The National Messaging System (NMS) is an upcoming Australian cell broadcast emergency population warning system [1] that is slated to replace the current location-targeted, SMS-based Emergency Alert system. [2] It is currently expected to be in operation by late 2024. [1]
The existing Emergency Alert Australia system, established in 2009, [3] is a location-based SMS (LB-SMS) system [4] and can also call landlines with automated alerts. [3] The system was used in the 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires, with 492,938 landline calls and 4,194,576 text messages sent to residents in affected areas. [5]
The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements in 2020 found that emergency warning systems were effective tools for governments to use to alert citizens of threats. [1] However, it found that limitations with Emergency Alert meant it was unable to reach everyone facing an "emerging or imminent threat", and that the underlying LB-SMS technology was considered outdated.
For landlines, automated audio alerts failed to be delivered when:
Text messages failed to be delivered when:
The commission also found that the state-based nature of Emergency Alert meant that it was possible for residents living near a state's border to receive an emergency alert sent by the system from the other state, as those residents' landlines may be connected to the network of the other state. For instance, New South Wales border residents could receive an alert issued by Queensland authorities because their proximity to Queensland meant that they were connected to the telephone network in Queensland.
It was found that a review of new and emerging telephony technologies for use beyond 2023–24 to improve the issuing of emergency alerts nationwide, including for those with a disability and/or are culturally/linguistically diverse had been commissioned by the Department of Home Affairs through Emergency Management Australia. The Commission recommended that the review, funding and upgrade of Emergency Alert be considered a priority to ensure it used the best available technology to improve the way warnings are issued, and to better cater to those with a disability and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. [5]
After receiving $2.2 million in funding from the 2021 budget, [6] in August 2021, the Australian Government issued a tender for proposals from suppliers for a cell broadcast-based emergency warning system, [7] with implementation slated for January 2022, and a three-year contract starting the same year. [4]
The NMS will utilise cell broadcast technology, which allows messages to be broadcast directly from a radio cell tower to all devices in the vicinity, rather than disseminating alerts through text messages to devices in a specified location as with the current Emergency Alert system. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says the technology will allow for "near real-time", simultaneous messaging to all devices in a specified area and is unconstrained by telecommunications network congestion, a problem which arose with the current system. Messages would have a character limit of 1395 characters, and would be able to have a priority level specified that would differentiate the way messages are displayed on receiving devices. [1]
Devices receiving alerts under the new system would display an on-screen message that cannot be easily dismissed. The technology would allow for multilingual messaging, but it is not clear yet how this functionality would be utilised by the NMS and what languages messages would be offered in. Location targeting under the new system would allow an area as small as a one-kilometre radius to be defined, and would also enable messages to be sent to individual local government areas (LGAs). [8]
Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages. Additionally, an intermediary service can facilitate a text-to-voice conversion to be sent to landlines.
Enhanced 911 is a system used in North America to automatically provide the caller's location to 911 dispatchers. 911 is the universal emergency telephone number in the region. In the European Union, a similar system exists known as E112 and known as eCall when called by a vehicle.
A pager, also known as a beeper or bleeper, is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknowledge, reply to, and originate messages using an internal transmitter. In Japanese, it was commonly called a pocket bell or pokeberu (ポケベル), which is an example of wasei-eigo.
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible computer. Text messages may be sent over a cellular network or may also be sent via satellite or Internet connection.
Mobile phone spam is a form of spam, directed at the text messaging or other communications services of mobile phones or smartphones. As the popularity of mobile phones surged in the early 2000s, frequent users of text messaging began to see an increase in the number of unsolicited commercial advertisements being sent to their telephones through text messaging. This can be particularly annoying for the recipient because, unlike in email, some recipients may be charged a fee for every message received, including spam. Mobile phone spam is generally less pervasive than email spam, where in 2010 around 90% of email is spam. The amount of mobile spam varies widely from region to region. In North America, mobile spam steadily increased after 2008 and accounted for half of all mobile phone traffic by 2019. In parts of Asia up to 30% of messages were spam in 2012.
A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefore, they can work in most geographic locations on the Earth's surface, as long as open sky and the line-of-sight between the phone and the satellite are provided. Depending on the architecture of a particular system, coverage may include the entire Earth or only specific regions. Satellite phones provide similar functionality to terrestrial mobile telephones; voice calling, text messaging, and low-bandwidth Internet access are supported through most systems. The advantage of a satellite phone is that it can be used in such regions where local terrestrial communication infrastructures, such as landline and cellular networks, are not available.
A public-safety answering point (PSAP), sometimes called a public-safety access point, is a type of call center where the public's telephone calls for first responders are received and handled. It takes calls from any landline, mobile phone line, or VoIP line. It can also happen that when 112 is dialed in then a logic is implemented by mobile or network operators to route the call to the nearest police station. Such call centers exist in most countries to answer calls to an emergency telephone number. Trained telephone operators are also usually responsible for dispatching these emergency services. Most PSAPs are now capable of caller location for landline calls, and many can handle mobile phone locations as well, where the mobile phone company has a handset to location system. Some can also use voice broadcasting where outgoing voice mail can be sent to many phone numbers at once, in order to alert people to a local emergency such as a chemical spill.
A landline is a telephone connection that uses metal wires from the owner's premises also referred to as: POTS, Twisted pair, telephone line or public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to mobile phones rather than fixed-location phones. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the line may blur.
The history of mobile phones covers mobile communication devices that connect wirelessly to the public switched telephone network.
An emergency population warning is a method where by local, regional, or national authorities can contact members of the public to warn them of an impending emergency. These warnings may be necessary for a number of reasons, including:
Cell Broadcast (CB) is a method of sending short messages to multiple mobile telephone users in a defined area at the same time. It is defined by the ETSI's GSM committee and 3GPP and is part of the 2G, 3G, 4G LTE (telecommunication) and 5G standards. It is also known as Short Message Service-Cell Broadcast . Unlike Short Message Service-Point to Point (SMS-PP), Cell Broadcast is a one-to-many geo-targeted and geo-fenced messaging service.
A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, satellite access, business applications, payments, multimedia playback and streaming, digital photography, and video games. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones ; mobile phones that offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.
Wireless Emergency Alerts, is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency alerts to mobile devices such as cell phones and pagers. Organizations are able to disseminate and coordinate emergency alerts and warning messages through WEA and other public systems by means of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
An emergency communication system (ECS) is any system that is organized for the primary purpose of supporting one-way and two-way communication of emergency information between both individuals and groups of individuals. These systems are commonly designed to convey information over multiple types of devices, from signal lights to text messaging to live, streaming video, forming a unified communication system intended to optimize communications during emergencies. Contrary to emergency notification systems, which generally deliver emergency information in one direction, emergency communication systems are typically capable of both initiating and receiving information between multiple parties. These systems are often made up of both input devices, sensors, and output/communication devices. Therefore, the origination of information can occur from a variety of sources and locations, from which the system will disseminate that information to one or more target audiences.
Emergency Mobile Alerts (EMA) is an alerting network in New Zealand designed to disseminate emergency alerts to mobile devices. Emergency Mobile Alerts are messages about emergencies sent by New Zealand authorised emergency agencies to capable mobile phones. The alerts are sent to participating wireless providers who will distribute the alerts to their customers with compatible devices via Cell Broadcast, a technology best suitable for public warning as it simultaneously delivers messages to all phones using a Mobile Cell tower. Similar solutions are implemented in the United States, The Netherlands (NL-Alert), European Union (EU-Alert), Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Chile, Philippines. One2many B.V. provides this modern Emergency Mobile Alert system including the Cell Broadcast systems and the CAP based centralised Public Warning management system.
Reverse 1-1-2 is a public safety communications technology used by public safety organizations throughout the world to communicate with groups of people in a defined geographic area. Reverse 1-1--2 allows authorities to rapidly warn those in danger, directly through their mobile phones.
EU-Alert is the generic term for the European Public Warning Service based upon Cell Broadcast technology.
Emergency Cell Broadcast System (ECBS) is an alert broadcast system in the Philippines, designed to disseminate emergency alerts and warnings to mobile devices via cell broadcast services (CBS)
The United Kingdom's mobile phone alert system is an emergency population warning system that uses cell broadcast. The coalition government first considered the technology in 2013-2015 but the project was shelved due to concerns over the cost, following the coronavirus pandemic the first test alert sent in May 2021. The warning system is intended for use in major incidents such as flooding or terror attacks. The Emergency Alert System was launched on 19 March 2023, and tested on a nationwide basis for the first time on 23 April 2023.