Testing of the cellular network disaster warning system held Friday

The Department of Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation began trials of the public disaster alert system at 1pm today, using cellular broadcast network sites to transmit warnings to mobile phones in five locations in Ubon Ratchathani, Suphan Buri, Songkhla and Bangkok.

The early warning system works at three levels; limited to within buildings, covering a full district and covering an entire province.

The test today was at the building level. An audible signal and a message were sent to the cell phones of people in the provincial halls of Chiang Rai, Ubon Ratchathani, Suphan Buri, Songkhla and at the government complex Buildings A and B in Bangkok.

Pasakorn Boonyalak, director general of the Department of Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, said that the next tests will be on May 7 and 13 and at all three coverage footprints.

People with cell phones using both the Android and IOS systems will be able to receive warning signals, provided that their phones are on Android OS version 12 or higher or version 18 or higher of the IOS operating system. 120 million cell phones in Thailand operate on either the Android or IOS systems.

Users of obsolete 2G and 3G phones will not receive the warning signals, but will receive the warning via the SMS system.

Pasakorn said the public disaster warning will be activated before, during and after a disaster. For example, if there is an earthquake, the message “EARTHQUAKE” would be sent, plus a prepared set of information, such as the places to take refuge.

The development of the cell-site based disaster warning system resulted from the earthquake on March 28 in Myanmar, tremors from which shook Bangkok and its high-rise buildings. Only one collapsed though, the new SAO building in Chatuchak district, burying more than 90 construction workers.