The nationwide Amber Alert system that’s helped police recover more than 200 missing children is now available for free on cell phones as well.

On Tuesday, May 17, The Wireless Foundation, a national council for the mobile and wireless industry, announced its partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to a press release. The pairing brings the Amber Alert system, which has traditionally used television, radio, Internet and highway sign announcements to broadcast information about a missing child, to users’ cell phones.

Under the new Wireless Amber Alert system, cell phone users who opt in to the program can assign up to five ZIP codes for which they would like to receive alerts. If a child goes missing in one of the chosen ZIP codes, the system will send a text message to the subscriber’s cell phone with the child’s description and a law enforcement telephone number. Users will also receive information on alerts issued within their particular state or metropolitan area, according to CNN.

Most of the nation’s major cell phone companies – Alltel, Cingular, Dobson Communications, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Unicel, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless – have signed on as supporters and carriers of the program, which begins immediately, according to The Wireless Foundation’s Web site.

Amber, which stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response,” was started in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 1997 after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and killed near her home. About 200 to 250 Amber Alerts are issued each year, CNN reported.

Cell phone users can sign up for the program at www.wirelessamberalerts.org or through their carrier’s Web site.