OMG: Text messages about disasters

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Ever worry that you won’t know Godzilla has taken New York because your car radio is broken and you don’t have TV? By 2010, you might be able to get a text message from the government in the event of a natural disaster of monstrous proportions through something called the Commercial Mobile Alert System.

The substantial red tape around CMAS became a little less thick yesterday, when the Federal Communications Commission issued its final rules on how the system will be implemented. Carriers have 30 days to inform the FCC whether they’ll participate, said FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin.

There will be three types of alerts sent out to consumers who opt into the program: presidential alerts, imminent threat alerts and child abduction emergency alerts.

Don’t count on the government to text you anything soon, though. The process has been a long one, starting with the 2006 Warning, Alert and Response Network Act (WARN), which required a committee on mobile service alerts to submit recommendations to the FCC by late 2007. In April, the FCC issued its report on the subject, carriers commented, and this week the final rules were (finally) released.

In October, a 24-month development and training period begins, during which carriers figure out how the heck to send messages during disasters, which are usually characterized by very high call volumes already.

And no, not even text messages about disasters are free. The rules say carriers can ‘pass on all or portions’ of service-related costs to customers.

-- Alana Semuels

Semuels, a Times staff writer, covers wireless, marketing and the L.A. tech scene.