Patent ID: 7764946

Claim:
A method for geographically distributing a short message service (SMS) alert, the method comprising: receiving an indication of an alert for a geographic alert area; determining cellular sites providing coverage for the geographic alert area; determining, via a respective subscriber profile, at least one registered SMS subscriber that wants to receive an SMS based alert message; determining if any of the cellular sites providing coverage for the geographic alert area are associated with the at least one registered SMS subscriber wanting to receive an SMS based alert message; when the at least one registered SMS subscriber wanting to receive an SMS based alert message is associated with at least one cellular site providing coverage for the geographic alert area, providing to the at least one cellular site an SMS based alert message indicative of the alert; determining if the geographic alert area is capable of receiving the indication of the alert via the determined cellular sites; and when it is determined that the geographic alert area is not capable of receiving the indication of the alert via the determined cellular sites, reporting to an entity an indication that the geographic alert area is not capable of receiving the indication of the alert via the determined cellular sites.