Telus Geomatic Field Trials of Public Alerting Systems

Objective:

To conduct filed trials of TELUS GeoExplorer® in the City of Ottawa, Ont., City of Coquitlam, B. C. and City of Vancouver, B. C.,

To evaluate the effectiveness of TELUS GeoExplorer® and field test enhancements including wireless text messaging, To study the feasibility of 911 database integration in telephone public alerting solutions,

To report the development of TELUS Mobility Integration, and To document technical and policy issues, identify solutions, recommend standards and protocols, and produce a strategy for local and national deployment of TELUS GeoExplorer®.

TELUS has developed GeoExplorer®, a scalable, internet based, automatic telephone call-out system that is integrated with GIS (Geographic Information System) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response). This system allows an user to geographically define an area of risk, disseminate an alert to the people within the risk area, acknowledge the receipts of the alert, voice the alerting message, and generate a system activation report. This system is expected to provide public safety officials with the latest telecommunication technology to alert the people at risk.

TELUS will conduct two staged callout events in each test city with a maximum of 5,000 callouts per test area per event, over a six-month period. One of the two staged events in Ottawa will test the bilingual TELUS GeoExplorer® application. In partnership with public safety officials within the test cities, TELUS will manage the field trials project. This will be evaluated both by TELUS and by city public safety officials.

This project will also produce a number of reports. TELUS will conduct a high-level feasibility study of 911 data base integration. TELUS Mobility is willing to report the technology, development and anticipated results of wireless technology for public alerting. Other reports/studies include a Standards and Protocol report, an implementation strategy, and an impact study.

Wendy Wu
Emergency Telecommunication Officer/Agent de télécommunications d'urgence
Industry Canada/Industrie Canada
#725, 9700 Jasper Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta, T5J 4C3
phone/Tél: 780-495-3099
fax: 780-495-6501
email: wu.wendy@ic.gc.ca