Dutch test (CB)SMS disaster alarm

Correspondents in The Hague
OCTOBER 06, 2005

The Dutch Government started testing a special warning system that will send text messages to mobile phones to alert the population in the event of a disaster.

The technology for the system, called 'cell broadcast', allows the authorities to send text messages to mobile phone users in a specific area. The first tests recently started in Zoetermeer, a town in the west central Netherlands.

"The advantage of this system is that it allows us to send messages without having to know the phone numbers of the users in the region. Instead of sending a message to a specific known mobile phone you can send a text to all mobile phones in a specific zone," Frank Wassenaar of the Dutch interior ministry said.

The mobile phone broadcast system will be used in addition to the other warning systems in place to be used if disaster strikes, such as sirens and special emergency broadcasts on radio and television.

The project is a joint effort of the Dutch ministries of health, transport and economic affairs. The ministries will pay some 2.5 million euros (three million dollars) to use the cell broadcast technology over the next two years.

The government is working with mobile phone operators KPN, Vodafone and Telfort, which cover some 85 per cent of all Dutch mobile phone owners.

In the future tests with the system are planned in the Dutch capital Amsterdam and the south-western province of Zeeland

Agence France-Presse