Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Mass Notification topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Town tests AlertSCC/Nixle; residents report login and address gaps as T‑Mobile audit finds coverage holes
Summary
Los Altos Hills tested AlertSCC (Everbridge) and Nixle; AlertSCC yielded confirmation metrics but some residents missed messages or mistook them for spam. Separately, a T‑Mobile coverage assessment showed terrain and sparse towers cause pockets of poor cellular coverage, prompting a potential end‑to‑end engineering review.
Victoria, the town’s emergency-manager liaison to the committee, reported results from a December mass‑notification test using AlertSCC (Everbridge) and Nixle. AlertSCC generated 787 resident confirmations and a larger number of attempted but nonconfirmed deliveries; Nixle pushed about 7,167 messages but the platform lacks a built‑in receipt confirmation mechanism. Victoria said common problems included residents who had not updated logins or who used Palo Alto mailing addresses/ZIP codes and therefore were not included in the geofenced AlertSCC target. Several residents reported treating messages as spam.
Victoria recommended follow-up actions: run another test after data cleanup, expand opt‑in marketing (including on-site signups at large town events like the annual picnic), and work with the county/AlertSCC representative to clarify reporting metrics. Committee members suggested practical incentives (registration-linked raffle items) and monthly reminder tests to keep opt‑ins active.
On related infrastructure, staff presented a T‑Mobile coverage assessment showing that Los Altos Hills’ topography and sparse tower density create pockets of low received signal power (low RSRP) that impede reliable delivery of emergency text messages for some residents. T‑Mobile recommended an engineering review (site visits, photographic documentation and an optimization wish list) and outlined potential solutions including fiber upgrades to towers, small‑cell deployments and hosting equipment on high-elevation municipal assets such as water tanks. Staff said similar maps could be requested from other carriers and that the town will explore hosting and end‑to‑end reviews as next steps.
