Emergency siren to all mobile phones on St George's Day?

[mc2fool]

I think this exercise has been a good example of a solution looking for a problem. It looks to me as though the PTB are twerping about installing this pointless 'Warning System" just because they can.

This whole farago has simply demonstrated to the Great British Public that 'in an emergency', it cannot and must not rely on warning messages from the government arriving on its phones.

And indeed as https://gov.uk/alerts says, "The emergency services have other ways to warn you when there is a threat to life. Emergency alerts will not replace local news, radio, television or social media."

I don't see the emergency alerts system as "pointless" in the slightest. It's self-evidently a very useful addition to the means available to get notifications of serious events out to the populace, and to do so with much more immediacy than other means.

That the test highlighted some issues doesn't make it a "farago" (sic), it makes the test a success, and just 'cos not everyone has a compatible device doesn't negate its value, any more than saying emergency alerts on radio, television and social media aren't useful 'cos not everyone has a radio, watches TV 24/7 or uses social media.

[Infrasonic]

Alerts via social media seems a more achievable mass comms backup plan as they have sorted out the app software for many OS iterations over many years with collectively billions of subscribers and the hyperscale infrastructure already in place to cope.

They also have 2/3G capability for developing nations with 'light' apps, so far more flexible than this 4/5G only, recent mobile OS iterations smartphone only setup.

I've seen alerts come up on FB before for earthquakes etc, although VPN's/proxies can mess with the IP geolocation aspect of this.

[swill453]

I think this exercise has been a good example of a solution looking for a problem. It looks to me as though the PTB are twerping about installing this pointless 'Warning System" just because they can.

This whole farago has simply demonstrated to the Great British Public that 'in an emergency', it cannot and must not rely on warning messages from the government arriving on its phones.

And indeed as https://gov.uk/alerts says, "The emergency services have other ways to warn you when there is a threat to life. Emergency alerts will not replace local news, radio, television or social media."

I don't see the emergency alerts system as "pointless" in the slightest. It's self-evidently a very useful addition to the means available to get notifications of serious events out to the populace, and to do so with much more immediacy than other means.

That the test highlighted some issues doesn't make it a "farago" (sic), it makes the test a success, and just 'cos not everyone has a compatible device doesn't negate its value, any more than saying emergency alerts on radio, television and social media aren't useful 'cos not everyone has a radio, watches TV 24/7 or uses social media.

I agree. IMO it's been a successful test of a worthwhile system.

Scott.

[mc2fool]

Alerts via social media seems a more achievable mass comms backup plan as they have sorted out the app software for many OS iterations over many years with collectively billions of subscribers and the hyperscale infrastructure already in place to cope.

They also have 2/3G capability for developing nations with 'light' apps, so far more flexible than this 4/5G only, recent mobile OS iterations smartphone only setup.

Yeah? How's that going to work with The Lemon Fool? It's the only social media I follow (and not on my phone).

The emergency alerts system isn't exclusive. As the .gov page says, there'll also be alerts on radio, television and social media, and I think that the more channels the emergency services can use to warn of a threat to life the better.

[AF62]

Great, the government has proved it can send a message to the population. But what situation would it be necessary?

Are there any examples of where such systems elsewhere in the world have proved its worth? Searches for success stories turn up vague mentions of letting people know about tornados and bush fires, not something that troubles the UK much, but not an awful lot more.

It really does appear to be technology in search of a problem.

[didds]

Great, the government has proved it can send a message to the population. But what situation would it be necessary?

Not quite. it has proved it can send a message to SOME of the population, dependant on device make, model, OS version, whether emergency alerts are configured to be on, whether the phone is on at the time, and whether the airtime provider actually sends the message.

[SebsCat]

Great, the government has proved it can send a message to the population. But what situation would it be necessary?

Not many cases I expect if you're talking about the whole population (might have been used to announce the Covid lockdowns, I guess). But it will be of use for targeted - to cell level - alerts where there are flood warnings, extreme weather alerts, fires (eg at a chemical works where it is necessary to keep windows & doors closed), etc. I suspect it will mostly be used for flood alerts.

[AF62]

Great, the government has proved it can send a message to the population. But what situation would it be necessary?

Not many cases I expect if you're talking about the whole population (might have been used to announce the Covid lockdowns, I guess). But it will be of use for targeted - to cell level - alerts where there are flood warnings, extreme weather alerts, fires (eg at a chemical works where it is necessary to keep windows & doors closed), etc. I suspect it will mostly be used for flood alerts.

Flood warnings - does the UK get the sort of flash flood where you need to alert someone immediately to get to high ground, rather than it being obvious it’s damp from looking out of the window?

Extreme weather - again does the UK get anything where you have to give an *emergency* alert, rather than a general ‘it will be a bit windy, be careful’ weather warning?

Chemical fires - is it going to say anything other than ‘stay inside’? Is that an emergency?

What I can see it being used for is the non-emergency stuff like the covid mandates.

[BT63]

Chemical fires - is it going to say anything other than ‘stay inside’? Is that an emergency?

A few years ago, a recycling centre a mile or two from me had a significant fire caused by old batteries (my local council asks for old batteries to be put in a small bag which the bin men then throw into a box in the cab and presumably do something with it when they return to the recycling centre).

The battery fire and whatever else it set light to, produced a large amount of toxic smoke.
Fortunately the wind carried the worst of it across open fields and not residential areas on the day of the fire, but a few days later the wind changed and there was a hint of a nasty chemical smell in the air.
I was unaware of the fire or the toxic fumes for several hours. If the wind had been blowing it in my direction, it would have been nice to know what the problem was, where it was and whether I should consider going somewhere else for a few hours to get some fresh air.

[swill453]

Great, the government has proved it can send a message to the population. But what situation would it be necessary?

Not quite. it has proved it can send a message to SOME of the population, dependant on device make, model, OS version, whether emergency alerts are configured to be on, whether the phone is on at the time, and whether the airtime provider actually sends the message.

Well they knew most of that already, and the test confirmed the rest. So a successful test, overall.

Scott.

[SebsCat]

Flood warnings - does the UK get the sort of flash flood where you need to alert someone immediately to get to high ground, rather than it being obvious it’s damp from looking out of the window?

Flash floods can and do occur (eg Boscastle). Many of the most vulnerable areas have defences that are fine as long as they hold but could lead to very rapidly rising water levels if breached or topped.

Extreme weather - again does the UK get anything where you have to give an *emergency* alert, rather than a general ‘it will be a bit windy, be careful’ weather warning?

Met office red alerts are rare but when they are issued they need action. To quote from the Met Office's website:

Red Warning: Dangerous weather is expected and, if you haven’t already done so, you should take action now to keep yourself and others safe from the impact of the severe weather. It is very likely that there will be a risk to life, with substantial disruption to travel, energy supplies and possibly widespread damage to property and infrastructure. You should avoid travelling, where possible, and follow the advice of the emergency services and local authorities.

Chemical fires - is it going to say anything other than ‘stay inside’? Is that an emergency?

We used to live over a mile from a chemical plant that produced chlorine. Every household in the area was issued with a information pack saying what to do in an emergency. The risk was considered sufficient to test the sirens every few months. Alerts sent by phone would be a valuable addition to the sirens and could take into account the current wind conditions to warn the most at risk areas.

[doolally]

When that big lump of the Canary Isles slides into the sea (tomorrow? Next week? Next century?), the south coast might be glad of an early tsunami warning
doolally

[elkay]

]
The info on who DID receive it is useful but not the priority/imperative i would suggest.
.
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Where is this survey? and where is the explanation and link to it ?

I reiterate - unless the PTB can ascertain who did NOT receive the alerts and the underlying OS etc etc etc then the test is pretty meaningless overall.

The survey is now closed. And for once someone had the sense to remove links to the survey when it closed.
https://surveys.publishing.service.gov.uk/s/a7xzxq

When I sent out messages by text and email that included an option for recipients to provide a response, from the organisation I worked for, when I reviewed the data from the responders I always checked out device and os information looking for anomalies. You can extrapolate from absent devices etc that they didn't receive the alert - especially with the volume of data that the gov would be working with.

[UncleEbenezer]

... fussifications

A new word is born.
You read it first here.

V8

A quick google suggests otherwise.

For example, "there was very little fussification"[1] when Theodora Llewelyn Davies was the first female applicant to be admitted to the Inner Temple in 1920, and one of the earliest women to be called to the Bar on 17th November 1922.

[1] As indeed one might reasonably hope in the case of an alumnus of my own alma mater.