As of 17 June 2025 AT&T will no longer be supporting the e-mail to text feature used by MVPT to send messages to cell phones and pagers. 

Verizon had previously announced that they are also dropping support for this feature.

Many of the smaller carriers actually use AT&T or Verizon systems for their traffic.

For some time now both have been delaying (sometimes for days) ARES and SKYWARN test messages, as well as actual SKYWARN activations as a “anti-spam” measure.

Alternatives suggested by the service providers are impractical due to limited usage allowed for free access, or due to unsupportable costs.

Therefore, going forward, operators that receive these messages as text to cell phones or pagers should consider receiving messages via e-mail.  Sign up for email using the process described here.

Current email-to-text subscriptions will be maintained in the system unless you contact the List Manager to have them removed. However there is no guarantee that you will receive them in a timely manner, or ever.  Going forward, we will not be adding new cell phone or pagers to the subscribers list.

It’s unfortunate that this is happening. But MVPT to pagers and cell phones has had a pretty good run, around 20 years.  Which is a very long time in the tech world.

The ARES News Letter for 16 April 2025 has been published.

In this issue:

• ARES® Briefs
• Rescue on Mount Umunhum
• Letters
• “Reading the Mail”: How to Grow the ARES® Community
• Ideas for ARES Groups
• Dayton Hamvention® EmComm Programs Not To Be Missed
• K1CE For a Final: 2025 Florida Statewide AUXCOMM Exercise
• ARES® Resources
• Support ARES®: Join ARRL