Will the NBN Work in an Emergency?

Australia’s telephone network is being phased out and replaced by the National Broadband Network (NBN). Also analogue broadcasting is being replaced by digital services.  But will these services be suitable replacement for use in an emergency, such as a natural disaster? Emergency Management Australia publish a Emergency Communications Manual (Manual 38) as part of the Australian emergency management handbook and manual series (AEMs). This has some reasonable advice, but unfortunately the latest edition is from 1998, well before the era of digital broadcasting, smart phones and the NBN:

"Communications are vital in responding to disasters and continuing efforts are necessary to ensure that equipment and service providers are responsive to the needs of the public safety agencies. On a number of occasions, failure of electronic communications has been a major problem in disaster response. Not only should equipment be serviceable and reliable, but effective management of communication resources and information is essential during emergencies and disasters.

Communication networks will be required between organisations and agencies to ensure proper coordination of preparedness measures and response operations.

There is also a requirement for community information, which covers prevention, preparedness, response and recovery (PPRR). People must be aware of hazards they face and how to avoid them, or reduce their effects. They need to be aware of emergency/disaster management arrangements in their local area and when a threat emerges they must be warned of it and advised what to do before and post-impact.

Typical communication measures under the elements of PPRR include the following:

Prevention/Mitigation:

e. Correct siting of communication assets, ie telephone exchanges, mobile phone facilities, broadcast stations and major computing networks. ...".

From:  Emergency Communications Manual (Manual 38), Australian emergency management handbook and manual series (AEMs), edition 2, 1998

Emergency Warning System for China

According to a report in the People's Daily newspaper, China has started work on a national public emergency warning to issue alerts within ten minutes ("China to build 10 min emergency warning system", Han Shasha, People's Daily Online,m 16:24, November 23, 2011). No technician details are provided, but it is likely that text messages via mobile phones will be used.

There have been problems experienced with prompt message delivery with the landine voice message part of the Australian Emergency Alert System. There have also been problems with formatting and addressing of the SMS based text messages. China should be able to learn from this experience.

One option might be to ring land-line phones with a distinctive cadence to alert citizens of an emergency. They could then turn on their TV, radio, or mobile phone for details. This would get around the problem of having to broadcast the voice message over the phone network, which is not set up for broadcast. This would also alert the citizens to an emergency situation, with them then in the frame of mind to receive the details.

Also use of cell broadcast for the delivery of text messages to mobile phones would be an option to consider. This gets around addressing and capacity problems, but still has some technical problems of its own.

Australian Emergency System Capacity

An Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Emergency Alert Program was carried out by Torrens Resilience Institute, 30 July 2011. They found the Emergency Alert system achieved its purpose, with 83% of the people receiving messages. But this was contradicted by the report "Use of Emergency Alert during the Mitchell Hazardous Material Fire" released by the ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell, in September 2011. This estimated that only 16% of residents received voice messages and 63% for text messages. Also the system was estimated to require several hours to send an alert to 80,000 residents, not the reuired 30 minutes.

Federal Government Rejects ACT Criticism of Emergency Alert System

The Australian Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, issued a median release "Australia's emergency alert system working well" (4 October 2011). This rejects criticism of the national Emergency Alert system by the ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbel. This followed problems with alerting the public to a fire in Canberra 15 to 16 September 2011. On the information available it appears that the federal position is the correct one. Problems were due to the ACT Emergency Services not using the emergency alert system correctly, rather than a failure of the system. The ACT Government needs to improve training and procedures for alerting Canberra residents to future emergencies.

Canberra Emergency News Alert Service

The ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell, announced an Internet based emergency alert service for Canberra on 30 September 2011. The ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) will now provide information about emergencies via "ESA News Alerts" on the ESA home page, ESA News Alerts RSS feed, ESA Twitter account (@ACT_ESA); and
ESA Facebook account. Also there is an XML GeoRSS feed and ESA Incidents Map.

However, the minister's announcement did not address the problems which occurred with the formatting of text messages during a factory fire 15 and 16 September 2011. Poor formatting of the text messages cased confusion for the public. If the ESA is unable to correctly format a text message, then adding extra communication channels could compound the problem, adding to the confusion seen during the last emergency.

In addition the ESA web site failed an HTML validation test, with two errors. The web page scored zero out of 100 on the W3C mobileOK Checker, with three errors classed as critical. This could impede access to emergency information, particularly for people using mobile devices.

The ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Service needs to ensure that ESA has put in place procedures to ensure that clear and consistent messages are prepared for all communication channels and that the ESA web site meets technical standards.

Report on Use of Emergency Alert in Canberra

The ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell, today released a report on "Use of Emergency Alert during the Mitchell Hazardous Material Fire". The eight page report notes problems with the system used to issue a recorded message to land-line telephones and SMS to mobile phones on 16 September 2011.

The minister's media release refers to the limitations in the national system, but does not deficiencies in the use of the system by ACT Government staff. In particular the text message contained the spelling errors Insadents for incidents.
Resadents for residents. Media reports indicated that as a result some of the public thought this was a hoax this is a well known issue with credible emergency communications. It is not clear why this failure in procedure was not picked up in the training and instructions issued.

The report notes that there are other means of issuing emergency messages, such as the web. However the report does not addresses the deficiencies in the ESA web site I noted on the day of the emergency.

Use of Emergency Alert during the Mitchell Hazardous Material Fire 16 September 2011

27/9/2011
Page 1

1. Background
Emergency Alert is a nationally coordinated telephony based warning system designed to send messages to the landline and mobile telephones of residents in a defined geographic area. The ACT is a partner in Emergency Alert and has established a capacity to use the system operationally in the ACT. Emergency Alert is not an “opt in” or “opt out” system, as it is based on the national telephone database of all Australian telephone providers.

Emergency Alert is operational, allowing messages to be sent to landline and mobile telephones in a defined geographic area determined by the billing addresses that occur in that area.

It will not provide messages to mobile phones within the target area that have billing addresses outside that area. Likewise, it will send messages to mobile phones outside the target area if their billing address is inside that area.

For the hazardous material fire at Mitchell, two Emergency Alert campaigns were run, and messages were issued. The commencement of messaging was at 0138 and 0319 on the morning of 16 September 2011 for the first and second campaign respectively.

This was the first operational use of the system in the ACT. Previous uses have been for testing only.

2. First use of Emergency Alert – 16 September 2011 – 0138 hours

2.1 The Messages

The first Emergency Alert was issued at 0138 hours on Friday 16 September 2011.

• The first voice message advised:
  
  Emergency. Emergency. The ACT Fire Brigade is responding to a Chemical incident in Mitchell. Residents are advised to evacuate the suburb immediately including the racecourse and EPIC. Further information is available via Canberra Connect, or go to www.esa.act.gov.au.
• The first text message advised
  
  Emergency. Emergency. The ACT Fire Brigade is responding to a Chemical incident in Mitchell. Residents are advised to evacuate the suburb immediately.

Spelling errors in the original text message are corrected above.

There has been criticism levelled at the ACT Government regarding the messages issued due to the
spelling errors in both messages issued via SMS. It is regrettable that this led to uncertainty regarding the origin and authenticity of the messages for some recipients.

Specifically, the following spelling errors were contained in the text message:

Insadents for incidents.
Resadents for residents.

The Emergency Alert System issues warnings via voice recording and SMS based on predefined templates for a particular emergency.

The template of the voice message requires words to be spelt phonetically by the originating agency to ensure that words will be pronounced correctly when automatically converted from text to voice by the system. However, this is not a requirement for warnings issued via SMS. This distinction was not taken into consideration at the time the Emergency Alerts were issued with the result that phonetic spellings were inadvertently copied into SMS messages.

2.2 Target Area

The Target Area was to registered billing addresses for mobile and landline telephones within the suburb of Mitchell including Exhibition Park (EPIC) and the Canberra Racecourse. The data provided in this report is based on information provided by the system manager on 17 September 2011.

Within this area:

22,598 landline services were identified. 1
2,693 mobile services were identified.
A campaign duration of 30 minutes was nominated.

Analysis of the Geocoded National Address File (GNAF) which is administered by the Public Sector Mapping Agency identified 1421 individual address points in the first target area, which is significantly less than the 22,598 landline services identified. This reflects the target area was largely commercial and industrial, and may include telephone exchanges. The ESA will raise with the system managers issues associated with the high proportion of landline services identified compared with the actual number of address points to potentially reduce the time required to send messages by the system.

2.3 Call Statistics

Of the 22,598 voice messages to fixed landline services identified in the target area:

5,851 (25%) of calls were answered.
2,375 (10%) of lines were identified as busy.
3,652 (16%) were not answered.
9,836 (44%) were invalid calls. 2
884 (4%) were fax lines.
NB: 22,598 (100%) of numbers were dialled.

Of the 2,693 mobile services identified in the target area3:

1,696 (63%) of text messages were delivered.4
895 (33%) of text messages expired.
58 (2%) text messages were undelivered.

3. Second use of Emergency Alert 16 September 2011 – 0319 hours
3.1 The Messages
The second Emergency Alert was issued at 0319 hours on Friday 16 September 2011.

• The second voice message advised:
  
  The ACT Fire Brigade is responding to a chemical incident in Mitchell. Residents of Franklin, Crace, Harrison, Watson, Downer, Kaleen, Lyneham, Hackett are advised to shelter indoors, immediately. If you are indoors, close all windows, doors, vents and turn off air conditioning. Further information is available via Canberra Connect, or go www.esa.act.gov.au.
• The second text message advised
  
  The ACT Fire Brigade responding to chemical incident in Mitchell. Residents of Franklin, Crace, Harrison, Watson, Downer, Kaleen, Lyneham, Hackett stay indoors.

Again, spelling errors in the original text are corrected above.

There has been criticism levelled at the ACT Government regarding the messages issued due to the
spelling errors in both messages issued via SMS. It is regrettable that this led to uncertainty regarding the origin and authenticity of the messages for some recipients.

Specifically, the following spelling errors were contained in the text message:

Insadents for incidents.
Resadents for residents.

The Emergency Alert System issues warnings via voice recording and SMS based on predefined templates for a particular emergency.

The template of the voice message requires words to be spelt phonetically by the originating agency to ensure that words will be pronounced correctly when automatically converted from text to voice by the system. However, this is not a requirement for warnings issued via SMS. This distinction was not taken into consideration at the time the Emergency Alerts were issued with the result that phonetic spellings were inadvertently copied into SMS messages.

3.2 Target Area

The Target Area was to registered billing addresses for mobile and landline telephones within the suburbs of Franklin, Crace, Harrison, Watson, Downer, Kaleen, Lyneham, Hackett and Mitchell.

Within this area:

86,801 landline services were identified.5
83,774 Mobile services were identified.
A campaign duration of 30 minutes was nominated.

3.3 Call Statistics

Of the 86,801 voice messages to fixed landline services identified in the target area:

13,784 (16%) of calls were answered.
2,690 (3%) were invalid calls.6
69,229 (80%) were not dialled.
1,098 (1%) were fax lines.

Of the 83,774 mobile services identified in the target area7:

52,700 (63%) of text messages were delivered. 8
26,740 (32%) of text messages expired.
3,049 (4%) of text messages were undelivered.

4. Analysis

In preparing the campaigns, there was an expectation that the alerts issued for the target area would be delivered within 30 minutes due to the nature and urgency of the incident. The system captured the identified areas and accepted the allocated campaign time nominated by the ESA. It was not until the results of the two campaigns were provided that it was identified that a significant number of phone messages and SMS messages were not delivered as the time specified for the system to dial all of the numbers with billing addresses in the target area proved to be too short. These are identified as “text messages expired” or “not dialled” fixed landline calls above.

While the system does identify the necessary time duration to complete a campaign, the system does not provide a warning to the operator that the proposed campaign is too short.

These matters were discussed with the managers of the system. With the size of the second campaign, it was estimated it could have taken 6-7 hours to complete – this would have finished sending messages around 9:00 - 10:00 am, well after the “shelter in place” advice had been lifted.

The system managers advised on a number of options that may assist in disseminating these advices:

a. Prioritise SMS messages by sending these prior to commencing fixed landline messaging;
b. Split the target areas into a number of separate campaigns, although this may not assist where the system is accessing a single telephone exchange to deliver the messages.

These issues did not arise in previous testing over relatively smaller areas. Testing undertaken on 7 June 2011 covered Dunlop and targeted 1573 fixed landlines and over 5000 mobile services. This test resulted in approximately 88% of landlines being answered and text messages sent to approximately 67% of mobile phones within 45 minutes.

Summary and recommended actions

Notwithstanding limitations arising from a discrepancy between the identified target area and the nominated campaign time, the Emergency Alert successfully provided warning messages to a significant number of people in the community that were acted upon.

Also, it is important to note that Emergency Alert is a single component of a comprehensive series of tools for alerting the community. The ESA’s systems for alerting the community to emergencies via the media and via the ESA website homepage were successful. This was demonstrated through local media resuming local broadcasting early on Friday morning. For example, ABC local media commenced broadcasting at approximately 2:00 am, compared with their normal commencement of local broadcasting at 5:30 am. In addition, the ESA with the assistance of ACT Policing used person-to-person notification in the early stages of the incident to warn those people who were staying at
EPIC when the incident occurred.

The wording and issue of any future alerts using the Emergency Alert System will be critically examined as part of the ACT Fire Brigade After Action Review for this incident. Pending outcomes of the review the ESA will undertake the following measures in relation to the future use of the system:

1. Additional training on the use of the Emergency Alert system to identified ESA staff;
2. Review of the internal procedures relating to the operation of the system, including quality assurance and authorisation processes;
3. Recognition that in future campaigns, the use of multiple and smaller campaigns may be more appropriate where a large number of voice and text messages are required to be delivered; and
4. The Emergency Services Commissioner will provide written feedback to the systems managers about the ACT’s experience of this operational activation of the system, including to suggest potential improvements in the operator’s interface, such as the provision of a “Red Flag” warning for circumstances where the size of the campaign exceeds the time nominated for delivery of the message.

It is also recommended that:

5. The ACT raise issues associated with the ACT’s operational use of the system in appropriate emergency management fora (including the National Emergency Management Committee and the Standing Council on Police and Emergency Management) at the next convenient opportunity.


1 The number of fixed landline phones for the first alert message was much greater than mobile services. In residential areas, there are generally a significantly higher proportion of mobile telephones to fixed landlines.

2 Numbers incorrectly identified due to customer’s records not being updated.

3 These figures are based on the campaign summary report provided by the systems manager and it is noted for the mobile services the “delivered”, “expired” and “undelivered” messages do not equal the total services identified. This
discrepancy will be raised with the system managers.

4 The system does not identify whether “delivered” text messages were opened and read by the recipients. Likewise, the system does not identify whether these mobiles that received the messages were inside or outside the target area at the time of delivery.

5 The number of fixed landline phones for the second alert message was similar to mobile services. As previously noted, in residential areas there are generally a significantly higher proportion of mobiles to fixed landlines. It is noted that the second campaign also included the area of Mitchell, which as shown in the first campaign, has a large number of fixed landlines relative to mobile phones.

Analysis of the Geocoded National Address File (GNAF) identified 37,017 individual address points in the second target area, which is significantly less than the 86,801 landline services identified. The ESA will raise with the system managers issues associated with the high proportion of landline services identified compared with the actual number of address points to potentially reduce the time required to send messages by the system.

6 See note 2 above.

7 See note 3 Above

8 See note 4 above.

Location Based Emergency Warnings to Mobiles

This week the Australian Government announced that the national emergency warning system, ‘Emergency Alert’, will be upgraded to deliver warnings to mobile phones based on the location of the handset:

... The ‘Emergency Alert’ system currently sends warnings by recorded voice and text message to landlines and mobile phones based on an owner’s billing address rather than the actual location of a handset at the time of a disaster or emergency.

This has meant that people caught in a disaster zone, who have a billing address outside the affected area, have been unable to receive the vital and potentially lifesaving warnings.

Following the Interim Report of the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission in August 2009, the Australian Government supported the Commission’s recommendation to implement a national warning system based on the location, in addition to the billing address, of a mobile phone. ...

From: Funding for location based emergency warnings, Joint Media Release, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Attorney-General Robert McClelland, Australian Government, 14 September 2010

In a disaster, such as a bushfire, the political level of government effectively ceases to function, with control being transferred to an emergency controller.

In the ACT the controllers is normally a police officer (ACT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ACT 1999 - SECT 22). The chief minister just has to make the declaration in "writing" (Section 20), then have it broadcast by a television or radio station and published in the Gazette some time later (Section 21). The Chief minister could issue the declaration from their mobile phone and have it sent out via the Emergency Alert system.

Emergency 2.0 Australia

Emergency 2.0 Australia, is part of the Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce looking at how Social Media can assist in Emergency Management. In my view Social Networking, the Internet and web, have a useful role in emergency communications. However, disaster management using IT needs to be carefully planned and tested.

The Emergency 2.0 Australia website is incorrect in suggesting that the February Victorian Bushfires saw the emergence of the use of social media and web2.0 technologies. The disaster just brought them to public prominence via the media. These were already being planned, tested and deployed elsewhere.

Lack of Australian emergency warning standard risks lives

For this bushfire season a new Australian National Emergency Warning System has been introduced. Unfortunately there appears to be no standard issued for the formatting of the messages and no harmonisation with other warning messages. As a result this will make it difficult to relay the messages quickly and reliably via media such as SMS. This could result in delayed, misleading or lost messages, with loss of life, as happened in the Victorian Brushfires last year.

After last season when more than 100 lives were lost in Australia a new "Catastrophic (Code Red)" level has been added. There will be increased use on radio of the radio of the Australian Standard Emergency Warning Signal. There are now three Alert levels and warning messages: "Advice", "Watch and Act" and "Emergency Warning".

What is required is a precisely defined format for the messages to be issued. This format must be compatible with the systems which will be used to transmit the messages, including SMS. The message format and language must be consistent with that of other warning messages, including Tsunami warnings. Failure to do this risks lives.

Location Based Services for Emergency Management

Today I was interviewed by Anas Aloudat at the University of Wollongong for new research on Location-Based Services for Emergency Management. This is very timely work, give the issue of alerting for bushfires.

Already published:

1. "Location-Based Services for Emergency Management: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective", Anas Aloudat, K. Michael, and Roba Abbas. The Eighth International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB 2009). Dalian, China: IEEE Computer Society, 2009. 1-6.
2. "The Current State of Commercial Location-based Service Offerings in Australia", Roba Abbas, K. Michael, M.G. Michael, and Anas Aloudat. The Eighth International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB 2009). Dalian, China: IEEE Computer Society, 2009. 1-8.
3. "Location-Based Services in Emergency Management- from Government to Citizens: Global Case Studies", A. Aloudat, K. Michael, and J. Yan.Recent Advances in Security Technology (1 ed). Ed. P. Mendis, J. Lai, E. Dawson and H. Abbass. Canberra, Australia: Australian Homeland Security Research Centre, 2007. 190-201.

Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Interim Report

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Interim Report was released today. The recommendations relating to the use of ICT, the Internet and the web are well thought out. The report is in the form of a set of reasonably well formatted, efficiently web pages.

The report executive summary scored 32 out of 100 on the W3C mobileOK Checker, which is better than many web pages. One flaw is that images for the report have been marked with hyperlinks labelled "CLICK FOR IMAGE". It would have been better to include a small preview image or have a link on the caption of the image. The executive summary failed an automated web accessibility test (WCAG 2) with 517 problems, which are easily correctable.

• Introductory pages
• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Chapters:
  
  1. The February 2009 Fires
  2. Engaging Communities
  3. Submissions
  4. Warnings
  5. Information
  6. Relocation
  7. Stay or Go
  8. Risk and Refuge
  9. Incident Management: A Case Study
  10. Emergency Management
  11. Commonwealth Response
  12. Emergency Calls
  13. Next Steps
• Appendices:
  1. Parties Given Leave to Appear
  2. Hearing days and witnesses

ICT related recommendations:

• RECOMMENDATION 4.5: The State ensure that the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) be used in Victoria to precede each bushfire warning or group of warnings for bushfires that are dangerous or extremely dangerous, particularly for a fire that is burning out of control and poses a threat to human life, subject to appropriate limits on the maximum frequency of use.
• RECOMMENDATION 4.8: The Australian Government, Council of Australian Governments and the State determine whether it is technically possible to implement the second phase of the national telephony-based warning system (that is, the delivery of warning messages to mobile phones based on the physical location of a handset at the time of the emergency) with a view to implementation for the 2009–10 bushfire season.
• RECOMMENDATION 5.2: The Bureau of Meteorology include the Forest Fire Danger Index and the Grass Fire Danger Index in its fire weather warnings and general weather forecasts on its website and in material distributed to the media.
• RECOMMENDATION 5.3: The State ensure that a single, multi-agency portal for bushfire information be established that uploads information simultaneously to both CFA and DSE websites.

Warning Systems For University Campuses

"Deciphering the New Federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System" by Dewitt Latimer provides a useful overview of issues with providing emergency warning messages on university campuses. It is written from the US point of view and uses terminology relating to US federal legisation for issueing energy wanrings to citizens (with the emphasis being on how to relay these to people on a campus, susally via SMS on a mobile phone). But the article will be of interst to those outside the USA.

"This research bulletin explores the history of nationwide notification leading up to the new federal government Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), as well as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) delivery process and message format and content. It also examines the potential impact of IPAWS and CMAS on higher education and suggests actions that colleges and universities may wish to take."

Citation: Latimer, Dewitt. “Deciphering the New Federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System” (Research Bulletin, Issue 16). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2009, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

Victorian Internet Bushfire Warnings

A Proposed Interim Report of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission was presented by the Counsel Assisting on 2 July 2009. The draft report in a 63 page PDF document (536 kbytes). Several of the key findings and recommendations relate to the use of the Internet, the web and other ICT.

The commission has done a very thorough and thoughtful job in collecting, analysis and collation of a large amount of information and making sensible relevant recommendations. The recommendations for having a single bushfire emergency web site and using visual as well as text based information and to be designed to function during periods of extreme demand are key. For several years I have been teaching students of the Australian National University how to design emergency web sites.

One criticism I would have of the recommendations which relate to the use of ICT is that they are made peace meal, under the various topics. A key problem which this therefore does not address is the peace meal nature of the resulting systems. What is needed is one system which is used to prepare one consistent collection on bushfire which can be disseminated using different technology to different people.

As an example the commission recommends that warnings be read on air on the ABC, but I suggest that these warnings should also be available via the ABC's web site and particularly their mobile web site and via the RSS and other feed systems the ABC uses.

Also while the commission recommends one single, multi‐agency bushfire information website for Victoria, in my opinion, this does not go far enough. Bushfire is not the only form of emergency which Victoria is subject to. Therefore the Victorian government should provide one emergency information website for all forms of life threatening emergencies in Victoria, including bus fires.

One issued raised by a submission to the inquiry, but not taken up by the commission in its recommendations is the resilience of the proposed National Broadband Network in an emergency. As I have pointed out, the government has not set does not have use of the NBN in an emergency as a priority. If the NBN is not designed to operate during a power failure or in other emergencies, as it beings to replace conventional PSTN telephones, the risk to the public will increase as a result.

2.2. Construction, content of warnings
Key findings ...

(e) CFA bushfire warnings are assigned three “levels”: Awareness, Alert and Urgent Threat. Ideally, each such warning is posted (in a timely fashion) to the CFA website, read aloud on ABC radio and provided to the VBIL. The evidence before the Royal Commission is that on 7 February 2009 this did not always occur in a timely fashion. ...

2.3. Specific methods of delivering warnings.

2.3.1. Single, multi‐agency bushfire information website for Victoria.
Key findings

(a) The public rely on fire agency websites for accurate and up to date information about fires in their area. ...

(b) Currently CFA and DSE maintain separate websites. CFA and DSE are working to present bushfire information on a single website. ...

Proposed recommendations

(a) A single, multi‐agency bushfire information website for Victoria be established and operational for the 2009‐2010 fire season.
(b) The website must provide timely, accurate and up to date bushfire information posted by the fire agencies, that is consistent with the bushfire information being delivered through other modes, including the VBIL and ABC radio. The website must be designed to communicate information quickly and simply, using visual as well as text based information and have the capacity to function during periods of extreme demand.
(c) The website be designed to allow Incident Control Centres (ICCs) to post bushfire information directly to the website.

2.3.2. Standard Emergency Warning Signal
Key findings
(a) The Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) is not itself a ”warning”. Rather, it is a distinctive alert tone or signal broadcast prior to warnings for major emergencies. It is designed to “alert listeners/viewers of radio/television that an official emergency announcement is about to be made concerning an actual or potential emergency which has the potential to affect them”. ...

(b) The current protocol for the use of SEWS requires the control agency to request the police to authorise its use. Victoria Police (via the Divisional Emergency Response Coordinator) then sends an “Emergency Warning Notice” to the media. On receipt of that formal request to issue a warning, the media are expected to broadcast the warning message, preceded by the distinctive “SEWS tone” for 15 seconds.
(c) SEWS was not used on 7 February 2009 in Victoria. Its use is not referred to in the Emergency Management Manual. Indeed, SEWS has not been regularly used in Victoria, because of concerns that it can be overused and thereby become ineffective and the possibility that it might cause “confusion”. ...
(d) There is no research to suggest that use or “overuse” of SEWS has caused any significant confusion or inconvenience in the community. ...
(e) The Commonwealth has been considering a “relaunch” of SEWS, however it ceased that work in anticipation of the findings of this Royal Commission. ...
(f) SEWS is useful in alerting people to the content of a warning message to follow, and it has been used in South Australia (since 2005) for that very purpose. ...

Proposed recommendations

(a) The Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) must be used in Victoria to precede each Urgent Threat message in relation to a bushfire and in all circumstances where lives are at risk by reason of bushfire.
(b) The Emergency Management Manual Victoria should be amended to provide that:
(i) the use of SEWS is to precede each urgent threat message issued in relation to a bushfire;
(ii) the use of SEWS is required in all circumstances when lives are at risk; and
(iii) the use of SEWS may be authorised during bushfires by the Chief Officer of the CFA or the Chief Officer of DSE.
(c) The State Government to commence an intensive education campaign to inform the Victorian community that the distinctive SEWS signal will be used before each Urgent Threat message for bushfires and in all circumstances where lives are at risk by reason of bushfire.
(d) The ABC, CFA and DSE to implement a streamlined process for the use of SEWS on ABC radio and television.
(e) The CFA and DSE to invite commercial operators to enter into a Memoranda of Understanding in relation to the dissemination of bushfire warning messages and a process for the use of SEWS by those operators.

2.3.3. Community Information and Warning Systems and Dissemination of Warnings
Key findings

(a) In 2005, the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner (OESC), in partnership with Telstra, ran a successful trial of an opt in land line telephony based community warning system in two communities in Victoria. ...

(b) Since the 2005 trial, Victoria’s position has been that a national community information and warning system should be implemented. Victoria has advocated this position forcefully at the highest levels, including in communications between the Premier and the Minister for Police and the Commonwealth. ...

(c) The use of a nationally consistent community information warning system drawing on such technology is supported in an AFAC Discussion Paper: “A National Systems Approach to Community Warnings”, 3 June 2009. ...

(d) On 2 October 2008, COAG formally noted that “A nationally – consistent community emergency warning system will enhance the current capability to provide timely and accurate warnings in the event of emergencies and provide useful information and advice on individual and community responses. COAG has requested that all remaining tasks, including a cost – benefit analysis, be completed by the end of 2008”. ...

(e) But the period between 2006 and 2009 was largely characterised by delay. There was extended debate between Commonwealth departments about the need for legislative amendment to facilitate access to the Integrated Public Numbers Database (IPND). ...

(f) On 3 December 2008, the Attorney General wrote to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy stating: “As noted by COAG, a telephony based warning system has the potential to save lives”. ...

(g) During the period 2004 to 2009, the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy maintained the view that changes to the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) were necessary to permit access by emergency services to the IPND. ...

(h) The delay was also in part due to the fact that until after the 2009 fires, the States and the Commonwealth had not agreed on the appropriate model for a national system. ...

(i) In March 2009, the necessary amendments to the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) were made. ...

(j) On 2 March 2009, after the February 2009 fires, and before the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) amendments were made, Victoria Police and the OESC determined to issue a mass warning message via SMS in order to warn of predicted severe weather.

Telstra was instrumental in the arrangements for the dissemination of the message. A review conducted in relation to this event revealed a high rate of recall by recipients and “success” in terms of the message delivery. ...

(k) The SMS message was able to be sent by Telstra because access to the IPND was not required, as Telstra simply sent the message to its customers using their billing addresses. Out of "an abundance of caution", Telstra was also supplied with a certificate from Victoria Police which stated that the message was necessary to be sent by reason of a "serious and imminent threat" to life. Although this certificate echoes the wording of the exception in s287 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth), Telstra did not in fact purport to rely on that section. Indeed, Mr Consolo accepted in evidence that Telstra has always possessed the capacity to send such an SMS message to its customers, though this message offers no "geo‐coding" function. Mr Esplin, in his evidence, noted that the agreement of carriers to take such a step was, in his view, unlikely to have been obtained prior to the events of 7 February 2009. ...

(l) On 30 April 2009, following a COAG meeting, the Commonwealth announced that COAG had agreed to implement a national telephone emergency warning system. The first stage (which COAG said would be in place by October 2009) will provide warnings in the form of recorded voice messages and SMS messages to the billing addresses of landline and mobile phones. A second stage of the system that would permit sending of
phone messages based on the location of the telephone handset is to be investigated. ...

(m) Despite the development of this new technology, it is clear that multiple methods of dissemination of warnings should continue to be used for the following reasons:

(i) members of the community may obtain information in a variety of ways including websites, telecommunications, radio and informal networks – and tend to like to confirm information received with other sources; and
(ii) it is advisable to preserve multiple modes of disseminating warnings (including old technology such as sirens, door to door visits, radio and new technology such as SMS, official websites, informal websites, Twitter, Facebook) to reach the broadest possible audience and to guard against failure of any single mode of communication. ...

(a) The Commonwealth and COAG should ensure that implementation of stage one of the new national emergency warning system prior to bushfire season 2009‐2010.
(b) The State of Victoria should be an active participant in the development, implementation and operation of the new national emergency warning system.
(c) The State of Victoria should immediately commence a program of community education in order to ensure that Victorians are well informed about the proper use of and response to the use of the new national emergency warning system, particularly in the event of bushfire, prior to the 2009‐2010 season. Such community education program to draw on the experiences of the “Community Information and Warning System: The Report of The Trial and Evaluation”, OESC (2006) ...
(d) If by September 2009, it appears unlikely that the first phase of the national system will be operational, the State of Victoria to make representations to the Commonwealth Government with a view to securing a commitment that the system will be available at least in Victoria’s Bushfire Risk Zones by bushfire season 2009‐2010.
(e) Multiple means of disseminating warning message should be retained including the continued use of ABC broadcasts, a single multi agency website (see proposed recommendation 2.3.1) and sirens where adopted by particular communities (see proposed recommendation 2.3.4).

2.3.5. Publication of Fire Danger Index forecasts
Key findings

(a) The Bureau of Meteorology routinely forecasts the Forest Fire Danger Index and the Grass Fire Danger Index (collectively the Fire Danger Index or FDI) and provides these forecasts to the fire agencies. ...
(b) The FDI forecasts are not included in the general weather forecasts posted on the Bureau’s website or distributed to the media. They are made available to the public only in the fire weather forecasts posted on the Bureau’s website on the afternoon before the day in question. ...
(c) A number of lay witnesses wanted to see the FDI forecasts published more widely. ...

Proposed recommendations
(a) The Bureau of Meteorology include the Forest Fire Danger Index and Grass Fire Danger Index in its fire weather warnings and general weather forecasts posted on its website and distributed to the media. ...

4.9. Application to those in places other than homes – e.g. schools, nursing homes, hospitals

Proposed Recommendations – stay or go (key findings 4.1‐4.9)

(ii) that before the commencement of the 2009 ‐ 2010 fire season they be revised and enhanced to clearly convey the following ...

(M) Advice about when to leave, incorporating a cascading series of triggers
(noting that a warning may not be received and should not be relied upon)
namely ...
• When you are advised to be on alert in relation to a fire that has
commenced. This requires that you pay attention to fire information sources (ABC, fire agency website) on days of total fire ban and extreme fire risk. ...

8. Detection of fires
8.1. Early detection, mapping and prediction of fire spread
Key findings ...

(n) Threat messages issued concerning the Kilmore East fire prior to 18.00 on 7 February 2009 made no reference to the anticipated frontal change. ...

(p) Kilmore ICC authorised at 16.10 on 7 February 2009 release of threat message warning communities from Kinglake to Strath Creek of fire. That message did not appear on the CFA website. ...

(r) Narbethong was the subject of a threat message on the DSE website at 16.45 on 7 February 2009 and Marysville was the subject of a threat message on the DSE website at 17.15 on 7 February 2009. ...

19.2. Communications infrastructure

Key findings

(a) Warnings, both formal and informal, are communicated by a range of means including mobile and fixed line telephones, radio, television and the internet. Members of the public need to be able to contact emergency services in an emergency.

Communications within and between emergency services agencies are vital to an effective and co‐ordinated emergency response. A reliable and robust communications infrastructure is therefore essential.

(b) The Commission has heard evidence that indicates that Victoria’s communications infrastructure was placed under great stress on 7 February, and that there were difficulties in communicating with and within emergency services, and generally. ...

(c) To date the Commission has heard evidence from the ABC, ACE Radio Broadcasters, Telstra, ESTA, DSE, CFA and Victoria Police in respect of public radio and television, fixed and mobile telephone networks, managed radio networks and the operation of emergency call services. Some of these communications media performed well on 7 February, others less so. ...

(d) The Commission has also heard evidence that indicates that communications in some parts of Victoria are less than optimal under normal conditions. ...

Proposed recommendations
(a) No further recommendation is proposed. Victoria’s communications infrastructure will be the subject of evidence in future hearings. ...

From: Proposed Interim Report of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, Counsel Assisting, 2 July 2009.

Designing an influenza pandemic web site for Australia

Students of "Networked Information Systems" (COMP2410/6340) at the ANU have been set the task to design a influenza pandemic web site for the Australian public. In previous years they have been set the task to design a site for bird flu so this seemed a logical and timely topic.

Australian National University

Department of Computer Science

Networked Information Systems

COMP2410/6340

Assignment 2

Website Accessibility

Introduction

On 29 April 2009 the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5. All countries were advised to immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans to combat Swine influenza.

In this assignment you will examine web sites used for providing advice to the public about influenza and design a prototype web site using the techniques learnt in the course. ...

Deadline: 6pm Friday 22 May 2008.

The Task

The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DHA) has provided a web page with links to detailed information about Swine Influenza Outbreaks. However, that information may be difficult to understand for the average member of the general public. Imagine you work for the Australian Government and your task is to design an easier to read web site based on the DHA page as it was at 30 Apr 2009 07:09:19 GMT.

The web site will need to meet accessibility and mobile device standards. The web site will be read by large numbers of people at once and so will need to use the minimum of bandwidth. It will be read by people under stress and so be easy to read.

In addition to the information in the copy of the DHA web site, you can use text and media files (images, audio and video) from International (.int), Australian Government (.gov.au) and US Government (.gov) web sites in designing your prototype.

Creating the webpage

You must:

• Convert the HTML of the content from the existing web page to valid XHTML Basic 1.1 which achieves at least 80/100 on Mobile OK tests and passes Level Double A of the W3C - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) as tested by the TAW (Web Accessibility Test)
• Convert all presentation elements and in-line styles to appropriate rules in a new valid external style sheet called access.css
• Remove any tables in the webpages which are not used for displaying tabular data, and replace them with CSS rules
• Remove or replace excessively large or irrelevant images. You are encouraged to consider the use of Pictograms, as well as links to audio, video and other multimedia content.
  
• Make any changes to the XHTML code which you consider to either: enhance the accessibility of the page, or improve the compliance of the page with web standards
• Discuss your design decisions in a report
• Estimate the download time of your page (using the access.css stylesheet) using a 28.8 kbit/s Iridium satellite modem (as used by the Australian Department of Defence). Suggest ways in which you might reduce the download time. These question must be answered in the form of an additional section in your report.

Your resulting page need not be identical in appearance to the web pages the source material was prepared from. You need only create the home page, but can create dummy links to other pages (which you need not create). The emphasis should be on a simple and efficient design. The page should be designed to display both on a smart phone and a desktop computer. Design decisions about the way the page looks must be discussed in your report.

Writing the report

You are also required to write a report which presents and justifies your design decisions. The report should be between 600-1000 words long (the word length is not assessable, but a report which falls outside these limits may impact on your ability to complete all assessable tasks). The report should include (but is not restricted to) discussions of the following topics:

• Any design decisions you made which significantly alter the appearance of the webpage. These must be justified by an appeal to accessibility, web standards, or best practice coding guidelines.
• Changes you have made to the code which you consider to have enhanced the accessibility of the webpage.
• Alternative design decisions which you considered implementing, along with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of these.
• Any accessibility issues, or areas of non-compliance with web standards, which are still present in your completed page.

Your report must be valid XHTML-Basic 1.1. The formatting must be clear, and include headers and paragraphs. Citations are not needed. ...

Resources

For examples of government swine flu web sites, see Tom Worthington's posting: Lack of useful Swine Influenza Information online from Australian Government, Thursday, April 30, 2009. ...

Documentary of Newcastle 2007 Floods

The multimedia documentary "A June to Remember" was produced by

Geoff Overmyer at radio station 1233 ABC Newcastle. This consists of still images provided by the community, commentary provided live to ABC Newcastle local radio with linking new video and commentary Carrol Duncan and music by Bruce Mathiska. As well as being available as a DVD from ABC Newcastle and streamed online, the material is avialble as five podcasts:

1. A June to Remember - Wild Weather
2. A June to Remember - The Pasha
3. A June To Remember - Wild Weather Continues
4. A June to Remember - The Day After
5. A June to Remember - Hunter Floods

In addition to the documentary there are related materials in the ABC's Newcastle Storms and Floods Microsite. Events covered include the gorunding of the 76 thousand ton ship MV Pasha Bulker on a beach in Newcastle, 8 June 2007.

Record Id:	43215401 (Australian Library Collections) permalink
Title:	1233 ABC Newcastle presents a June to remember [videorecording]
Also Titled:	June to remember
Published:	Newcastle, N.S.W. : 1233 ABC Newcastle, [2008]
Description:	1 videodisc (DVD) (ca. 48 mins.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.
Summary:	In the lead up to the June long weekend in 2007, most people in Newcastle were looking forward to a few days off work. What eventuated was far from a relaxing long weekend. On the June long weekend in 2007 two low pressure cells brought gale force winds that battered Newcastle and caused fatal flash flooding. Massive seas and cyclonic winds pushed the coal freighter Pasha Bulker aground on Nobbys Beach while the region was left stunned by widespread storm damage worth an estimated billion dollars. Nine people died and hundreds of people were forced out of their homes because of flooding and storm damage. For three days, 1233 continued an around-the-clock emergency broadcast. This coverage was only possible thanks to dedicated staff and passionate listeners. This is the story of the June long weekend storm. The voices are yours and the images are the ones you shared with us.
Credits:	Original music by Bruce Mathiske ; produced by Geoff Overmyer ; concept: Philip Ashley-Brown
Performer:	Narrated by Carol Duncan.
Subjects:	Pasha Bulker (Ship) Storms -- New South Wales -- Newcastle. Storms -- New South Wales -- Hunter River Region. Floods -- New South Wales -- Newcastle. Floods -- New South Wales -- Hunter River Region. Stranding of ships -- New South Wales -- Newcastle. Nobbys Beach (Newcastle, N.S.W.)
Other Authors:	Duncan, Carol. Mathiske, Bruce. Overmyer, Geoff. Ashley-Brown, Philip. 1233 ABC Newcastle (Radio station)
Want to contact your library about this item?:	Find contact details
Libraries that have this item:	Lake Macquarie City Library (NLMPL) held Newcastle Region Libraries. Newcastle Region Library (NNPL) HELD

From: Catalogue Entry, National Library of Australia, 2008

ABC Newcastle provide a page of NSW emergency information, with Local contacts, Current warnings and Online resources.

SEWS Guidelines

The Victorian State Emergency Service has SEWS Guidelines on who can issue an emergency announcement using the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) and when. Unfortunately what is lacking is detail of how the message is sent. However, the inclusion of a pro-forma facsimile form suggests that fax is used.

1. The decision to request the use of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal is made by the Incident Controller (or his representative). This is the person who has the responsibility for dealing with the emergency. For example, in a wildfire it would be the CFA or the Department of Natural Resources and Environment; in a wind storm, it would be the State Emergency Service; for a structure fire, it would be the MFB or the CFA; etc.
2. The request is made to the Police Divisional Emergency Response Coordinator, who will issue the Emergency Warning Notice to media organisations. ...

From: SEWS Guidelines, Victorian State Emergency Service (28 November 2006)

See also: SEWS Demo (Audio) from BoM.

Masterclass on National Bushfire Warning System

Apart from "Green ITSM" I have offered draft material on how to build a National Bushfire Warning System for Australia as part of a masterclass. on technical writing at ANU. So I need to write something on the topic. As a starting point, I have the abstract in the seminar announcement , a conference talk on "Community Warning Systems" and an "Australian Community Warning System Proposal" submitted to the Council of Australian Governments. Since then I have looked at "Obligation for Australian broadcasters to provide emergency warnings ", "Fault in Pacific Tsunami Warning System", "Mobile beep for emergency Cell Broadcast" and "Australian Emergency Alert System". My conclusion from this is:

1. SMS is not suitable for large scale use in a community warning system. SMS is too slow (taking around an hour to send 1M messages) and addressing information is lacking.
   
2. Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB) is technically suitable (able to send millions of messages in a few seconds to all mobile phones in a specific location), but not currently sufficiently supported by the mobile phone industry to be usable for warnings to the general public.
3. SMS and Cell Broadcast would be suitable as part of a system for relaying emergency messages from emergency services to the public via the broadcast media. This would improve on current methods using faxes and phone calls.
   
4. Short text messages could reference detailed web based information.
5. Standardised, efficient formats are required for web based emergency information. Accessibility and mobile guidelines can be used for designing an efficient readable format, as well as specialised guidelines for emergency information.
   

Given I now have my conclusion, I need to find some references to support it. ;-)

More seriously, the problem is to define the topic sufficiently to be able to find relevant work. Emergency management is a very wide topic, and even communication for emergencies has a large literature. One good place to start is the recent work on XML based formats for emergency messages, being pioneered by the OASIS Emergency Management Adoption Technical Committee and members such as Renato Iannella at at NICTA.

Obligation for Australian broadcasters to provide emergency warnings

In "ABC Mobile Web Site Failed Accessibility Test" I criticised the ABC for not providing a more planned emergency warning service to the public. As far as I can see, there is no legislation specifically requiring the ABC to provide emergency warnings (there is for commercial broadcasters) but they did volunteer for the job.

The ABC has used slogans such as: "ABC Local Radio, your emergency services broadcaster":

• "During the Bushfire season, for regular fire updates, tune into ABC Local Radio, your emergency services broadcaster. ..." ABC Goulburn Murray, 16 October 2008
• "ABC Adelaide is your Emergency Services Broadcaster. Stay listening on air and online for the latest information. ...", From: Index of Emergency Incidents Stories, ABC, 14/03/2008
• "For more information contact your local CFA Branch and keep listening to ABC Radio, your emergency services broadcaster....", From: Fire Ready Victoria Meetings, ABC Goulburn Murray, 22 January 2008

This role seems to have been endorsed by the state governments, with their emergency web pages advising the public to listen to ABC local radio for emergency information:

• "As part of an on-going partnership, 774 ABC Melbourne and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) provide listeners with quick, free access to the most up-to-date information and advice available during fire emergencies. ... Link to website: ABC Local Radio ..." From: "ABC Local Radio", Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner (OESC), Victoria, 15 November 2008

• "During a serious emergency where life or property may be at risk, you can also obtain information by: Listening to your local ABC Radio station at 15 minutes past the hour and 15 minutes to the hour. ...", From: "Emergency Alerts", Fire & Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA), 2008

More formally there are Memorandums of Understanding between the ABC and the Victorian Emergency Services Organisations (4 February 2004) and the Queensland Department of Emergency Services (6 September 2005) for the ABC to broadcast emergency messages. While the MoUs are non-legally binding arrangements, it would seem to be a formal commitment by the ABC to provide an emergency service.

Emergency warnings are not mentioned in the ABC Charter. This is a curious anomaly, as it is a requirement for commercial broadcasters, under the BROADCASTING SERVICES ACT 1992 - SECT 61CE. However, under the ABC's ACT the Minister can direct the ABC to broadcast a "particular matter" in the national interest. An emergency warning would seem to be in the national interest.

The federal government is building a system to provide state governments with access to the phone directory for emergency calls. This is to cost $11.3M. It would seem prudent to spend a small amount on communicating the emergency warning to the broadcasters in a coordinated and reliable way.

While the carriers and broadcasters should be consulted about how an emergency warning is communicated, they should not be able to impede the work. Under the ABC, Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts the Commonwealth Government has the authority to direct carriers and broadcasters to provide emergency warnings.

Apart from the Broadcasting Act, the Telecommunications Act 1997 - SECT 335 contains provision for the government to require service providers to supply specific services for the management of natural disasters. In 1999, at the Defence Department, I got this ready to use, in case Y2K caused chaos.

The Emergency Management Agency moved from Defence to Attorney General's in 2001, but someone seems to have forgotten to change the Telecommunications Act to transfer the natural disasters authority from the Defence minister to the Attorney General.

The current ad-hoc arrangement of phones and fax machines for communication between the states, commonwealth and broadcasters is not a satisfactory "system".

Fault in Pacific Tsunami Warning System

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) issued a warning 19 March 2009 after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake near Tonga. A small tsunami of 0.04 m was later reported and in all six messages were issued, before the warning was cancelled. While the text based warning messages worked as planned (I received trimmed versions by mobile phone SMS as well), there appear to be continuing problems with the HTML versions on the NOAA web site. The PTWC needs to review its web design to ensure poor formatting is not impeding this important service.

When I attempted to access the PTWC web site at 8:10am this morning the system reported:"Information Alert - Status : 504 Gateway Time-Out -
Description : Lost connection to origin server". The site worked on a second attempt. While the text versions of the warning messages were readable, the HTML versions were blank, with the PTWC page header and side menu, but no warning message. On examining the HTML source code I found a large amount of formatting information and text about last year's tsunami exercise and awareness month commented out, but no current tsunami warning. It is not clear if this excessive formatting and redundant information caused the problem with displaying the message, but it would place an additional and unnecessary load on the system. This problem was previously identified 9 January 2009.

I will be discussing this issue at a seminar on a "National Bushfire Warning System" at The Australian National University in Canberra on 16 April 2009.

Mobile beep for emergency Cell Broadcast

Can you set a mobile phone to beep when an emergency "Cell Broadcast" is received? I will be presenting a seminar on a "National Bushfire Warning System" in Canberra, 16 April 2009. One option I discuss in this will be to use "Cell Broadcast" to mobile phones for an Australian Community Warning System. This would have the advantage that a short text message could be set to all the phones in a small area or the whole country in a few seconds.

Last week the Victorian Government tried to send an SMS message about bush-fires to all mobile phone users in the state. The message was sent 2 Mar 2009 14:30:10. It took approximately one hour to send. Also some people in Victoria did not get the message and some not in Victoria did.

Cell Broadcast is designed for simultaneous delivery of messages to multiple users in a specified area. It is more formally known as "Short Message Service - Cell Broadcast" (SMS-CB) to distinguish it from the popular SMS, more formally: Short Message Service - Point to Point (SMS-PP). Use of cell broadcast would overcome the problem of the speed of dispatch of messages and misdirection. Cell Broadcast messages are designed to send to all handsets in one or more cells at once. This speeds up transmission and removes the need to have a list of the phones to send to.

However, one problem with Cell Broadcasts is that mobile phones usually have the alert (tone or vibration) turned off. Some phones may have no way to turn on alert for Cell Broadcasts and others may have no way to turn it on just for emergency messages. Does anyone have experience with using Cell Broadcast with particular model phones?

The details of cell broadcast for emergencies is discussed in "Support for Cell Broadcast as Global Emergency Alert System" by Karin Axelsson and Cynthia Novak (Linköpings University, 2007). The authors point out that different phones handle Cell Broadcast differently and the phone makers call the service by different names.

The Cell Broadcast Forum have a Handset Requirements Specification (October 2006). This has a section on "Requirements on Handling of Emergency Messages" which requires the phone to alert for an emergency message, even if the user has switched off alerts for messages. However, this requirement does not seem to be followed by manufacturers:

2.10 Requirements on Handling of Emergency Messages

This section deals with the handling by the ME when an emergency warning message is received. This section does not so much provide the Cell Broadcast forum’s view on handling of Emergency Warning Messages, but the requirements of the Dutch government, that may become applicable throughout the EU in due time.

2.10.1 Mandatory Requirements

58. Factory setting: In a country where a public warning service over Cell Broadcast is operational, the government, or the operators may require that the default Factory Setting be set to active, i.e. CB messages can be received and the Message Identifier that has been assigned to the public warning service be selected.

59. Reception tone: The ME shall indicate the reception of an
emergency message by playing a ring tone that is specific for
emergency messages and cannot be allocated to other services on the ME. This ringtone shall be activated even if the ME setting is set to silent mode, meeting mode, buzzing mode, etc., and also regardless of the Display Mode (Normal or Direct).

60. Storage: Emergency messages shall always be stored, unless or until the user decides to delete the message.

2.10.2 Other Requirements

61. The WARN Act that was effectuated in the US in October 2006 states that it shall be impossible to opt-out of a presidential level message. Further recommendations or legislation were not available at the time of writing of this section and will be included at a later stage (2007). ...

From: Handset Requirements Specification , The Cell Broadcast Forum, October 2006

David Crowe gives a good overview of Cell Broadcast for Emergency Alerts in Wireless Telecom Magazine Q3‘2006. He points out limitations, including messages being even shorter than SMS (in 88 character segments), no verification a message was received and no standard categories to identify emergency messages and standard no user interface. One issue he raises is the detrimental impact of cell broadcast on battery life. However, Axelsson and Novak's research indicates this is not a problem. As Crowenotes, a conservative approach would be to use this for single segment (88 characters) short messages, as was used with SMS in Victoria. The message would just advise of the emergency andto check with other services, such as ABC Radio.

Nokia's Extended User Guide for the N85 phone gives Cell broadcast settings. It is likely that newer large screen "smart phones" will better support cell broadcast. As an example Blackberry provide details on how to Turn on cell broadcasting. It should also be possible to add this feature to later model phones with a software upgrade over the air.