National Phone Warning System Gets Upgrade
The Victorian Government has recently signed a contract with Telstra to enhance the national emergency phone warning system with world-first technology, schedule for launch across Australia by November 2012.
The current emergency alert system provides warnings to landlines and mobile phones based on customers’ registered service addresses.
Victoria is leading the way by developing technology for a national location-based telephone emergency warning system, which will send warnings to mobile phones that are physically in an emergency zone when a disaster strikes.
The Victorian Government has led negotiations with telecommunications carriers on behalf of all states and territories, and negotiations are continuing with Optus and Vodafone.
Telstra's commitment is a major step forward in the development of a national system, as it means that location-based warnings will be delivered on Australia's largest mobile network.
While the current and soon-to-be upgraded emergency alert systems are important, phone alerts are only one of the many ways emergency services agencies can warn a community, so the alerts will only be used in appropriate situations.
As phone alerts are one-way communication, Victorians should ensure other forms of medium are included in their fire plan by:
- visiting the CFA website for useful resources and tools, including the Online Bushfire Information Session, My Plan and Travellers' Checklist
- following CFA on Facebook and Twitter to receive the latest news and updates
- downloading the free CFA FireReady smartphone apps now for the latest information and updates, from wherever you are.