Cellular South Urges Alabama Consumers, Businesses to Sign up for Free Wireless AMBER Alerts

RIDGELAND, Miss.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cellular South, the largest privately owned wireless provider in the U.S., is joining forces with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to encourage mobile phone users in Alabama to sign up for free wireless AMBER alerts that can help law enforcement safely recover abducted children.

“but the most important participants are members of the general public and with more consumers and businesses receiving wireless AMBER Alerts on their mobile phones, there will be even more eyes and ears available to help return children to their families and to fight against this horrific crime.”

The wireless AMBER Alert program is a voluntary partnership between the wireless industry, law enforcement agencies and NCMEC to distribute an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases to consumers and businesses who opt in to receive free text messages on their wireless devices.

“These life-saving messages have the potential to reach 96 percent of the public with more than 292 million mobile phone subscribers in the U.S. and more than 16 million mobile phones active in Alabama,” said Jim Richmond, director of Corporate Communications for Cellular South. “This week marks the 15^th anniversary of the National AMBER Alert Awareness program and our goal is to educate and encourage all wireless users to register to receive the free alerts and increase the number of people who may be able to help in recovering abducted children.”

Since its creation in 1997, the AMBER Alert program has led to the safe recovery of 525 abducted and missing children in the U.S., according to Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. “Wireless AMBER Alerts are a powerful, effective tool to mobilize the public’s help in the search for child abduction victims. They work and cost virtually nothing,” Allen said.

In Alabama, the AMBER Alert system was activated eight times in the five year period ending in 2009, helping in the safe recovery and return of two children, according to NCMEC statistics.

Since its creation in 2005, nearly 700,000 cell phone users nationwide participate in the wireless AMBER Alert program, including an estimated 6,000 mobile phone users in Alabama. “We want to continue to encourage consumers and businesses across the state to sign up to receive free text messages when a child has been abducted in their area and join the effort to help reunite that child with their family,” Richmond said.

The AMBER – “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response” - Alert program was named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old who was kidnapped and later murdered in Arlington, Texas, in 1996. That tragedy spurred the creation of early warning systems in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands along with 29 regional programs and 38 local programs to aid in the recovery of abducted children.

More than 98 percent of the total number of successful recoveries to date has occurred since October 2002 when the AMBER Alert program became a coordinated national effort, Richmond said. “The AMBER Alert network includes law enforcement, broadcasters, transportation officials, the wireless industry, trucking carriers, retail outlets, social media and many more,” he said, “but the most important participants are members of the general public and with more consumers and businesses receiving wireless AMBER Alerts on their mobile phones, there will be even more eyes and ears available to help return children to their families and to fight against this horrific crime.”

Richmond said consumers and businesses with cell phones can sign up to receive free Wireless AMBER Alerts through one of three methods:

Send a text message from their cell phone to the short code 26237 with the keyword “AMBER” or “amber” or “SUBSCRIBE” or “subscribe” followed by a space and their five-digit zip code. Users can enter up to five zip codes.
Log on to www.wirelessamberalerts.org and register online.
Go to www.cellularsouth.com/amberalert/ and follow the links.

As of this week, the more than 100 million Facebook users in the U.S. can sign up to receive their state’s AMBER Alerts. Alabama has its own Facebook AMBER Alert page – www.facebook.com/amberalertAL - and users who become a fan will immediately get alerts in their news feed when there is a missing child in their area.

About NCMEC

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Since it was established by Congress in 1984, the organization has operated the toll-free 24-hour national missing children’s hotline which has handled more than 2,528,730 calls. It has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 157,720 children. The organization’s CyberTipline has handled more than 1,000,620 reports of child sexual exploitation and its Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed and analyzed more than 44,099,160 pornography images and videos. The organization works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice’s office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. To learn more about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com.

About Cellular South

Cellular South is a diversified mobile communications company passionately committed to helping customers get the most out of their wireless devices and services. The nation’s largest privately owned wireless communications provider accomplishes this goal by optimizing customers’ app experience through Discover Apps, providing the most reliable and advanced high-speed nationwide wireless voice and data network, offering industry-leading family and unlimited flat rate voice, text and mobile web plans, and through its online and in-store Discover Centers, which give customers easy, simple and convenient tools, tips, advice and information on how to get the most out of their mobile phone. For more information about Cellular South and its products and services, visit www.cellularsouth.com.