Cell Broadcast vision of ITU

The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) is committed to an early warning system for disaster reduction. ITU is a world-wide organization which brings governments and industry together to coordinate the establishment and operation of global telecommunication networks and services.
Potentially, one of the most effective tools available to warn citizens maybe the mobile phone. Among its many technological strengths is the fact that a warning message can be broadcast to a specific geographic mobile ‘cell’ to warn of a disaster.
However, to utilize information and communication technologies for disaster prevention two things are necessary: political will and international cooperation.

Cell Broadcast in China (Hong Kong)

The Hong Kong government used Cell Broadcast during the SARS crisis in May 2003, when with the help of the six local operators it broadcasts messages to every phone user in the territory - equivalent to 90% of the population.

Cell Broadcast in Europe

Netherlands:
The Dutch Government starts to use Cell Broadcasting for emergency warnings. The infrastructure is already in operation with the Operators: KPN, Telfort and Vodafone. It is believed to be the first multi Operator Warning System in the world, based on Cell Broadcasting with Government use.
In cooperation with Dutch IT and Telco companies the Dutch Government wants to achieve the goal to being able to instantly communicate to more than 7.7 million mobile phone users in case of an emergency

Belgium:
Belgian interior minister Patrick Dewael intends to warn every Belgian resident via (CB)SMS in times of national emergency. Apparently, Belgium will be one of the first European countries to use cell broadcast for this purpose.

Cell Broadcast in Macau

Mobile Operator CTM is starting to make available warnings and updated weather information via Cell Broadcast information services:
Whether Report: 889, at: 7:30, 13:30 and 18:30;
Info & Warnings: 834.

Cell Broadcast in Thailand

Bangkok, February 23rd 2005:

"True Corporation president and CEO Supachai Chearavanont said that the company would upgrade some of its cell stations to be able to broadcast messages alerting its mobile phone users using a technique called Cell Broadcasting. After the tsunami event, True did not have a chance to fulfil its role to communicate to people because the capacity of its cell sites was limited, he said.

True plans to upgrade 400 cell stations, out of a total of around 1000, in the next couple of months to have Cell Broadcast capability.
The technique will allow the operator to broadcast streaming text messages to between 100,000 and a million users a minute, he said, noting that every operator should coordinate in this project in order to create an efficient nationwide warning system.