Attachments
Key Points
• With 3 out of 4 people owning a mobile phone (in 2022), mobile networks have become a powerful communication channel to alert populations about an imminent hazard.
• Cell broadcast and location-based SMS are proven technologies in mobile alerting.
• Regulatory frameworks and financial incentives will effectively speed up the rollout of mobile based early warning systems.
State of the Art
In 2022, ninety-five percent of the world’s population had access to mobile broadband networks, and three quarters of people owned a mobile phone [1]. This makes mobile networks a powerful communication channel to alert populations about an imminent hazard, through two complementary technologies [2]:
• Location-based SMS sends a message to all mobile phones detected in an area.
• Cell-broadcast uses a different network than SMS, enabling messages to be sent almost immediately to millions of people without network congestion.
Using cell-broadcast (CB) and/or location-based SMS, warnings can be targeted to reach only those located in an at-risk area. The alerts are adaptable to specific requirements, such as a user’s language.
Core Needs
Many countries have yet to implement a mobile-based Early Warning System (EWS), so the public and private sectors should work together to accelerate the rollout. People involved should include government policy makers, emergency managers, telecommunications workers, donors, international organizations, and non-governmental organisations, as well as EWS experts, mobile network operators, and software companies providing safety services to governments.