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Published in: NRC Handelsblad, January 2 2009

Client: Unified Messaging Systems (UMS)

 

Skepticism about system that alerts through GSM

When disaster strikes, the Dutch citizens can be alarmed through the GSM. But will The Netherlands decide for the right technology to realize this plan?

Alert thousands of civilians and tourists in a matter of minutes in case of emergency by SMS. This succeeded in October in the Norwegian Storfjorden. That area is threatened by a collapsing mountainside which will cause a tsunami with waves of 40 metres that can flood nearby villages and hotels.

The Norwegian Government used the UMS Population Alert System (PAS) to alert everyone in the area for this staged evacuation. By fixed telephone lines or via mobile phones. Those who had registered up front, received the message within 2 minutes. Those who didn’t, like foreigners for instance, received an SMS within 5 minutes. With PAS, disaster fighters are able to detect and alert all mobile phones, including the phones of foreign tourists in a certain area, by SMS.

The Netherlands do not yet have an advanced alertsystem like that. Almost everyone owns a mobile phone and since 2005 research is being conducted how to use a ‘GSM alert’ in case of a disaster or evacuation. The Ministry of BZK made a research budget of 2,5 million euros available over the past two years. But a national network, in addition to the traditional siren, is not yet in place.

This month, the Ministry of BZK will start a tender procedure, based on the so-called cell broadcast technology. With that technology, messages can be sent through the GSM- and UMTS network to all mobile phones in a certain area. The Ministry is discussing this with the three major telecom-operators on the Dutch market. It is expected that the introduction of the system will take a few years.

In the tender procedure, the results of the Norwegian test with PAS are for the time being not taken into account, confirms a spokesperson of the Ministry. PAS is based on a different technology, SMS, and that causes objections. Cell broadcast will send one message to all mobile phone-owners in one go,  whereas the SMS-circuit will send the messages one after another. With all the risk of time-loss, especially if in case of a disaster, the network is congested.

An incorrect assumption, says Morten Gustavsen, managing director of the Norwegian company Unified Messaging System (UMS) that delivered the PAS-technology in Norway. ”The Netherlands with this tender will decide for a system of which the technology is already out of date and with which it will be impossible to build a network with national coverage. It is not strange that the skepticism regarding this system is great in countries such as Sweden, UK and Norway. But officials of the Ministry continue to hang on to it.”

According to Gustavsen, the recent experiences with the test in Norway prove that this system at least deserves a serious look at the results with the SMS-technology. “With this system, you will not only reach the inhabitants in a certain region, but also the tourists that rely on the foreign telecomproviders to receive alert messages, and in their own language, if need be. With cell broadcast you will only reach the customers of the operators who operate in that particular country. Just think of how many people you will nót reach if a city like Amsterdam should be threatened by a disaster. Many foreign telecom operators do not support cell broadcast. “

The Ministry of BZK decided to go with cell broadcast based on two-year old research, conducted by the Ministry of Economical Affairs. That research should show that the development of cell broadcast, in cooperation with the Dutch telecomproviders, is the technology with the ‘highest potency’.  “But with the tender in sight, The Netherlands seem to be led by the lobby of the three telecomproviders,”says Gustavsen. As a vendor that will not play a role in the upcoming tender, he realizes he is the devil’s advocate. “Let us prove the virtue of the SMS-technology in practice,” he says. Give UMS the opportunity to, for instance in Amsterdam, prove the virtue of our technology. As a Ministry, don’t follow the cell broadcast technology, that will be obsolete by the time this technology will be finally implemented.”

Meanwhile, in Parliament, there are also voices that plea for a broader orientation than just cell broadcast. Especially the SP, (opposition) fears that millions of euros will be spent on a technology that will turn out to be out of date by the time it will be implemented. Minister Ter Horst (BZK, PvDA) has stated that she will “monitor” other alert technologies, such as the Norwegian system. But for the time being, she will hang onto the agreements with the  Dutch telecomproviders and a tender based on cell broadcast.