TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) announced it has received certification
by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for its Commercial Mobile
Alert System (CMAS). The company met FEMA’s CMAS ATIS/TIA J-102 standards
testing in order to qualify for the certification.

With this CMAS certification, wireless carriers utilizing TCS’ system
are assured of interoperability testing (IOT) compliance in time for the April
7, 2012 CMAS implementation deadline and will not need to spend additional time
and resources going through the testing process. There are approximately 140
wireless carriers who have opted to participate in FEMA’s program, either in
full or in part.

“FEMA is the independent, impartial evaluator of CMAS, and TCS is
honored to have received its solution interoperability certification,”
said Jay Whitehurst, senior vice president, commercial software for TCS.

CMAS is the result of an executive order signed by the president in
October 2006 which mandated the development of an emergency alert system for
U.S. residents to be delivered via mobile phones.

Over the past five years, FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), TCS and others have
developed a standard which uses cell broadcast technology to ensure that
emergency messages will not be caught up in point-to-point congestion that can
occur during an emergency.

CMAS will deliver 90-character, geographically targeted alerts about
imminent threats to life and property, Presidential Alerts and AMBER alerts.
Mobile phone subscribers in the area at risk will receive the alerts in the
form of a short text message and a special sound and vibration on any
CMAS-compliant handset.

TCS powered the delivery of nearly one trillion text messages and half
of all wireless 9-1-1 calls in 2010 alone. With the nation’s only non-carrier
TL 9000-certified network operations center (NOC), as well as extensive
provision of E9-1-1, text messaging, and location-based services, TCS possesses
the experience and technical capabilities necessary to position carrier
customers to meet the FCC’s CMAS requirements.

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]