Mr. Prasert Chantarungthong, the Minister of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE), discussed the recent incident at Siam Paragon on October 3. During that time, the mall has notified people in the vicinity through an SMS that they should evacuate the Paragon area due to an emergency situation. While this is a good initiative, it seems that the message did not reach many people within the mall, and there was no specific alert from the government for people in the area.
In response to this, DE has received instructions to collaborate with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to find targeted alert solutions as follows:
Immediate action within 1 month: Utilize the Location Based Service in SMS system, which was previously inefficient, non-integrated, and not as effective as it should be, to provide nationwide coverage.
Medium-term action: Utilize the more efficient Cell Broadcast system, which allows for immediate and diverse forms of alerts such as vibrating mobile phones and popping up text messages. DE has concluded the technical aspect of this solution with NBTC and service providers, and they are ready to rapidly expand its implementation.
Cell Broadcast is a direct messaging system from communication signal transmitters to mobile phones and communication devices within the installed signal coverage area. It allows for rapid and widespread data transmission without the need for phone numbers, making it much faster than SMS. Furthermore, the Cell Broadcast system can operate without the need to download any applications.
Compared to the SMS-based emergency alert system, Cell Broadcast is much more efficient. The SMS system takes approximately 15-20 minutes to process the information of which SIM card numbers are in the area, and additional 1-20 minutes to send the messages to the target audience, especially in cases where there is a large number of people in the targeted area.
Professor Sirin Bunnabchai, the Chairman of NBTC, has discussed the following actions with DE and the telecommunications service providers:
Establish a command center for operators to receive instructions, determine messages, and ensure proper dispatch. NBTC will establish relevant rules and regulations for this.
Update the software for signal distribution to enable the use of Cell Broadcast.
To implement the cell broadcast alert system, equipment installation and software integration need to be completed nationwide as soon as possible. The funding for this initiative will be sourced from the USO fund.
TLDR: Mr. Prasert Chantarungthong, the Minister of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE), has discussed the need to improve the effectiveness of emergency alerts in the Siam Paragon incident. DE will collaborate with NBTC to implement more targeted and efficient alert systems, including the utilization of Cell Broadcast technology. This technology allows for immediate and diverse forms of alerts, providing faster and more widespread coverage compared to traditional SMS systems. Implementation plans and funding are underway to ensure nationwide coverage.
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