X
Tech

US-based Everbridge scores Aussie emergency alert deal

The Massachusetts headquartered company has been awarded a multi-year contract to support the deployment of Australia's national early warning system.
Written by Asha Barbaschow, Contributor
Close Up Of A Line Of High School Students Using Mobile Phones
Getty Images/iStockphoto

Emergency notifications provider Everbridge has announced being awarded a contract to support the deployment of Australia's "next-generation" national early warning system.

The multi-year contract, Everbridge said, will see the Massachusetts-based company power Emergency Alert Australia, the country's national telephone warning system.

Emergency Alert Australia is one of many ways emergency services such as police, fire, and rescue can warn a community of a likely or actual emergency.

According to the company, it will work alongside Australia's major telecommunications providers to deploy the Everbridge Public Warning solution that is expected to provide nation-wide phone alerting.

"If residing within an area where a sudden, critical event occurs such as fire, extreme weather or a terror attack, residents and visitors to Australia will receive location-based SMS notifications on their mobile phones," the company said in a statement.

Notifications will also come through via smartphone mobile app notifications, as well as fixed line voice alerts.

See also: Severe weather and emergency policy (Tech Pro Research)

Scheduled to become operational in 2020, Everbridge said its public warning platform uses existing telecom infrastructure, with no opt-in required, to reach everyone within a geographic area.

Everbridge said that unlike the United States, which cannot have a nationwide population alerting system due to multiple telecom carriers and the fragmented nature of state and local law enforcement, Australia is able to enforce Everbridge alerts that span the entire country's population.

"Our Public Warning solution enables government organisations and public safety agencies to immediately connect with every person in an affected area during a critical event regardless of nationality, residency, or mobile telephone handset type," Everbridge CEO and chairman Jaime Ellertson said.

See also: 15 apps to help you prepare for, respond to, and recover from a natural disaster (TechRepublic)

"Australia has served as a model example for population-wide alerting and emergency preparedness over the past decade, and we are honoured to support them on the evolution of their national system."

The announcement comes days after Everbridge announced it was standing up an Australian presence, with former fire-fighter Scott Nicholas taking on the role of regional sales manager for Australia and New Zealand.

RELATED COVERAGE

Emergency Warning Network confirms breach

Follows thousands of EWN customers receiving a bogus message via email, text, and landline late Saturday night.

Best practices for tracking mobile workers in emergency events (TechRepublic)

Everbridge's Meg Lovell shares best practice procedures for employers and their mobile tech workers during an emergency situation.

Telstra outage caused 1,400 Triple Zero calls to fail: ACMA

Telstra's May fibre outage meant 1,433 Triple Zero calls did not get through to the emergency services operator, the ACMA has revealed.

10 telcos failed to give data for emergency services purposes: ACMA

ACMA has also received a revision of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code from the telco industry, who are pushing for stricter requirements on credit assessments and selling practices.

CenturyLink outage takes down several 911 emergency services across the US

Downtime caused by network issue affecting 15 of CenturyLink's data centers.

Editorial standards