SMS ‘Not ideal for Emergency Communications’

I’m not sure I get the purpose of this report from 3G America criticizing SMS messaging for it’s short comings as a communication method? Did we stop using phones beause people sometimes don’t answer them? Do we stop using TV’s as a medium because some people don’t have them?

All communication mediums are a viable method for distributing information. In some cases additional due diligence on the part of the sender to follow up with other methods if the information is that important. Before I continue my rant here’s the report I’m referring to…

US trade group, 3G Americas has published a research report focusing on restrictions on the use of SMS as an emergency alert service. The use of text messaging or SMS has become ubiquitous and commonplace for recreational and business purposes.

According to CTIA -The Wireless Association, text messaging has set new records in the United States, with 75 billion messages reported in the month of June 2008 alone — about 2.5 billion messages a day. Accordingly, SMS messaging is now viewed by many as a reliable method of communication when all other means appear unavailable, and some third party companies are offering emergency notification services based on SMS.

”SMS is touted as being able to deliver critical information during disaster events, and such services have been purchased by universities and municipalities hoping to protect the general public,” stated Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. ”Unfortunately, such systems typically will not work as advertised.”

The writer of the report, Patrick Traynor, cites specific reasons for his conclusion about the technology:

• Cellular networks are not designed to delivery emergency-scale traffic loads
• Cellular networks are not the Internet
• Targeting users in a specific location is extremely difficult
• There is no way to authenticate the source of messages, making fraudulent alerts easy to send
• SMS is not a real-time service
• Message delivery order is not always predictable

My thoughts and rebuttals:

• So scale the networks, don’t blame the technology.
• And yet even the internet has yet to reach 80% penetration in the U.S.
• Again, improve the network. That statement assumes there will be no new advances in Cellular tech.
• Perhaps as easy as it is for for Phishers to send fake emails?
• It’s no more or less real time than e-mail or a web page.
• Fair enough, SMS is notorious for this.

While I do think SMS has many flaws, I know that there are real solutions. Some of them lie in other messaging protocols like MMS, others will require advances in GSM and GPRS technologies before they become more reliable. Even so, I don’t see why SMS can’t be an additional tool for distributing emergency information. When TV’s came along we didn’t stop using the ‘air siren’ to warn people about tornadoes. It’s just another way to reach people. Here in Africa it’s one of the best ways to reach people continent-wide.

via ITNA