Emergency SMS not the solution: Esplin

Sending out text messages to every mobile phone customer would not suffice as a
national emergency warning system, authorities say.
Nearly all Victorian mobile phone customers received the texts on Monday, warning
them of extreme fire and wind danger on Monday night and on Tuesday.
Feedback from the "electronic doorknock" to nearly five million mobile phone
customers had been largely positive, Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin
said.
"The telecommunications carriers, led by Telstra, decided they would do that as a
community service obligation because of the severe dangers that were predicted
overnight," Mr Esplin said on Tuesday morning.
But it shouldn't be mistaken for a national emergency warning system.
"Victoria has been agitating for a national approach to these things to be used to
warn the community, that's landlines and mobile phones," Mr Esplin said.
"Yesterday showed telecommunications can be used, we can use SMS's, we can use the
commercially available system.
"But what Victoria wants to see is a purpose-designed system that is scaleable, that
has surge capacity, that has redundancy, to make sure that the community will get
messages that way and we will have 100 per cent confidence that they will get the
messages without a problem."
Mr Esplin had previously called for the system to be in place across the country by
the next fire season.
Victorian Premier John Brumby had already signalled a telephone warning system would
be looked into as part of the royal commission into the bushfires.
Sending out blanket text messages, as used on Monday, would not do the job, Mr
Esplin said.
"We can extract a lot of information from yesterday, we can look at how long it took
to get those messages out, we can look at did everybody get them."
Mr Esplin admitted not every mobile phone customer received a text, although some
users interstate and overseas did.
"I would point out that if you had to doorknock a thousand homes with police and
emergency services it would take lots and lots of hours. Yesterday in four to five
hours we doorknocked electronically up to five million homes."
Telstra spokesman Martin Barr said the use of SMS technology to deliver alert
messages demonstrated the practical applications of technology.
He did not say how many Telstra customers received the text and if there were any
problems with the delivery.
Some Vodafone customers reported not receiving the text messages.
Vodafone did not respond to AAP's calls.