Dutch Test Emergency Cell Phone Alert: Link to Article
By TOBY STERLING Associated Press Writer

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Cell phones throughout a downtown hotel beeped simultaneously Tuesday with an alert: there is a suspicious package in the building.

It was a drill, run by Dutch authorities testing an emergency "cell broadcasting" system that sends a text message to every mobile phone in a defined area.

Representatives from 21 national governments, New York City and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, watched the signal go out to cell phones throughout the Sofitel hotel in Amsterdam. About half the people in the building then followed instructions and evacuated.

"We want to see what worked and what didn't," said David Webb, of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program. "The EU (European Union) is really leading the way with this technology."

Mobile providers resisting SOS alerts: Link to Article
International Herald Tribune - TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006

BERLIN, South Korea, the Netherlands and possibly even tiny Appleton, Wisconsin, are starting to use a little-known but widely available technology called cellular broadcasting to send emergency text messages to mobile phone users threatened by weather, industrial accidents or terrorism.

Text message broadcasts could provide disaster alerts: Link to Article
NewScientist.com   06 January 2005

A feature already built-in to most cellphones could be used to alert every mobile phone user in a specific region to impending disasters, such as the tsunami that devastated south east Asia on 26 December, say experts.

Bush Orders Update of Emergency Alert System: Link to Article
washingtonpost.com Tuesday, June 27, 2006; A04

President Bush yesterday ordered Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to overhaul the nation's hodgepodge of public warning systems, acknowledging a critical weakness unaddressed since the 2001 terrorist attacks and exposed again last year by Hurricane Katrina.

The Emergency Alert System, best known for weather bulletins and Amber Alerts for missing children, should be upgraded to explore communicating by cellphones, personal digital assistants and text pagers targeted to geographic areas or specific groups, U.S. officials said.

Bush orders overhaul of public alert system: Link to Article

The new system, under DHS' purview, should take full advantage of the latest communications technology, according to the executive order.