I’ve been saying this for a while. Its all about the phone. Or, rather, it’s all about the cell phone.
More than one in six American households, or 17.5 percent, depended solely on cell phones for their telephone communications during the first half of 2008, up from 13.6 percent a full year earlier, according to survey results released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 13.3 percent of American households reportedly received all or almost all of their calls on cell phones despite having a landline telephone in their home.
Governments and other organizations that are looking to build or acquire systems to notify people using telephones should take note of this. Unlike traditional phones, cell phones offer a range of options for contacting people, aside from the standard voice conversation (SMS, e-mail, etc.). In addition, cell phones are geographically aware.
Next generation telephone notification systems will leverage the enhanced capabilities of cell phones to quickly deliver important information to citizens and taxpayers. Its time to start building them…