Public emergency alerts by text in the UK

[quixoticgeek]

Apparently the warnings go out via the local mobile 4G or 5G cell. Since most people at home are on wi-fi, they're not going to receive any warning.

If your phone is capable of receiving a phone call or text, you will get the emergency alert. Obviously if you have zero signal. You won't.

My biggest concern is that if people are driving when the phone goes nuts with a loud emergency alert, it's gonna distract a lot. Not to mention those using their phones as sat nav suddenly losing their guidance.

The alerts are a good thing. If implemented properly, and when people are used to them.

When I got the first one in .NL it scared the crap out of me. I didn't know my phone could do that.

I've had a few genuine alerts too. Usually in the "there's a fire, keep doors and windows shut" kinda thing.

J

[Kim]

Apparently the warnings go out via the local mobile 4G or 5G cell. Since most people at home are on wi-fi, they're not going to receive any warning.

If your phone is capable of receiving a phone call or text, you will get the emergency alert. Obviously if you have zero signal. You won't.

My biggest concern is that if people are driving when the phone goes nuts with a loud emergency alert, it's gonna distract a lot. Not to mention those using their phones as sat nav suddenly losing their guidance.

I had a poke around in my phone's emergency alert settings the other day.  It has an option not to alert when you're driving.  (I'm not sure how it determines that you're driving.)

[quixoticgeek]

I had a poke around in my phone's emergency alert settings the other day.  It has an option not to alert when you're driving.  (I'm not sure how it determines that you're driving.)

This brings to 2 the total number of people that know if that feature. The other is the one who implemented it...

J

[Kim]

I had a poke around in my phone's emergency alert settings the other day.  It has an option not to alert when you're driving.  (I'm not sure how it determines that you're driving.)

This brings to 2 the total number of people that know if that feature. The other is the one who implemented it...

It's okay, I'm sure it'll disappear in the next Android version, as settings often do.

[rogerzilla]

In my phone's settings, there is an option to have the alerts read out as text-to-speech.  Can Patrick Allen do them?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I hadn't noticed there were "emergency alert" settings but having looked, there they are. Or did they appear just now? Anyway, I can turn them on and off for "extreme threats", "severe threats" and "required monthly test" separately but there's nothing about driving. It doesn't seem to let me select the alert tone either, though it does let me turn vibration on and off. I wonder if it still works if you're in airplane mode?

[rafletcher]

My iPhone has a couple of sliders set to “on” for “Severe Alerts” and “Extreme Alerts”  . I can turn both off 

Nothing about monthly tests or driving.

[Kim]

I wonder if it still works if you're in airplane mode?

No, as the cellular radio would be powered down.

Not sure how the protocol works with respect to not receiving the message immediately.  Is it re-broadcast so that it can be received by devices that were off the network at the time?

ETA:

The CB message parameters contain the broadcasting schedule. If the start-time is left open, the CBC system will assume an immediate start, which will be the case for Public Warning messages. If the end-time is left open, the message will be repeated indefinitely. A subsequent cancel message shall be used to stop this message. The repetition rate can be set between 2 seconds and to values beyond 30 minutes. Each repeated CB message will have the same message identifier (indicating the source of the message), and the same serial number. Using this information, the mobile telephone is able to identify and ignore broadcasts of already received messages. [citation needed]

[ian]

I think the Hawaiians got 'hello, you're about to die in a nuclear fireball' alert a few years back. Gapes, because it was a false alarm. I only remember this because it really dampened the demand for porn sites. Until they declared it a false alarm, cue a frantic urge to make up for that lost time.

It's common in the US for 'amber alerts' when kids go missing (even though they're usually found wandering around the supermarket where the parent left them).

[Polar Bear]

My iPhone has a couple of sliders set to “on” for “Severe Alerts” and “Extreme Alerts”  . I can turn both off 

Nothing about monthly tests or driving.

My Google Pixel 6 Pro has similar. 

I get the feeling that the vibe is mainly positive but there is some caution in the air.  This reflects how I feel about it.

I have a concern that a siren type alarm going off at 3 in the morning is likely to panic some people more than necessary though. 

[Diver300]

Apparently the warnings go out via the local mobile 4G or 5G cell. Since most people at home are on wi-fi, they're not going to receive any warning.

If your phone is capable of receiving a phone call or text, you will get the emergency alert. Obviously if you have zero signal. You won't.

My biggest concern is that if people are driving when the phone goes nuts with a loud emergency alert, it's gonna distract a lot. Not to mention those using their phones as sat nav suddenly losing their guidance.

I had a poke around in my phone's emergency alert settings the other day.  It has an option not to alert when you're driving.  (I'm not sure how it determines that you're driving.)

Witchcraft, obviously.

My phone suggests a driving home time when I get back to my car, even when I've not used the phone to navigate the car. I would assume that the speed and nature of the accelerations make walking and driving sufficiently different to make that sort of thing quite easy, with the obvious exception that turning off the alerts when driving will also turn them off when being a passenger.

[Flite]

in a real-life emergency like Storm Arwen, all the electric will go off so the mobile phone masts won't work and no-one will get any calls or texts whatsoever.

[Canardly]

What happens following a thermo nuclear strike?

[Cudzoziemiec]

What happens following a thermo nuclear strike?

You will have received the emergency alert four minutes before the strike, giving you ample time to take shelter in your carefully prepared, well stocked household or workplace nuclear shelter. You sit there, snug as a bug in a rug and twice as safe, carefully monitoring food and water supplies, for 29 days or until boredom and internal disputes drive you out, whichever is the sooner. Upon emerging, you are instantly devoured by mutated pigs, giant irradiated cockroaches, and/or zombie hordes.

[Canardly]

We must have watched the same film. 

[quixoticgeek]

in a real-life emergency like Storm Arwen, all the electric will go off so the mobile phone masts won't work and no-one will get any calls or texts whatsoever.

Not true, some mobile infra should be on UPS power.

J

[Mr Larrington]

What happens following a thermo nuclear strike?

You die, of course.

[Kim]

in a real-life emergency like Storm Arwen, all the electric will go off so the mobile phone masts won't work and no-one will get any calls or texts whatsoever.

Not true, some mobile infra should be on UPS power.

But a lot less than you'd expect.

Still, Cell Broadcast has obvious advantages in areas where all the small cells suddenly disappear because they have no UPS and everyone ends up on a distant big one with limited capacity.

[L CC]

in a real-life emergency like Storm Arwen, all the electric will go off so the mobile phone masts won't work and no-one will get any calls or texts whatsoever.

Not true, some mobile infra should be on UPS power.

J

Says the city dweller.

It's right and proper that services should be related to population density. Out in the wilds, we're on our own.

[Kim]

in a real-life emergency like Storm Arwen, all the electric will go off so the mobile phone masts won't work and no-one will get any calls or texts whatsoever.

Not true, some mobile infra should be on UPS power.

J

Says the city dweller.

It's right and proper that services should be related to population density. Out in the wilds, we're on our own.

I suspect it's trending to the other way round.  Rural areas are often served by large established cells on proper radio towers, with a shed that can be filled with batteries and/or diseasel gensets (though I suspect properly redundant power is limited to those sites which are primarily for broadcast TV/radio).  Whereas these days the urban ones are on tops of buildings and crammed in anywhere they can stick a suspiciously chunky lamp post without the NIMBY conspiraloons noticing.

Of course, the flip side of that is that rural areas are at the mercy of topography, and those sites last in the queueuueue for technology upgrades, particularly where the backhaul would need upgrading.

We learned from the Lancaster flooding during Storm Desmond that just because an area is urban doesn't mean you can rely on the communications infrastructure working when capitalism collides with nature.

[Flite]

Not true, some mobile infra should be on UPS power.

I assume you were not impacted by Storm Arwen?
Our area was without electricity for a week (and some much longer)
I can assure you we had no mobile signal, no e-mails, no internet.
Only the old land line phone worked, and very poor FM radio reception on a battery radio.
Phoning powergrid and waiting for an hour or so resulted in a message to visit the website.

It was a shock to realise how reliant we have become on modern communication systems.
Sasdly, I fear the rural population will never be well served.

[Kim]

There are two basic flavours of power outage, aren't there?

Technical problems with the electricity network, like an equipment failure or fire which can be sudden, unexpected and time-consuming to repair, but you have a good idea of what's going on and can throw resources at managing the problem.

Widespread damage to infrastructure from a natural disaster is another matter.  It's pretty easy to repair a downed power line.  It's basically impossible to repair dozens of them on the same day when half the roads are blocked by trees or flooding - and you don't know which half because communications are a mess.

UPS power buys enough time to deal with most of the former^[1].  It'll never cope with the latter - that would require the ability to run completely off-grid for days.

Either way, pretty much everyone's disaster plan stops at "arrange delivery of more diesel after day n"



_{[1] Silly Oak had a 3-second power cut this morning.  Those are mostly an inconvenience for people with computers or ears.  But I note that the LTE modem that serves as our backup internet connection roamed to a different cell when the power failed.  You can draw the obvious conclusion.}

[perpetual dan]

I wonder whether a base station can be rigged to send a last “I told you it was windy, I’ll talk to you again after the engineer’s been” message as the UPS gets low / the tilt switch on the mast gets too far over?

I can also imagine theatres and musicians finding it a challenge to incorporate a thousand sirens into a love scene. Maybe that dancer that retrained in cyber will be able to help?

None of that makes it a bad thing. Though I’m not thrilled at considering why we’ve decided to implement this now.

[FifeingEejit]

in a real-life emergency like Storm Arwen, all the electric will go off so the mobile phone masts won't work and no-one will get any calls or texts whatsoever.

Once the masts are out, it's a bit late to be telling people about what's already hit them

[FifeingEejit]

Not true, some mobile infra should be on UPS power.

I assume you were not impacted by Storm Arwen?
Our area was without electricity for a week (and some much longer)
I can assure you we had no mobile signal, no e-mails, no internet.
Only the old land line phone worked, and very poor FM radio reception on a battery radio.
Phoning powergrid and waiting for an hour or so resulted in a message to visit the website.

It was a shock to realise how reliant we have become on modern communication systems.
Sasdly, I fear the rural population will never be well served.

I was about to make an observation on this.

SSE were entirley dependent on customers either receiving phone signal to call them or accessing the website to find out where the food vans were.
Organisationally it was an utter fuck up, all the services provided, and no way of telling affected people about them.

2 mates work for them and they were posting what they were upto.