TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Emergency Alerts to be Sent via Cell Phones and Computers

Emergency Alerts to be Sent via Cell Phones and Computers

Nicole King (ahn@telecom-digest.org)
Mon, 24 Jul 2006 00:25:12 -0500

Nicole King - All Headline News Staff Writer

(AHN) - The government will soon use Web sites, personal computers and
cell phones to send out warnings about national emergencies. Most
likely the warnings will be about natural disasters and terrorist
attacks.

Homeland Security expects to have the system working by the end of
next year. The government has been testing the system in the
Washington, D.C., area since October 2004.

The new system will update the emergency alerts planned during the
Cold War. President Harry Truman created the nation's first alert
system in 1951, which required radio stations to broadcast only on
certain frequencies during emergencies.

Only the president can order a national emergency alert.

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