(L to R) Thalsaporn Waenwang,
coordinator, Prawit Chaipotthong, marketing manager, and Krungthon
Sakolphap, IT officer, from the Secure Group Consortium provide information
to city hall about the new ARC-GMS Alarm.
Vittaya Yoondorn
Hoping to bring the city’s disaster-alert system into the
21st century, Pattaya officials are looking at upgrading a system built on
text messages into one that can communicate with today’s mobile devices.
Officials from Pattaya’s Permanent Secretary’s Office,
and Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department met with representatives
from the private Secure Group.
They showed off an upgrade to the city’s existing
SMS-based alarm receiving center system that transmits using GSM-based
wireless data.
Secure Group rep Krungthon Sakolphap said the upgraded
system can send emergency alerts via SMS to smartphones and other wireless
devices. The GSM data speeds are much faster than Pattaya’s 1990’s era GPRS
system.
The meeting adjourned without a decision on whether to
move forward on the upgrade with city officials saying the proposal needs
more research.