Trinidad and Tobago and [Insert Your Country Here] Needs Emergency SMS

January 19, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Imagine being trapped under some rubble with only a mobile phone for company. You could be hurt, bleeding, hungry, dehydrated or any combination of the above. If the mobile infrastructure is even partially intact, calling people on the phone would be limited by the likely overload of the mobile system. But SMS messages get queued. They also drain less battery life which, if you're stuck, could be very important in saving your life or the life of someone you love.

Imagine a SMS equivalent of an emergency number (like 999, or 911) you could send a text to - where the right people could get your message quickly. And they could get to you and those you care about more quickly. Simple, isn't it? 

As I mentioned on KnowProSE.com, Haiti now has the number 4636 for emergency SMS messages . It was set up after the fact by a group of volunteers because it was of use in communicating after the earthquake. The mobile phone infrastructure seems to have survived, at least to a noticeable degree. It's under very similar circumstances that one of my own abandoned projects, the Alert Retrieval Cache, was constructed after the South East Asian tsunami. It's basically the same thing - and it's a good idea that keeps popping up independently all over the world. I've even seen it done by UWI students for a contest last year - and they had no idea about the Alert Retrieval Cache concept. Here's a diagram for the reading impaired.

It's just a good idea that has a lot of different owners. Or, as I'd like to think of it, it has no owners. Myself and others see how solid the idea is, but it never seems to be implemented. The technology exists. Unfortunately, the concern never seems to exist until afterwards.

But if people knew about the SMS number beforehand, they would know who to direct their text messages to. Even outside of disasters, such a number could be very useful for law enforcement, fire departments and emergency services: there are many instances when a voice call might not be possible.

So why doesn't one exist? Well, it's because citizens haven't asked their nation for one.

The best suited for setting up and advertising such systems are really the mobile service providers - in Trinidad and Tobago, that would be bMobile and Digicel. Even if they don't maintain the service themselves, they could offer it to the government of Trinidad and Tobago. Conversely, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago could ask the mobile providers for such.

It's really so simple for a mobile service provider to set up, there's no reason for it not to be set up and the public educated before a disaster. It doesn't have to be expensive (though, unfortunately, the government of Trinidad and Tobago would probably be impressed with a hefty price tag). It could save the lives of mobile service customers, so it could be looked at as maintaining marketshare for the bean counters.

And for the people who actually care about people... it could save lives and improve the quality of life of people. And it would work best if it's set up beforehand instead of afterward.

So why not ask your government and/or mobile providers to provide this service?

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