Amber alerts and geography

The SJ Mercury News is carrying a story about the amber alert system being deployed to pass messages to mobile phones in the USA. The snip below tells the story.

Beginning immediately, most of the nation's wireless carriers -- including Sprint PCS, Cingular Wireless, Nextel, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile -- will relay information about abducted children to subscribers who ask to be notified.

In most cases, the service is free. However, users must first register their phone numbers at www.wirelessamberalerts.org and must re-register if they change service providers, even if they keep the same number.

Likewise, users must specify no more than five ZIP codes -- typically the ZIP codes at their home, workplace or child's school, covering the areas where they spend most of their time.

Alerts are sent to local authorities based on where the abduction takes place. If an Amber Alert is issued for a Bay Area abduction, for example, registered users of the text message alerts from the Bay Area will receive the message -- even if they're out of the area.

From my point of view -- mostly because it's a theme I'm writing about relative to mobility and the Internet and alleged geographic independence they provide -- here's just another example of how geography imposes itself on the ether.

Posted by Grayson at May 18, 2005 07:48 AM