Cellphones to Get Government Chips for Disaster Alerts

May 10th, 2011

You won’t be able to opt out of receiving messages from Dear Leader…

Some days, as I sift through all of this madness, I really miss George Carlin. I bet he’d just love this one.

Via: Boston Globe:

After more than five years of planning, a national emergency alert system that will send messages to cellphones during disasters is set to be launched in New York City and Washington by the end of year.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said the Commercial Mobile Alert System will direct messages to cellphones in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other serious emergency. The plan was approved by Congress in 2006.

Genachowski and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator, Craig Fugate, said the new system will be selective. “These are really focused on the highest levels of alerts, and those that require urgent action,’’ he said.

There will be at least three levels of messages, ranging from a critical national alert from the president to warnings about impending or occurring national disasters to alerts about missing or abducted children. People will be able to opt out of receiving all but the presidential alerts.

A special chip is required to allow a phone to receive the messages, and soon all new phones will have the technology. Some smartphones already have the chip, and software updates will be available when the network goes online later this year, Genachowski said.

Fugate said cellphones turned on in the vicinity of a disaster — an evacuation zone, for instance — would receive a message warning them of the impending danger. The alert would show up on the phone’s front screen, instead of the traditional text message inbox, and arrive with a distinct ring and probably a vibration.

2 Responses to “Cellphones to Get Government Chips for Disaster Alerts”

  1. pookie says:

    yet another reason for pookie to feel smug about not having a cellphone.

  2. jovialgeorge says:

    And given that the internal design of modern cellphones is such that the chips are connected via a bus that has all internal data traffic on it, a chip from the government can presumably have many functions beyond what the stated functions are. Getting alert messages is one thing, but I am pretty sure these devices will be sending alerts the other way too.

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