New York City Unveils First-In-The-Nation Public Safety System; Enabled Mobile Devices Will Receive Emergency Alerts At Critical Moments With Potentially Life-Saving Messages

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, and top executives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile & Verizon announce PLAN at World Trade Center site in New York City

Release Date: May 10, 2011
Release Number: HQ-11-073

New York, N.Y. -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, top executives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon and others convened at the World Trade Center site to announce PLAN--the Personal Localized Alerting Network. PLAN is a free service that will allow customers with an enabled mobile device to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. This service will be available in New York City by the end of 2011, at least two calendar quarters before the rest of the nation.

PLAN ensures that emergency alerts will not get stalled by user congestion, which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services. Authorized government officials can send messages, which participating wireless providers then push using their cell towers to enabled mobile devices in a targeted geographic area.

“In both the public and private sectors, I’ve always believed in the need to harness technology in new ways, including ways that its designers hadn’t anticipated. The City’s opt-in Notify NYC system is a great example of that: it alerts people to dangers and delays via email and mobile devices, and it has become a national model of emergency communication,â€