The nation’s 4G telecoms have finished building and testing a public warning system (PWS) for natural disasters, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
People can start receiving disaster-warning messages from the PWS on July 1 after the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) finishes its part of the testing, by the end of June, it added.
The system was proposed in 2011, when Japan was severely hit by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and a subsequent quake-induced tsunami.
NCC spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said the commission is to upload a list of mobile phones that are able to receive the disaster-related messages on its Web site, which would be available for the public to view on Sunday.
Yu said the telecoms had been able to deliver disaster-warning messages, but they were only able to send a maximum of 2,000 messages per minute.
He said the PWS utilizes cell broadcast technology, which can simultaneously send more than 100,000 messages in targeted regions within seconds.
Yu said the service, which would be offered free of charge to mobile phone users, is only possible via a 4G service. As such, people with mobile phones that can only process 2G service would not be able to receive the messages from the PWS, he said.
Subscribers of 2G services can still receive the disaster-warning messages through the previous method, he said.
Yu said the NCDR first receives messages from the devices detecting natural disasters or from agencies monitoring the occurrences of these disasters, which are then processed at the cell broadcast entity.
He said these messages are then converted into readable formats and sent to the telecoms, which subsequently send them to their service subscribers that might be affected by a certain natural disaster through their base stations installed nationwide.
Yu said that telecoms have finished the tests of PWS from their ends to their subscribers, with the test results showing that the time needed to send the message could take from two seconds to more than 10 seconds.
“The goal is that the NCDR would complete building and testing their part of the PWS by June 30,” Yu said. “The total time needed to transmit the message from the NCDR to the mobile phone users would have to be determined based on how fast the NCDR can process information from disaster-monitoring agencies or devices.”
The NCC said mobile phones certified by the commission after March 1 are supposed to be able to receive the messages disseminated through cell broadcast technology.
For mobile phones certified before March 1, manufacturers are asked to upgrade their systems so that users can receive the message from the PWS as well.
A telecom service expert said the nation’s telecoms have established public warning systems for 2G, 3G and 4G service users. While 4G users can receive messages from the PWS while they are on the phone or the Internet, 3G users cannot receive messages if they are sent when they are talking on the phone or are online. However, 2G users can only receive text messages through the mobile phone network.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS