Patent ID: 8744402

Claim:
A method for preventing overload and blocking of a mobile network when sending of alert messages to a plurality of mobile phone users located in a specific geographical area, independently of any user preferences on mobile phones, wherein the method is performed in an optimizing message distribution component (A-SMSC) connected to the mobile network, and wherein the method comprises: an alert initiating message receiving step of receiving an alert initiation message comprising information about content of the message and where the message is to be sent, represented as relevant cells, performed as a request from a location based alert system server to A-SMSC, and information about the relevant cells is determined by a location based alert system geo-targeting module “LBAS GT” by converting information of a specific geographical area to corresponding cell ids; an updated information receiving step of receiving updated information of mobile station ISDNs (MSISDN) number with current serving cells on base station system (BSS) level, wherein information is acquired by looking up entries in a location based alert system database “LBAS Db” with updated information of MSISDN numbers of the mobile phones connected to the relevant cells, represented by the cell ids within the specific requested geographical area; an assessing step of assessing received information and determining relevant mobile phones with corresponding MSISDN numbers to send alert messages to; a placing step of placing a prevention tag for the determined relevant mobile phones on MSC/VLR level, wherein the prevention tag indicates that alert messages that are sent to the mobile phones with the corresponding MSISDN numbers are not to be authenticated when the mobile phones are trying to initiate a call from the specific geographical area to MSC, and further indicates that external calls to the determined relevant mobile phones are not to be connected; a sending step of sending alert messages from the A-SMSC through a serving MSC to the relevant mobile phones with the corresponding MSISDN numbers located in the specific geographical area, and a removing step of removing placed tags for said relevant mobile phones after finishing the alerting.