[BC] FM in Cell Phones

[Blake Bowers]

Its a bandwidth issue for one thing, as well as multiple
carriers, multiple platforms, etc.  

The message has to be formated, sent to each carrier, the carrier
would have to address what towers it will go out on, poll the 
users on that tower, send a message to each and every user on
those towers (Often it would involve multiple towers, could easily
be hundreds of towers or sites in a metro area) and then wait for
the acknowledgements, resend the message to some.

The FM radio concept would be blind to who the carrier
is, what message format is used, and bandwidth usage would
be 0.

Often during emergencies we have issues with people tying up
the network, and the network bogging down.   Even with text 
messaging, often times messages can be delayed for hours, even
days.  

Text messages have proven to be very reliable however, but
the FM broadcast (if done right) could be even more reliable.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Hallikainen" <harold at hallikainen.com>

> I don't know if existing cellular systems support it, but it seems simple
> enough to have a text message broadcast address that goes to every
> cellphone. There would certainly be some traffic as each cellphone
> acknowledges receipt, but it seems like it should be manageable. Even
> without a broadcast address, how may cellphones are active in one cell at
> a time? How long would it take to send a text message to all of them?
> 
> Harold
>