The U.S. Government and major wireless carriers announced a new messaging system that supplements the current emergency system. While some alerts will be optional, presidential alerts will be mandatory.
Public purpose or Big Brother?
I wonder what kind of tax write-offs or incentives these wireless carriers are getting.
Good call
http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/docs/advisory/cmsaac/pdf/CellCastComment070307.pdf
It will require political will to persuade the industry that cell broadcast is a national public safety issue, not a marketing feature.
Regulators should consider an exchange for carriers’ acceptance of the technology and willingness to participate nationally. Relief from an obsolete tax or provision of corporate tax credits to encourage deployment of the system could provide adequate incentives for the industry to offer this public safety benefit within a reasonable timeframe.
Isn’t receiving these alerts a basic human right? The government should provide smartphones to everyone for free!
Any news about who will provide the technology and how many people they’ll hire to run the whole thing? Sounds to me like yet another make-work project.
…and the first person to create an app to block such messages will have my appreciation.
I wonder what the penalty will be if one refuses to have the chip put in his phone - assuming that reports of the chip being mandatory for all phones (not just new models) are accurate.
Why not just give the Prez a Twitter account, it’s free after all? Oh right, heaven forbid even a single person ignores his excellency!