R&D company Mactro Technologies (www.mactro.com) introduces the Mactro SMS Broadcaster, a breakthrough product specifically designed for communicating with people during disasters. (Newswire.net -- September 26, 2015) Sunnyvale, CA -- Headquartered in Hong Kong with an affiliate in the Philippines, Mactro’s parent company lost valuable equipment and property during Typhoon Haiyan. The Mactro SMS Broadcaster was inspired by the realization that natural calamities can tear down telecommunications infrastructure – and when they do, new means of communicating – for first-responders, aid workers and the general public – have to be set up immediately. The idea behind the MactroSMS Broadcaster is decidedly simple: it takes advantage of the widespread use of mobile phones, and the familiarity of text messaging. When phone and internet services go down – as they did following Haiyan’s horrific landfall in the Philippines’ Visayas region – the Mactro SMS Broadcaster can be set up within minutes, and used to send out messages to all cellular phones with power, whether or not they had working telecom signals or services. The Mactro messages appear on the phones just as regular SMS, landing in the text messaging inbox and identified by the name of the sender. Available in portable configurations, the SMS Broadcaster can send messages to all phones within a radius of up to five kilometers, regardless of the standards they use (GSM, UMTS, 3G, LTE), the telco services they subscribe to, or their brand. It is able to acquire all the international mobile electronic identifier (IMEI) numbers (present on all mobile phones) within its range, and sends messages using these as the recipient ID’s. Mactro’s SMS broadcast technology does not require it to acquire actual phone numbers (given by telcos) or any other personal information about the recipient. Purposely-built for disasters, the Mactro SMS Broadcaster does not need an internet connection to operate, or electricity, drawing power instead from the sun or from a car battery. Following Haiyan’s landfall, it took three days before telecommunication services started going back online. It is this crucial period when crucial communications services are down, that Mactro wants to address. With the Mactro SMS Broadcaster, local governments and aid organizations will be able to reach out to those in need of emergency assistance immediately, increasing the odds that lives can be saved.
