Public emergency alerts to be sent to all UK smartphones on 23rd April

RumRat

MikeyPGT said:

facade said:

twopenny said:

<snip>

So what are the alerts for? What will they say? That seems to be what's missing for this scenario

It is covered on the  dot gov page linked in the first post

• severe flooding
• fires
• extreme weather

Probably they won't bother with nuclear attack, as when Japan actually had a potential nuclear missile incoming and activated their alert, it just caused a lot of moaning and fuss when the missile fell short.

I'm looking forwards to Sunday, I will make sure both my backup 'phones are on as well to find out what happens (or doesn't) with a non-smart phone as well as an old 'phone.

Going to have to be pretty severe severe flooding if it's going to affect the whole country!  Maybe they know somehting we don't about climate change ...

But the alerts (after the test)  will be localised....So not really seeing any problems. (Apologies if you were jesting).
You would think that the first born of every household was going to be taken judging by the whines about a 10 second test.
Are all these people scared witless when their phone notifies them of anything normally?
Never mind it'll all be over soon.🙄

MikeyPGT

RumRat said:

MikeyPGT said:

Going to have to be pretty severe severe flooding if it's going to affect the whole country!  Maybe they know somehting we don't about climate change ...

But the alerts (after the test)  will be localised....So not really seeing any problems. (Apologies if you were jesting).
You would think that the first born of every household was going to be taken judging by the whines about a 10 second test.
Are all these people scared witless when their phone notifies them of anything normally?
Never mind it'll all be over soon.🙄

Seeing as my local council forgets to send me my bin reminders half the time I'm not filled with confidence about the local aspect either!  It all seems a bit 'dead cat on the table' when so much else is gong on that we should be making a fuss about (me included).

Andy_L

RumRat said:

MikeyPGT said:

facade said:

twopenny said:

<snip>

So what are the alerts for? What will they say? That seems to be what's missing for this scenario

It is covered on the  dot gov page linked in the first post

• severe flooding
• fires
• extreme weather

Probably they won't bother with nuclear attack, as when Japan actually had a potential nuclear missile incoming and activated their alert, it just caused a lot of moaning and fuss when the missile fell short.

I'm looking forwards to Sunday, I will make sure both my backup 'phones are on as well to find out what happens (or doesn't) with a non-smart phone as well as an old 'phone.

Going to have to be pretty severe severe flooding if it's going to affect the whole country!  Maybe they know somehting we don't about climate change ...

But the alerts (after the test)  will be localised....So not really seeing any problems. (Apologies if you were jesting).
You would think that the first born of every household was going to be taken judging by the whines about a 10 second test.
Are all these people scared witless when their phone notifies them of anything normally?
Never mind it'll all be over soon.🙄

Will we be getting a Passover warning on it as well then? Will it give me enough time to buy a lamb? ;-) 

GenieBoy

TheBanker said:

GenieBoy said:

spenderdave said:

Restricting it to 4/5G and Android 11 or above is surely limiting its use. The text alert during the pandemic ('stay at home') was sent to every single mobile in the country, even my antique 2G dumb phone got it. There are loads of 2G and 3G phones around and countless on less than Android 11 which is relatively recent.
(my recent 4G smartphone with Android 11 has it disabled).

Most networks if not all are turning off their 3G networks in the near future.

I think the alert system is so you receive and action the communication straight away hence the loud sound. Texts can be left till later and not checked right away if phone on silent etc.

The Stay at home text was probably because the UK Gov didn't have this alert system set up yet, hence the test now... 

It was completely unnecessary too. Who in the country only found out we were in lockdown as a result of that text message?!

Depends if you watched Boris the Buffoon at 8pm or not.

Although the text was probably just to make it look like they were doing something after weeks of dithering.  

jon81uk

MikeyPGT said:

RumRat said:

MikeyPGT said:

Going to have to be pretty severe severe flooding if it's going to affect the whole country!  Maybe they know somehting we don't about climate change ...

But the alerts (after the test)  will be localised....So not really seeing any problems. (Apologies if you were jesting).
You would think that the first born of every household was going to be taken judging by the whines about a 10 second test.
Are all these people scared witless when their phone notifies them of anything normally?
Never mind it'll all be over soon.🙄

Seeing as my local council forgets to send me my bin reminders half the time I'm not filled with confidence about the local aspect either!  It all seems a bit 'dead cat on the table' when so much else is gong on that we should be making a fuss about (me included).

Why does it have anything to do with your local council? They are not central government or a government agency.

At the moment to get flooding alerts you have to proactivly sign up to the environment agencies system, so only those who have signed up get an alert. The point of the new system is everyone within range gets it.
With these alerts (used in many other countries worldwide) they would be able to tell the system to send an alert to any phone within range of these cell towers/masts. The local aspect is solely to do with which masts your phone is currently receiving signal from.

facade

There is supposed to be a facility to trigger the alert on every new phone that comes into range, so if you were driving/walking into an active danger zone you would get an alert as you entered, even if you missed the original.

I've just thought- I ought to go and sit in the car at 3 o'clock with my phone connected by bluetooth, I wonder what the infotainment system will do? It might even read out the message.

How exciting!

mr_stripey

I don't mind it - and don't understand the fuss some people are making about receiving an alert on their phone.

The ability to localise the alerts is handy. Most people will likely never get an actual one.

Considering I receive dozens, if not hundreds of notifications daily from the apps I use (most of which are pointless) I don't see the harm in one more every once in a while!

GenieBoy

MikeyPGT said:

RumRat said:

MikeyPGT said:

Going to have to be pretty severe severe flooding if it's going to affect the whole country!  Maybe they know somehting we don't about climate change ...

But the alerts (after the test)  will be localised....So not really seeing any problems. (Apologies if you were jesting).
You would think that the first born of every household was going to be taken judging by the whines about a 10 second test.
Are all these people scared witless when their phone notifies them of anything normally?
Never mind it'll all be over soon.🙄

Seeing as my local council forgets to send me my bin reminders half the time I'm not filled with confidence about the local aspect either!  It all seems a bit 'dead cat on the table' when so much else is gong on that we should be making a fuss about (me included).

Are you one of those folks who always puts their bin out on the usually day after a bank holiday when collection day is a day later?

Or do you need a reminder if it's black bin or green bin this week?

Cisco001

Honestly, I though these emergency alert could only be useful when there is terrorist or missile attack...

I honestly not aware of any serious wild fire in UK. And with serve flooding and extreme weather, we usually be warned days before...

Sarahspangles

GenieBoy said:

MikeyPGT said:

RumRat said:

MikeyPGT said:

Going to have to be pretty severe severe flooding if it's going to affect the whole country!  Maybe they know somehting we don't about climate change ...

But the alerts (after the test)  will be localised....So not really seeing any problems. (Apologies if you were jesting).
You would think that the first born of every household was going to be taken judging by the whines about a 10 second test.
Are all these people scared witless when their phone notifies them of anything normally?
Never mind it'll all be over soon.🙄

Seeing as my local council forgets to send me my bin reminders half the time I'm not filled with confidence about the local aspect either!  It all seems a bit 'dead cat on the table' when so much else is gong on that we should be making a fuss about (me included).

Are you one of those folks who always puts their bin out on the usually day after a bank holiday when collection day is a day later?

Or do you need a reminder if it's black bin or green bin this week?

Are you asking if he is the Binfluencer?