Abstract: A communications system for providing alerting services that includes a plurality of server devices distributed throughout a geographical area, a transmission network including a plurality of transmission routes, and an alerting component adapted to generate and transmit the alert information. The plurality of server devices are adapted to receive, store and transmit alert information associated with an external event and the plurality of server devices store substantially the same alert information at any given time. The alerting component also directs the plurality of server devices to transmit the alert information to at least one user device. The transmission network is adapted to transmit the alert information using one or more of the plurality of transmission routes between any two server devices.