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

MouldyOldDough

MikeyPGT said:

My normal ringtone makes me jump everytime - I'm hoping that the alert will be one of those that only young people can hear so that us oldies whose hearing has deteriorated can just sleepwalk to our doom ...

No - its extremely instrusive and just repeats the same thing again and again for 10 minutes " WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE BEEP BEEP BEEP"

Sarahspangles

MouldyOldDough said:

Sarahspangles said:

I skimmed the Wikipedia listing for fatality-causing disasters.  The majority of things crashing or blowing up probably couldn’t be warned about.  Lots of things like smogs and storms had several hours lead time for media coverage and a reminder to check in with family and neighbours.
 

But if someone could get to the button in time, do you think the alarm would have been used during:

1. London bombings 2005, and other terrorist attacks where there might be multiple sites - shelter in place, stay alert, avoid public transport
2. Gunmen on the rampage like the ones in Cumbria and Hungerford - shelter in place
3. Kegworth Disaster 1989 - leave the motorway, emergency vehicles going to major incident 
4. Windscale Fire 1957 (cancer-causing fallout) - stay indoors, close your windows
5. North Sea Storm 1953 - get to high ground
6. Great Sheffield Flood 1864 (reservoir failure) - get to high ground

Mobile phones in 19th century ?

Ha - well I was suggesting a 'what if' had there had been the technology.  I remember the South Yorkshire floods in 2007, mobile phones didn't work well then as networks were swamped - in some cases literally.  And I'm not sure how you would use an alert system when there was a 'rolling' incident?

MikeyPGT

Seeing as the mobile network still falls over at midnight on New Year's Eve it will be interesting to see if the same happens on the 23rd April ...

RumRat

MouldyOldDough said:

Many drivers will have their phones in their pockets and when the alarm goes off - they are going to be surprised with an unrecognised loud noise and will, automatically pull their phones  out of their pockets and be distracted from whats going on around them for a few seconds - this will cause several accidents.on the motorway. People will automatically brake and grab their phones - even though it is STILL illegal to do so !!

And before anyone says "But everyone is aware of the alert" - THEY ARE NOT - there's going to be a small percentage of people who are not aware and an even smaller percentage of those people driving their cars on the motorways at the time....

I'm going to steer clear of roads on 23rd April at 3pm.....

What a weird world you live in.....Best you do steer clear of the roads, it'll cut down those that don't have a clue out there.  😏🙄

RumRat

MouldyOldDough said:

MikeyPGT said:

My normal ringtone makes me jump everytime - I'm hoping that the alert will be one of those that only young people can hear so that us oldies whose hearing has deteriorated can just sleepwalk to our doom ...

No - its extremely instrusive and just repeats the same thing again and again for 10 minutes " WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE BEEP BEEP BEEP"

Of course it doesn't help when you spread misinformation.....Do you have any clue what's going on?

facade

MikeyPGT said:

Seeing as the mobile network still falls over at midnight on New Year's Eve it will be interesting to see if the same happens on the 23rd April ...

Once again, my utter naiveté lets me down.

I simply can't imagine why it wouldn't just work- mobile providers manage to send texts to every single user without a problem, and it can't cost them millions to send "your bill is ready".

I have this idea of a person sat at a screen, and when they get a "code 99 3 mile radius of N 50°57'3.70"  W 0°45'2.94" they tap it in and select whether to just ping all phones currently logged into the cell towers within the area, or leave it on so any new phone that logs in gets the alert too, type the auth code (so they know who to blame for the alert) and click OK.

Seems trivially easy, certainly not a multi-million pound fiasco, they could even have got the phone operators to agreee to send emergency alerts FOC as part of the terms of their licence.

I suppose it is the difference between doing things properly yourself and having multiple tiers to pass through.

outtatune

MouldyOldDough said:

Mobile phones in 19th century ?

And where you have 19th century mobile phones, you have 19th century muggers

missile

MouldyOldDough said:

...

And before anyone says "But everyone is aware of the alert" - THEY ARE NOT - there's going to be a small percentage of people who are not aware

Most of those I spoke with were not aware

MouldyOldDough

First mobile phone (crystal set) trialled in 1922

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILiLaRXHUr0

HumberFlyer

So in the future if and when they send an alert, will it be targeted to certain phones at certain locations or sent to everyone. I wouldn't want an alert when there is severe flooding or out of control fires in say Manchester and I live in Cleethorpes.