The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is thinking over the pros and cons of the Nationwide SMS alert system via mobile phones. The system will send text messages to mobile users during a period of emergency or any important alert.
The work is still in progress and FCC is considering options such as the text length, topic to be alerted on and many more legal requirements.
“It is essential that we support and advance new ways to share critical, time-sensitive information with them in times of crisis,” said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, according to USAToday.
Leading giants in the mobile network industry like AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile and Verizon have agreed to accept the new proposal by FCC. This system does not ask the mobile user to download or change any setting on their phones as the alert will be in the form of a plain SMS.
FCC has been seeking advice from its advisory committee and there are recommendations that the text has to be in English and should be within 90 characters. The system is expected to be in action only by 2010. Hope it’s implemented any earlier as mobile phone technology would have reached a different destination and SMS alerts may be outdated.