PAGASA to make use of ‘Infoboard’ for daily updates

CEBU, Philippines - In order to provide strong communication system for the dissemination of weather updates and early warning climate advisories, Smart Communications, Inc. handed over yesterday the “Infoboard” to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration – Visayas Regional Office.

 “It is a web-based solution that offers various SMS services (Short Message Service) with different functions and capabilities caters to the needs of your community and organization,” Lala Cervantes, Senior Marketing Specialist of SmartCom said yesterday.

 With the rise of technology in mobile phones, Cervantes said that the most basic function of the Infoboard is for text broadcasts.

 “For PAGASA, they will basically send messages that are related to weather alerts, thunderstorm alerts, typhoon and rainfall advisories,” Cervantes added.

 One of the features of the PAGASA Infoboard is the mass name “PAGASA VIS” instead of the common 11-digit mobile number.

 The mass name, according to Cervantes, will appear in screen of mobile phones once an individual will register its mobile number to the web-based solution.

 However, the solution will only cater to Smart network-users only. Other networks such as Sun Cellular will reportedly implement the system in the middle of the year.

 “The PAGASA-Visayas, under Engr. Oscar Tabada, will help disseminate the latest advisories or weather updates, mura siya og text broadcast,” said Lawyer Maria Jane Paredes, SmartCom Senior Manager for Public Affairs in Visayas and Mindanao.

 Paredes said it is time-consuming for Tabada to address the weather update “manually” and is “expensive” because he needs to spend in reloading their mobile phones.

 She also cited instances in manually inputted messages that are delivered late despite the weather agency’s hourly updates.

 “Ma overtake-an siya og lain nga information, now that’s where the confusion happens. The Infoboard, this will allow both the administrator (PAGASA) and recipients to communicate real time,”  Paredes added.

 Paredes said the Infoboard will be useful for the weather agency in disseminating weather bulletins, particularly in the two upcoming events, the Sinulog and the Papal Visit. She said though that it took a long time to convince the agency to embrace the technology even though PAGASA-Visayas’ main office is now using the Infoboard.

 The Province of Cebu’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, Archdiocese of Cebu, Diocese of Dumageute City and Cagayan de Oro, as well as Local Government Units of Cebu and Danao City is currently using the web-based solution, according to Paredes.

PAGASA’s Tabada said that the Infoboard will prevent the delay of the dissemination of weather information to the community or organizations.

  “The Infoboard, sa tan-aw nako has right communication system na ato magamit, para faster ang atong pagpadala (sa information). We are sincerely thankful for the Smart Communications” he said.  (FREEMAN)