A WORLD-first emergency alert system to deliver text messages to mobile phones will be in place this year.
New technology allows the alerts to be sent to all mobile phones in a certain area and enables authorities to notify Victorians of fire, flood or other major hazards at a moment's notice.
Acting Premier Peter Ryan will today announce Telstra has signed as the first carrier with the service.
As I understand it, this is a system for alerting the public. As opposed to the current system we have where the alert is sent based on your billing address (ie: I live in xxxx post code, the incident is threatening that code, so a message is sent), I believe this system will send it to you if you're in the area (driving through, holidaying, etc). I assume it triangulates off the towers or something??????