying that I wasnt impressed, it sounds brilliant a really good idea. I was just curious. But I do vaguely remember now, needing to give an address when I got my sim card.

Hopefully I wont ever need it, being pretty much in the city, it would have to be pretty severe to get to me. I was more curious about it.

Pollyana

No, thats fine, I did get it the way you meant it
Hopefully it won't get used too much; I think the main uses in Queensland will be bushfires and tsunami warnings. We get too many storm warnings to use it for that, personally speaking, as it people wouldn't take it seriously enough after a while if it gets over-used.

Sammy T

Hi

On the weekend of the devastating Vic bushfires, I received a text message from Vic emergency services warning me of the situation and advicing me to check local news to see if I needed to evacuate. Sounds like a good idea but I live in Tas

Apparently the wrong info was given by Telstra to the emergency services!

Sam

DunRoaminTheUK

Spam?

Pollyana

Telstra don't actually give the Emergency Services any info. The message is sent out by Telstra after being authorised by the Emergency Service concerned. The ES defines the area to be warned, Telstra then sends the message to all phones with registered billing addresses in that area.
Might be worth checking that the billing address held by Telstra for your phone is correct.

Having said that, whatever system was used to send out warnings in Feb was different from this, as this has been developed since and so far has only been used for testing.

Pollyana

No, it isn't.

I sometimes wonder why I bother.

DunRoaminTheUK

Ok, here's the thing.....you ready?........

It was (supposed to be) a joke....

Pollyana

Unfortunately I think a lot of the public will actually think it IS spam and will ignore it.....

DunRoaminTheUK

Oh well, they probably need to removed from the human gene pool anyway so it's self-serving really.....All's good....

Sammy T

It was obviously Telstra that messed up as hundreds of people in Tas got the text, sending a "Mexican wave" of panic across the isle! But as you say this is a new method and will hopefully help to alert the right people in the right place.

Sam

Pollyana

As one of those in the hot seat and possibly pressing the button, I can only say.....