Bluegrass Cellular to adopt mobile alert service to reduce operating costs (US)

­Bluegrass Cellular is a mobile network operator based in the USA. It is known to be working on deploying the Commercial Mobile Service Provider (CMSP) gateway, hosted by Interop. Bluegrass is looking to deliver Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) alert messages originating from the Federal Alert Gateway to its subscribers.

Before the company starts implementing the mobile alert service solution, the regulator requires its successful testing by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In view of the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act passed in 2008, the FCC and FEMA are poised to roll out the CMAS. CMAS is also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). The primary aim of this alert system is to inform the populace of public safety and weather emergencies.

Bluegrass Cellular is also looking to cut investment and staff resources required to deploy an on-network CMAS system by way of the mobile alert service hosted by Interop. The Interop hosted CMAS gateway uses the TCP/IP (3GPP or 3GPP2) standard to connect to Bluegrass CDMA network, which is why this solution has minimal affect on it.

The FCC had set the implementation deadline of April 2012 for those wireless network operators that would like to take part in the voluntary CMAS program.