Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has called for urgent improvements to Thailand’s emergency alert system following criticism of the delayed SMS warnings during a recent earthquake originating in Myanmar. The earthquake, which affected parts of Bangkok as well as central and northern Thailand, prompted the Prime Minister to hold a meeting on March 29, 2025, at the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Command Center to address the issues.
During the meeting, officials from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) provided details about their response to the disaster. The DDPM explained that their standard procedure is to issue warnings only after receiving notifications from the Meteorological Department’s Earthquake Surveillance Division. Since earthquakes cannot be predicted, alerts are typically sent only after the tremor has already occurred.
On March 29, when the earthquake struck at 1:20 PM, the DDPM sent its first alert to the NBTC at 2:42 PM. The NBTC then began sending SMS alerts to the public shortly after, at 2:44 PM. However, officials acknowledged limitations within their system. The current system allows for sending messages to only 100,000-200,000 phone numbers at a time, with a 15-minute gap required between message batches. The NBTC is working on expanding the system to accommodate up to 3 million messages in a single batch, but the process takes several hours due to network constraints. In total, over 10 million SMS messages were eventually delivered.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn identified two major problems: the slow speed of the SMS system and its inability to effectively reach a broad audience in a timely manner. “This needs to be fixed as a priority,” she stated. While a new Cell Broadcast system is expected to be deployed in June or July 2025, which will enable faster distribution of messages to all mobile phones, she urged telecom providers to find immediate solutions to enhance SMS capacity. She called for rapid expansion from the current 200,000-message limit to 1 million messages per batch.
The Prime Minister also raised concerns about whether foreign visitors with Thai SIM cards were receiving timely warnings. She emphasized the need for better coordination between the NBTC and DDPM, urging both organizations to improve their systems and integrate them effectively.
Although the Prime Minister was visiting Phuket during the earthquake, she adjusted her schedule to address the emergency situation and quickly returned to Bangkok. Reflecting on the experience, she acknowledged her oversight in not specifying what information should be shared with the public during such emergencies. She thanked television broadcasters for their quick response, noting that they had begun disseminating emergency information within five minutes of her request.
“I’m like every Thai citizen who doesn’t know how to react in these situations because we don’t live in a country that regularly experiences severe earthquakes,” she remarked. Paetongtarn also highlighted the lack of accessible information about transportation services during the crisis, instructing the Ministry of Transport and the NBTC to enhance coordination for future emergencies.
