Californians Should be Happy About the FCCs New Emergency PLAN

Yesterday, at Ground Zero in New York City, FCC Chairman Genachowski announced a new public safety alerting system called PLAN, or Personal Localized Alerting Network.  PLAN will allow government officials to send text-like messages to consumers’ mobile devices in geographically-targeted areas during times of emergency, something CALinnovates thinks is a smart move.  You can learn more about PLAN here.  Here’s our statement in support of the FCC’s PLAN:

We commend the Chairman in his aggressive pursuit of PLAN. Based in San Francisco, we understand the importance of having an emergency communications plan in place. Once PLAN is implemented in California, in the case of an earthquake, residents and visitors alike will have access to free, up-to-date emergency information that will help them survive the quake all made possible by Chairman Genachowski’s leadership in partnership with the wireless companies.

-Erin Lehane, Chairperson, CALinnovates