Chairman Julius Genachoswki spoke at the World Trade Center site in New York City yesterday to kick off PLAN (Personal Localized Alerting Network). Joining him were New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, and a handful of executives from the nation’s largest wireless providers. This is a momentous launch for emergency alerting and we’re proud that New York City will take the lead in being one of the first cities up and running.
An excerpt from the Chairman’s remarks is below.
Communications technology - and in particular mobile broadband - has the potential to revolutionize emergency response and save lives.
We've got a lot of work to do to reach our goals, but today we take an important step.
One shortcoming that was exposed on 9/11 is that emergency authorities didn't have the ability to send alerts with vital instructions to people's mobile phones - nor the ability to break through network congestion.
Today, we announce that that's about to change.
The Personal Localized Alerting Network - what we call PLAN - is a new technology and service that will turn your mobile device into an emergency alert device with potentially life-saving messages when public safety is threatened.