15 December 2009

ACT TO TEST EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM

| dr phil
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MEDIA RELEASE from the ESA website

A trial of the new EMERGENCY ALERT telephone warning system will be conducted in the ACT this Thursday 17 December 2009.

Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell announced the ACT Government will trial the new national telephone warning system, EMERGENCY ALERT, on Thursday 17 December 2009.

“The EMERGENCY ALERT system will provide our emergency services with another important option to alert the ACT community to an imminent or immediate threat or emergency situation,” Mr Corbell said.

“This message to mobile phones and landlines in any given area of the ACT will be in addition to already existing measures. These include real time radio, television and internet alerts and warnings via MOU agreements between the ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) and local media outlets.

“This week’s trial of the EMERGENCY ALERT will be conducted in Turner, Lyneham, O’Connor, Hall and Hume. Urban, rural and industrial areas have all been chosen to cover a range of possible scenarios.”


A comprehensive community awareness campaign will be conducted in the coming days to notify the ACT community of this important trial.

People with a landline telephone in the chosen trial areas will receive a test EMERGENCY ALERT voice message featuring the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) sound. People with a mobile phone who have their billing address within the chosen trial areas will receive a test text EMERGENCY ALERT message.

“This means if your mobile phone billing address is within one of the chosen trial areas and you are not physically at that location at the time the test message is sent out you will still receive the test text message,” Mr Corbell said.

“People who receive the test EMERGENCY ALERT message will not be required to take any action.”

EMERGENCY ALERT has been developed by Victoria on behalf of Australian States and Territories including the ACT following agreement at the Australian Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in April this year.

Following the trial and completion of the commissioning phase, an implementation date for EMERGENCY ALERT in the ACT will be determined.

For more information about the EMERGENCY ALERT trial in the ACT go to the ACT Emergency Services website www.esa.act.gov.au or call Canberra Connect on 13 22 81.

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tommy said :

There’s a bit of a design flaw with this system:

1. if you are in an organisation which has internal phone numbers which are not accessible from the carrier networks, you won’t get a call
2. if you are in an organisation which has lots of externally available phone numbers but only have 30 or so ISDN channels (eg most government departments), when ESA do their mass call your ISDN service will be congested (won’t even be able to call 000 while this happens).

Oddly they are targeting mobiles based on billing address – which also means that multi-state companies which single bill (in another state other than the ACT – or even a different suburb) won’t be contacted. Telstra has a product whereby it can contact mobile services (ie their own) based on their geographical location.

Anyway – as they say it’s only one of several measures…

And, what if you previously (for sakes of the trial only) lived in these areas’s, and have forgoten to cancel number with white pages, and don’t even live in the affected area anymore. Would freek me out, if I was being warned of a fire in Belconnen (previous address), and I get a call while living in Tuggers. And what if you are on holiday OS, and get a call. Un-necessary panic from abroad caused maybe?!?!?

phototext said :

“The message will be sent to the address given to the provide when the phone is activated.”

Who the hell changes the address details for a cheapass prepaid mobile when you move house.

Honestly, I tried but my phone company refuses to do it unless I send them a fax, with a copy of my photo ID and a signed statement of my new address. In this day and age, who the hell uses a fax, when everything else done online with my account is over the internet? Doesnt bother me if Virgin doesnt want my proper contact details, just means I might get slightly less junk mail than I would if they actually had my new address.

“The message will be sent to the address given to the provide when the phone is activated.”

Ahhh.

Who the hell changes the address details for a cheapass prepaid mobile when you move house.

I live in Sydney now and received a test message today for O’Connor residents, which makes sense as I have only been here for a few months. However, my housemate also received a message and she has been in Sydney for 5 years.

Me thinks their database needs updating, god knows how many residents of O’Connor didn’t get a message or won’t in an emergency.

Has anyone received the message? I live in Turner and have done so for the past 12 years. I have a pre paid mobile and haven’t received the warning message – yet.

“A comprehensive community awareness campaign will be conducted in the coming days to notify the ACT community of this important trial.”

The only thing I have heard about this is a tiny news snippet on Triple J news this morning. Hardly comprehensive.

Err, why has it taken so long for this to happen? Nearly 7 years from the 2003 fires.

Pre-paid mobile phones are included in the new alert system. The message will be sent to the address given to the provide when the phone is activated.

Thoroughly Smashed4:16 pm 16 Dec 09

Bluenomi said :

It also doesn’t get sent to pre paid mobiles. I suspect it is because of the billing address issue but considering you have to provide an address to get one you think they could get it to work.

Does anyone know if the television alerts cover foxtel or only free to air channels? Cause as a person who mostly watches foxtel with no home phone and a pre paid mobile and only listens to the radio sometimes in the car, I’m unlikely to get any warning…

Never fear! You probably will notice everyone else running around like a headless chicken.

It also doesn’t get sent to pre paid mobiles. I suspect it is because of the billing address issue but considering you have to provide an address to get one you think they could get it to work.

Does anyone know if the television alerts cover foxtel or only free to air channels? Cause as a person who mostly watches foxtel with no home phone and a pre paid mobile and only listens to the radio sometimes in the car, I’m unlikely to get any warning…

and what makes you think they’ll hear the phone ring over the din from the air conditioning and tv ssa? : ) Anyone who didn’t have the common sense to know there was something wrong on that Saturday in 03 is scarcely likely to be saved by a phone call -cant do any harm to try I guess but then they’ll be asking for the government to pay for a taxi to come and take them to safety…

Like most of these type of systems, you can not get the message out to every single person. You can dig deeper and say, people’s mobile might be turned off, out of battery, no service, on silent, people might already be on the phone, etc..

This new system is an addition to the already existing communication plans. Any thing that makes the current system better is a good thing.

Despite the flaws, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick.

If it will prevent just one instance of people sitting inside with the a/c and telly on, completely oblivious to what is going on outside until the house is actually on fire (this did happen in Duffy in January 2003, to more than one household) then it’s a good thing.

There’s a bit of a design flaw with this system:

1. if you are in an organisation which has internal phone numbers which are not accessible from the carrier networks, you won’t get a call
2. if you are in an organisation which has lots of externally available phone numbers but only have 30 or so ISDN channels (eg most government departments), when ESA do their mass call your ISDN service will be congested (won’t even be able to call 000 while this happens).

Oddly they are targeting mobiles based on billing address – which also means that multi-state companies which single bill (in another state other than the ACT – or even a different suburb) won’t be contacted. Telstra has a product whereby it can contact mobile services (ie their own) based on their geographical location.

Anyway – as they say it’s only one of several measures…

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