The Act will allow mobile operators to elect NOT to provide warnings to their subscribers provided they inform customers of this. It will be interesting to see how many actually do elect to transmit warnings.
Also of interest will be the choice of means to disseminate alerts to phones. Advocates of cell broadcasting such as CEASA have pointed out that SMS is not the best choice for this application. The CTIA has resisted cell broadcasting for years. There is also something odd in the Act under Section 602 (c) Digitial Television Transmission Towers Retransmission that calls for educational broadcasters "to install necessary equipment and technologies on, or as part of, any broadcast television digital signal transmiter to enable the distribution of geobraphically targeted alerts by commercial mobile service providers." This suggests some linkage with mobile TV services but I can't be sure. -g On 27/10/06, Anthony Townsend <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > maybe its the Lobbying Power of the Broadcast Industry that got them > off scott-free > > On Oct 27, 2006, at 11:44 AM, gordon gow wrote: > > > > > Not being a Merican myself, I have to confess to ignorance of the > > process and politics by which this Bill was handled. As you will note > > in the blog posting, it falls within a wider piece of legislation > > dealing with Port security and, of all things, Internet gambling. > > > > However, my understanding is that in its original conception, the WARN > > Act was intended to develop a multi-mode, integrated national public > > alerting system for the US. > > > > In certain respects it was to provide a digital-generation warning > > system that would compliment and extend the existing Emergency > > Alerting System (EAS) in that country. The original Bill included a > > proposed National Alert Office that would coordinate standards and > > procedures for all types of media, most notably conventional radio and > > TV. > > > > That part is gone in the legislation that was passed, and it is now > > almost exclusively about mobile phones. As if they are the only > > technology--the "magic bullet" as noted in the blog entry--that > > matters for public alerting. I was at an ITU-sponsored public > > alerting workhsop in Geneva last week when this was announced and the > > Americans there who have been following this Bill closely couldn't > > figure it out either. > > > > However, look for some interesting activity to come out of the FCC > > appointed "Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee" which > > is required to deal with technical and other procedural matters > > pertaining to the use of cell phones for public alerting. The > > Committee is required to report within one year (Oct. 2007) but will > > be holding public hearings between now and then. > > > > http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2006/db1016/ > > DA-06-2037A1.pdf > > > > > > > > > > On 27/10/06, Barry Wellman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> not all of us are Mericans. You might supply some context. > >> The blog linked to is very insider based. > >> > >> Barry Wellman > >> > >> PS: Just read in Oct 24, 2006 NY Times that Hillary Clinton has > >> 12,880 > >> MySpace friends linking to her. > >> (I believe George W Bush has only one: Osama Bin-Ladin;-)) > >> > >> _____________________________________________________________________ > >> > >> Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director > >> Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto > >> 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 > >> wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman > >> for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php > >> > >> _____________________________________________________________________ > >> > >> > >> On Fri, 27 Oct 2006, gordon gow wrote: > >> > >>> Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:03:32 -0600 > >>> From: gordon gow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >>> To: [email protected] > >>> Subject: [mobile-society] US WARN Act and mobile phones > >>> > >>> > >>> The WARN Act has been passed in the US for public alerting. Mobile > >>> phones are at the heart of it, much to the surprise of some who have > >>> been following its progress: > >>> > >>> http://www.incident.com/blog/?p=35 > >>> > >>>>> > >> > >> > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mobile-society" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-society -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
