October 5, 2005
Dutch test boradcasting of disaster text messages
The Dutch government on Wednesday started testing a special warning system that will send text messages to mobile phones to alert the population in the event of a disaster., reports IOL.
The technology for the system, called 'cell broadcast', allows the authorities to send text messages to mobile phone users in a specific area. On Wednesday the first tests started in Zoetermeer, a town in the west central Netherlands.
"The advantage of this system is that it allows us to send messages without having to know the phone numbers of the users in the region. Instead of sending a message to a specific known cell phone you can send a text to all cell phones in a specific zone," Frank Wassenaar of the Dutch interior ministry told AFP."
Click here for other national SMS emergency systems from around the world.
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