• by Mary C. Long , Columnist, December 16, 2015

There is nothing like a real emergency to galvanize people into action. At such times, communication becomes critical — but technology, like people, can be vulnerable to acts of God or terrorism. 

For years, government agencies across the globe have been pondering the best way to address the public during an emergency where basic communications infrastructure has been struck down. 

But only a few weeks after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, various proposals are now being considered by authorities, including the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, to adopt a uniform wireless emergency alert system.

The emergency Wi-Fi debate

On Nov. 19, the FCC announced that it was planning to upgrade wireless emergency alerts to the nation's more than 350 million mobile phones. 

Reuters reported that the FCC, citing the Paris attacks and the growing domestic terrorism threat in the United States, "voted 5-0 to propose new rules that would expand the maximum length of emergency text message alerts to 360 characters from the current 90 characters, and enable alerts to include phone numbers and web addresses 'to improve message quality and accessibility.'"

In France, the government is even considering extreme measures such as restricting access to public Wi-Fi and banning the use of Tor to ensure public safety.  This is according to Extreme Tech, which has criticized the proposal, denouncing it as a “knee-jerk" reaction that won't solve much.

Compared to the French authorities’ reaction, the FCC’s proposal appears to be more reasonable and comes just at the right time, when there’s a real need for an effective, uniform, emergency alert system.

According to the aforementioned Reuters’ piece, "The commission's proposal also calls for a new class of action-oriented alerts like 'boil water' or 'shelter in place' warnings during severe weather. It would also require mobile phone carriers to deliver alerts to more specific geographic areas." 

Why isn't this already a thing?

It might surprise many that this course of action has not been adopted by more government agencies yet — as the technology for it has been in existence for a while, and it is the cheapest and most convenient available. 

More widely known as cell broadcast, a wireless emergency alert system turns every cell phone into a virtual radio, which requires no Wi-Fi or cellular bandwidth — an important distinction.

Had this technology been widely used during the Sept. 11 attacks, for example, when most cellular networks failed because of congestion, public messages would have reached more people. Even the standard text messaging system (SMS) is less superior as it only allows messages to be sent individually to a known number one at a time. 

Aside from congestion issues, Wi-Fi-dependent systems — like Facebook's Safety Check — offer other challenges. Though its use during the recent Paris attacks was largely praised, its success during natural disasters, where Wi-Fi can be compromised, is less assured.  

Cell broadcasts, on the other hand, don't succumb to the same network load issues, and can send messages to a specific location and reach millions of handsets in a matter of seconds — as long as they are set to "listening" mode for a certain CB channel

Cell broadcast is arguably ideal for communications emergencies. In fact, according to Celltick, the “most advanced solutions” of the technology can help government agencies do the following:

• "Communicate to large masses of people in local languages based on location with various levels of emergency"

• "Avoid chaos and confusion during the most stressful situations ensuring public safety"

• "Utilize a proven solution that has been implemented in multiple countries"

• "Utilize the most efficient means of one way communication"

• "Real-time co-ordination with multiple agencies of government and public during emergencies"

Cell broadcast also can be deployed for other public awareness campaigns, including social change education. India’s Ministry of Women and Childhood Development used it in this way to promote gender equality and educate against gender bias, sending messages to over 100 million users. 

As authorities research options for viable emergency communications systems, they may find that cell broadcast technology is the only reliable option. 

Putting together the devices people already have on their person at (almost) all times, and technology that is least likely to fail in a crisis, makes good sense. I feel safer already.