From Wired

   * By Sam Gustin Email Author
   * May 10, 2011  |
   * 4:39 pm
NEW YORK — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled the nation’s first comprehensive, geographically targeted emergency notification system for cellphones on Tuesday, declaring the launch to be a “quantum leap forward in using technology to help keep people safe.”

Flanked by federal officials, members of New York’s congressional delegation, the city’s top law-enforcement officials, and top executives from the nation’s largest wireless companies, Bloomberg detailed the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) ata press conference overlooking ground zero of the 9/11 attacks nearly a decade ago.

PLAN is a free service that will send geographically-targeted, emergency text alerts to enabled mobile devices, alerting citizens of “imminent threats to safety” in their area. The service will be rolled out in New York City by the end of 2011 — at least two quarters, the Mayor emphasized, before the rest of the nation.