Public emergency alerts to be sent to all UK mobile phones

[The Kaptain]

A siren-like alert will be sent to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new government public warning system.

It allows the government and emergency services to send urgent messages warning the public of life-threatening situations like flooding or wildfires.

The test is expected to take place in the early evening of 23 April.

Phone users will have to acknowledge the alert before they can use other features on their devices.

A message will appear on the home screens of people's devices during the test, with vibration and a loud warning sound that will ring for about 10 seconds, even if the phone is set to silent.

The system - which became operational on Sunday - is being modelled on similar schemes used in the US, Canada, Japan and The Netherlands.

Messages would only ever come from the government or emergency services and will initially focus on the most serious weather-related events, with the ability to get a message to 90% of mobile users within the relevant area.

Source

[DebsE]

That'll be me turning my Mobile off then.

[The Kaptain]

I expect (though do not know) that you will get the alert next time you turn it on, much as the same way a text will be delivered

[evil_C]

Maybe this is how we’ll get the four minute warning now…

[LD100]

The system - which became operational on Sunday - is being modeled on similar schemes used in the US, Canada, Japan and The Netherlands.

Source

My condolences; the US version was running tests a few months ago...a horrible screeching sound that makes you jump out of your skin. Noise repeated about 5 times in a row...I finally shut the phone off. A week later the same thing, but this time I shut the phone off immediately. A friend who was driving his car at the time of the test told me he was not at all amused by the shocking sound going off while he was driving.

[ae111sr]

I wonder what will happen on my phone, I'll be Florida on that day

[Scooter]

It made me think how times changed when I was working. The progress went like this when we had a fire or emergency but
I cannot give the actual time line.
The site siren sounded, you looked for smoke.
A site siren sounded to say there was an incident. I would phone 999 (yes unbelievable now) to find which plant the incident was on.
Later this changed to a phone number which connected to an answer phone which told you where it was.
This changed to a pager message.
This was then updated to a txt message plus a site wide radio announcement to every control room giving the details. As well as that a dedicated radio channel would be opened to our radio systems.
So we progressed from smoke signals to mobiles.
In the early seventies I spent several months on a site which we ran for the government. On the first day in the control room I heard a beep, beep going off constantly. I traced it to an old fashioned radio, basically a wooden radio without any dial just a volume knob. So I turned it off and instantly got reprimanded as it was the “early warning” alarm. As along as it bleeped it was working, so it had to be left on. It was like water drip torture.

[Wenge1]

It made me think how times changed when I was working. The progress went like this when we had a fire or emergency but
I cannot give the actual time line.
The site siren sounded, you looked for smoke.
A site siren sounded to say there was an incident. I would phone 999 (yes unbelievable now) to find which plant the incident was on.
Later this changed to a phone number which connected to an answer phone which told you where it was.
This changed to a pager message.
This was then updated to a txt message plus a site wide radio announcement to every control room giving the details. As well as that a dedicated radio channel would be opened to our radio systems.
So we progressed from smoke signals to mobiles.
In the early seventies I spent several months on a site which we ran for the government. On the first day in the control room I heard a beep, beep going off constantly. I traced it to an old fashioned radio, basically a wooden radio without any dial just a volume knob. So I turned it off and instantly got reprimanded as it was the “early warning” alarm. As along as it bleeped it was working, so it had to be left on. It was like water drip torture.

Things really have moved on on the warning systems re fire. At the site of a large industrial bakery at which I was the H&S manager the system had a central panel on which the location of the either an automatic sensor that had gone off or if one of the numerous hand activated fire points had been triggered. Either of these would activate the fire alarm triggering a site wide evacuation plan.

[Mr Onion]

A siren will go off on nearly every smartphone in the UK on Sunday 23 April, the government has announced.

The 10 seconds of sound and vibration at 15:00 BST will test a new emergency alerts system.

The test had originally been planned for the early evening but was moved to avoid clashing with an FA Cup semi-final, which kicks off at 16:30.

The government was also keen to avoid a clash with the London Marathon, which starts at 09:30 on that Sunday.

alert.webp

Source

Its good to know that there will never be an emergency during a Football Match or Marathon

[Coyote Jim]

I wonder how many cheaters will get busted with secret phones.

[Wenge1]

I wonder how many cheaters will get busted with secret phones.

Absolutely classic C.J. ..... .........

[Mr Onion]

I wonder how many cheaters will get busted with secret phones.

Better make sure that you turn yours off then

[Coyote Jim]

I wonder how many cheaters will get busted with secret phones.

Better make sure that you turn yours off then

I knew younger guys at an old work that had two and three phones on the go.
How anyone can put up with more than one beats me then there’s the phones.

[Mr Onion]

Just a reminder that todays the day

[Coyote Jim]

Ours worked a minute late 15.01 so out of my four minute warning one of mine was wasted “ could have made all the difference”.

[Wenge1]

.
I just turned my phone off. When I turned it back on again there was no delayed alert..

[evil_C]

I disabled Extreme Alerts and Severe Alerts under Notifications on my iPhone, so nothing happened at all. However, I understand not all users received the alert anyway!

[DebsE]

I disabled Extreme Alerts and Severe Alerts under Notifications on my iPhone, so nothing happened at all.

Ditto. Although mine's a Samsung.