SMS - Short Message Service - and Emergency Text Communication

SMS - Short Message Service - and Emergency Text Communication

The recent COVID-19 pandemic (2020) has highlighted the basic requirement for mass communication alerts. Communication Service Providers - CSPs - have solutions that support the broadcasting of information alerts to their end users. 

As there is a raft of handsets (Mobile Devices) that supports a wide range of applications it is a challenge to select a common medium that can be used to communicate an Emergency Alert, e.g. Flooding, Earthquakes, Fires, Severe Weather, etc..

One advantage of using textual SMS - Short Message Service - is that it is built into the very sinews of the Mobile Client and the Network (GSM 2G and onwards). In fact, SMS is an integrated solution with a well proven architecture.

After 30(+) years it is very good to see textual SMS being used to deliver Emergency Covid alerts. Below, fig 1, are some examples of Emergency Alerts from the recent Covid-19 pandemic and a general Emergency Test. 

                                             Fig 1, Emergency Alerts