A system for providing alerts via text messages when natural disasters hit is scheduled to be completed in March next year, National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairperson Howard Shyr (石世豪) said yesterday.
The commission amended regulations in 2012 to require telecom carriers to construct location-based services (LBS) for disaster management — or similar systems — at their own expense after northeastern Japan was hit by a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The system, in which telecom carriers would simultaneously send text messages to the mobile phones of users in an area affected by a natural disaster, would help people to move to safe locations quicker and reduce potential casualties, the commission said.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday said in a question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Transportation Committee that Chunghwa Telecom only sent three natural disaster-related alerts during a test run in 2013.
Kuan said that she had not received any alerts of this type since then, not even when the nation was hit by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake on April 20, and asked whether the commission had forgotten about its pledge.
Kuan also said that the regulations governing the 4G telecom service require carriers to build such a system, with the administrative agency that is responsible for it announcing when the system is to be launched.
She said that the commission had already given the carriers so much time that there was no way of telling when the promise of such a system would be fulfilled.
In response, Shyr said that the “administrative agency” stated in the regulations does not necessarily mean the NCC.
Kuan said Shyr should resign if it is determined that the NCC is in fact in charge of deciding when to activate the system.
She and DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) further proposed a resolution asking the NCC to set a specific date for when the LBS or other disaster broadcasting services should be launched.
Shyr said that government officials should make sure that people’s needs are met and should not just aim to score political points against other lawmakers.
He said the specifications of the LBS or other 4G disaster alert services are scheduled to be finalized this year, adding that they should be launched by March next year.
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