Honiara, Solomon Islands — April 2025. A major milestone in regional digital resilience was unveiled at the PITA 29 AGM, as members, partner organisations, and leaders at the event witnessed a demonstration of the new mobile cell broadcast early warning system for the Solomon Islands. Designed to utilize the emergency broadcast channel embedded in all mobile networks, Cell broadcast technology enables rapid, secure, and congestion-free emergency alerts, reaching all mobile handsets in a targeted geographic area without relying on individual phone numbers or internet access., The message will reach the user even if the subscriber has zero prepaid credit, or the user is visiting from overseas, or the handset has no SIM card installed.

Briefing session introducing the pilot system components to PITA 29 participants.

This is part of a broader regional initiative led by the GSMA and PITA and supported by Omnitouch, an Australian firm providing the cell broadcast service software solution working closely with the national agencies of each country. The partners recognize that in all Pacific markets the mobile communications networks have the widest reach and therefore they can be used to provide an additional channel for disseminating alert messages to the population (to compliment existing channels that might include radio, TV, sirens, apps, social media etc).

Key Stakeholders in Solomon Islands

The PITA AGM demonstration featured the active participation of all key stakeholders involved in the Solomon Islands implementation, namely:

1. Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office (NDMO)
2. Solomon Islands Meteorological Service (SIMS)
3. Government ICT Services (SIG-ICTS)
4. Our Telekom (Mobile Network Operator)
5. Bmobile (Mobile Network Operator)

Together, these stakeholders highlighted the transformative potential of the cell-enabled early warning system for the country. As demonstrated, cell broadcast alerts will be composed and managed by the National Disaster Centre (NDC) and SIMS, with message authorization protocols also showcased as part of the live demonstration.

Rollout Plan

Presentation of the cell broadcast architecture and emergency communication workflow.

In the coming months this regional initiative will complete the Solomons Islands implementation and undertake a national test as well as bring the cell broadcast system to three additional Pacific markets. A number of countries are now lined up to adopt the platform following the successful pilot in the Solomon Islands. These include the Cook Islands, Kiribati, and Samoa, reflecting growing regional interest in strengthening public early warning systems.

PITA and GSMA are excited to be part of this initiative to bring greater resiliency to the region and save lives.

More updates on this in future releases.