Telephones warn of emergency

Press, 6 November 1984, Page 26

Telephones warn of emergency

NZPA-AP Charlotte, North Carolina Telephones of the future may place automatic calls to warn of an emergency such as a nuclear meltdown, or perform less urgent jobs like reading your electricity meter or telling cable television companies what you are watching. “It sounds like (the science fiction movie) ‘Star Wars,’ but the technology is here today,” said Eugene McKinney, an account executive with the Southern. Bell telephone company. Southern Bell has already looked into setting up an

emergency notification system for the Catawba nuclear-power plant, under construction near Charlotte, North Carolina. No such system exists or is under development elsewhere, but “the technology is there,” said Bob Freedman, a Southern Bell district manager. During hearings on the Catawba plant, Mr McKinney told Government and power company officials that it would take at least ?5 million and two years to complete . the telephone emergency warning system, which would, theoretically,

operate through two different systems. In the first type of system, a computer at the phone company’s central office could make 1700 calls a minute with pre-recorded messages. “If there was a meltdown or whatever, you could warn any segment of the population with any message,” Mr McKinney said. In the second type of system, a sub-channel of existing phone lines would put a “black box” in each home, allowing a two-way flow of information.