05 October 2023

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is working on bringing a new SMS alert service for users living in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) to deliver warnings related to emergency situations.

Users in J&K will soon get to see new safety messaging with ‘warning sounds’ and ‘auto-readout alerts’ for emergency situations. This measure will ensure that people living in the region are properly informed about what’s going on and what they should do to stay safe. The new safety feature will be powered by the Cell Broadcast Alert System (CBAS) and it has already been tested successfully by the DoT.

Vijay Kumar Surendra, additional director general (ADG), Telecom, J&K, said that the tests have already been conducted and the unique alert system is very different from the normal SMS tones, with a higher volume. This will help people keep themselves thoroughly informed about the ongoing emergencies in their area. The same safety messaging feature can also be used by the government in other parts of the country where emergency situations keep on arising.

According to Kumar Surendra, the technical capabilities of the messaging system have been enhanced so that the message is delivered to all mobile users in a select region simultaneously. This minimises the response time for the users to a given emergency which can result in many lives being saved.

SMS alert systems have been in place for a long time already, but with this new effort, the DoT will use a more effective way to use the SMS to let users know about the emergencies in their area. Many might not see regular emergency SMS which can lead to them not being aware of emergency situations which can be fatal.