Time Set For National Mobile Phone Emergency Alert Test (bbc.com) 16
A siren will go off on nearly every smartphone in the UK on Sunday 23 April, the government has announced. From a report: 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. The alert system will be used to warn of extreme weather events, such as flash floods or wildfires. It could also be used during terror incidents or civil defence emergencies if the UK was under attack. The minister in charge of the system, Oliver Dowden, said it would be used only in situations where there was an immediate risk to life. In most cases it will be targeted at very specific areas, rather than the entire country and, according to officials, may not be used for months or years.
How very British (Score:2)
Yeah, there may be an emergency, but interrupt our footy game for it? That isn't done!
Minor Gripe (Score:2)
The summary conveyed this really well, but I felt like which nation is conducting the test should have made it into the actual headline.
Re: (Score:2)
In the US most of us has turned of our warning. This is unfortunate in some areas as they would be useful for real emergencies. Tornados, earthquakes, cities getting swallowed by sinkholes. But they instead are often daily occurrences of just normal, albeit tragic, events.
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I am not sure about your phone, but mine lets me control which broadcast alerts it shows: yes to extreme/severe threats, yes to public safety messages, no to AMBER alerts and state/local tests.
https://www.androidcentral.com... [androidcentral.com] gives an overview of these, but mentions fewer categories than my phone shows.
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My state sends out every alert at the highest level. I turned my alerts off after a 3am notification that an old guy had wandered away from his nursing home ten miles from my home.
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Canada too. The category divisions are useless as it's all sent at highest priority. Though I have to admit I think I've only seen a couple of amber alerts.
The problems I see is that if you accidentally dismiss the alert, you can't get it back in a lot of cases. Some phones still retain it in the notification list, but others if y
Is this supposed to be the first test? (Score:2)
These emergency alerts are flat out dangerous. (Score:2)
We get a few of these tests per year, and there's no way to turn them off. They are obnoxiously loud - so much so that they are physically discombobulating. I'm amazed that my phone can make a sound that loud. Even though I know what they are, it' still so intrusive as to yank you out of the mental headspace of what you're doing - including driving.
Every time I get one, I think that it's a good thing the bureaucracy hides the decision makers, because otherwise I would shove it right up some specific person'
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Yeah we all know the best emergency alert systems are the ones you can't hear and that you've never heard before. /s
Here's a tip: Put a reminder in your phone 5 min before the alert is due if you're so afraid of a sound that you can't function properly.
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What world do you live in where you get a 5 minute warning for emergency alerts?
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On most Android devices if you go to settings and search for "emergency", there is a toggle for emergency broadcasts. I have them turned off when I'm in the UK because they are useless here, but turned on in Japan because they provide handy earthquake and tsunami information.
Spread the word about this. Everyone needs to know how to turn them off, especially people in vulnerable situations who might have a secret phone they keep hidden e.g. from an abusive partner.
TIL (Score:2)
That the UK has up until now either not had a national mobile alert system, or not tested it. I'm actually quite surprised about this given that they have historically had quite a high tech communications system for emergency services.
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It's not necessary and British people will hate it.
We've seen the abuses of such systems in the US, and we don't have things like tornados, etc.
It's always been available, it's just a function of a cellphone network, but never used because there wasn't any real need.
And our emergency services don't have hi-tech gear. In fact, we've been trying to replace them for decades but can't, and end up just continually paying through the nose to renew an antique system.
From 2018:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/tec... [bbc.co.uk]
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