[BC] Tornado hits ERI's old area

[Rich Wood]

------ At 11:13 AM 11/7/2005, Barry Mishkind wrote: -------

>         Well, that is the problem.  But in many places,
>         the majority of people have cell phones, and
>         this is a quick, easy way to implement a
>         wide area alert with the current telco structure.

Not as easy as you think. Young people, such as myself, have our 
phones turned on 24/7. Most older people I know think of the phone as 
being for use in an emergency. If they need to make a call, they turn it on.

This would require a new generation of phones that could be turned on 
by an emergency signal. Unlike AM/FM receivers, people rarely keep 
their phones very long before upgrading. We seem to keep our radios 
for a lifetime. Phones are now so cheap and providers offer a new one 
or $100 towards one every year, so it wouldn't take very long to 
build a viable system. Unlike IBUZ which will take decades.

Rich