Warning texts about heavy rain in Beijing not sent widely; meteorological agency and service providers blame each other

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　　On New Year’s Eve alone, Beijing’s users sent over 1 billion text messages; so why couldn’t the warning messages about this severe weather be sent to the citizens in a timely manner? 　　After being battered by a rainstorm not seen in 61 years, Beijing is now clear and sunny, yet doubts and debates regarding whether warning messages failed to be sent in time due to technical issues have not ceased. Yesterday, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau and China’s three major telecom operators gave two completely different accounts. 　　Qu Xiaobo, deputy director of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, said that the failure to send warning texts to citizens in advance was mainly due to technical reasons; it would take several hours to send messages to the entire population of Beijing, and by then the rainfall might have already stopped. 　　“The meteorological department has channels for sending text messages via SMS terminals, but Beijing has a permanent population of 20 million people, over 95% of whom own mobile phones. However, the number of base stations available for sending text messages is very limited. Moreover, the population in Beijing is highly concentrated, with large numbers of people within the coverage area of a single base station, which results in delayed sending and receiving of text messages. Unicom once helped the meteorological department conduct tests; after sending one text message, it was possible to send 400 messages in just one second. At such a rate, it would take a very long time for all the citizens in the city to receive those messages. ”Qu Xiaobo said. 　　Qu Xiaobo also said that Beijing will establish a comprehensive meteorological disaster warning system within the next two to three years, one that includes text messages, television, the internet, display screens, etc., in order to unify all these channels and improve the speed and reach of warning messages. “However, it is impossible for warning messages to reach everyone; this can never be achieved – only a certain area can be covered. ” 　　However, the industry does not agree that the meteorological agency was indeed unable to send text messages due to technical issues. 　　Yesterday, the three major telecom operators jointly denied the Meteorological Bureau’s claims. 　　Beijing Mobile stated that there are no technical obstacles to sending text messages across its entire network, and it has previously collaborated with the city’s authorities on multiple occasions. Moreover, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau has no cooperation with it ； The time of message sending still needs to be confirmed by the technical department. 　　Beijing Unicom also responded, stating that there are no technical obstacles to sending text messages across the entire network. 　　Zhang Mingtian, a senior advisor at China Telecom Group’s Government and Enterprise Customers Division, also said frankly: “For China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile, there is no such thing as ‘unable to do it’ when it comes to providing communication support for disaster prevention, disaster response, and disaster relief.” ” 　　An insider from a telecommunications operator said yesterday that, generally speaking, the content, timing, and recipients of public service messages and emergency messages should all be determined by **authoritative agencies, which authorize the telecommunications operators to send them out, and there are no technical obstacles to this. 　　An insider at China Mobile said that technology is not an issue; currently, in China, 10,000 text messages can be sent per second once verification is completed. At this rate, it would take less than an hour to notify all 20 million permanent residents of Beijing. 　　“This year, Beijing users sent over 1 billion text messages on New Year’s Eve, which shows that there are no issues with the telecommunications operators’ capabilities for sending messages across the network. However, no warning messages were sent this time, probably due to poor communication between the relevant departments. ”Xiang Ligang, a telecommunications expert, told reporters. 　　In the view of independent telecom analyst Fu Liang, there are two main reasons why text messages were not sent during this severe rainfall event: first, the emergency response plans were not thorough enough ； Second, the emergency information channels are not unobstructed. “During the severe rainfall on July 21, even if those 800,000 people affected in Fangshan District, Beijing, were all connected to one operator and one base station, it would only take 34 minutes at a rate of 400 messages per second. ”:victory::victory::victory: