The Ohio State University’s Buckeye Alert System, provided by Twenty First Century Communications, performed very successfully in tests run on January 16, 2008.

In order to ensure that the program is running properly, OSU sent text messages to about 14,000 members of the OSU community, in the first live system test since implementation.

A brief message was sent to all registered users' cell phones. The alerts notified registrants that the message was a test and they should not respond to an emergency.

The Buckeye Alert System test was a success, delivering the text message to 95.2% of the cell phones attempted in less than 7 minutes.

In a second successful test, the system sent voice messages to over 4,800 telephone numbers. Approximately 96.5% were either answered by a person or reached an answering machine.

Buckeye Alert is available to everyone with ties to the university including students, their parents, nearby business owners and campus-area residents. OSU is encouraging participants to register their cell phone and text-devices through a voluntary website operated by the Ohio State University Emergency Management.

Users submit their name, cell-phone number, cell carrier, e-mail address and their tie to the university, such as student, faculty, staff or parent.

The Buckeye Alert System is free, but is not responsible for costs associated with an individual users' wireless provider.

Notes for Editors

Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. is an Ohio-based privately held corporation founded in 1989. TFCC is the leader in “hosted” emergency communication services, with more than 18 years experience in providing high volume call response and emergency notification services. Twenty First Century serves over 80 major utility clients in North America covering more than 70% of American utility customers, as well as serving over 4 million customer meters in the United Kingdom. TFCC serves the American Red Cross, many federal agencies, and numerous county Emergency Management agencies with the UCS system.

TFCC serves more than 120 clients with a client database representing more than 100 million contact records. Twenty First Century processes more emergency calls than all other hosted service companies combined. In September 2004, TFCC managed 11 million calls, and in 2005, handled more than 20 million. During Hurricane Isabel, TFCC managed 1.2 million calls in a single day. During the October wildfires TFCC performed over 200,000 evacuation calls for San Diego County, followed in January by 90,000 flood warnings after the fires had subsided.

The Universal Communication System (UCS) is a comprehensive, vendor-hosted message delivery and response service. UCS provides targeted emergency notification services to client-defined groups or geographical areas - by phone, fax, pager, PDA and/or e-mail - all via the same web-enabled system. Applications include public notification, employee accountability, business continuity and much more. UCS is an offsite hosted solution which can be activated from any remote location with internet access or by phone. The system requires no additional hardware or software to be purchased or installed by the client. The system makes available on demand the largest and fastest out-dial and inbound automated telecommunication platform in North America.

For Sales information call 800-382-8356.

Media Contact:

Ellen Grevey
Director of Corporate Communications
Twenty First Century Communications
614.442.1215 ext. 262
ellen.grevey@tfcci.com