New York City to pilot comprehensive emergency notification system

Are you in the emergency notification business? Read on. New York City has unveiled plans to pilot a comprehensive emergency notification system on cell phones with cell broadcast technology. Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler testified during the City Council meeting Wednesday that New York plans to begin the pilot program in early 2008. Officials say the program will include advanced cell broadcasting technology, which enables emergency information to be sent to millions of cell phones within a minute or two of an official alert. With the program, New York becomes one of the first major metropolitan areas to pilot a comprehensive emergency notification system on cell phones with cell broadcast technology. Houston-based CellCast Technologies, apparently the only company in the United States that facilitates messages being sent via cell broadcast, is commending New York City officials. “This emergency notification pilot program is a bold initiative that would have been very beneficial during New York City’s recent steam pipe explosion, subway flooding and air toxins emitted from the Lower Manhattan fire,” said Paul Klein, chief operating officer of CellCast, in a statement. “In each of these situations, those nearby could have received a cell broadcast alert with directions to safety, even if wireless traffic had crashed the networks.”

Already built into most cell phones, cell broadcast technology uses a feature that enables federal, state or local emergency managers to broadcast an emergency message with situational and procedural information to those in the affected area.

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