public emergency alert system.

[Evil Sid]

The government is going to test the public warning system next month,April.

sometime in the early evening of the 23rd April, Sunday.

a siren sound will be heard along with a message that phone users WILL HAVE TO acknowledge as the alert will disable all other phone functions until you do.

this alert will ring the phone and vibrate the phone for ten seconds even if the phone is set to silent.

it is to warn people of potential life threatening situations such as floods or wildfires and will only be used by the gov or emergency services to give information  of affected areas in a targetted way. so only a situation that affects Warrington would be sent to phones in the Warrington area and no other.

there is an opt out available but they suggest that you don't.

so come Sunday evening on the 23rd of April all those who do not know about it will be thrown into a panic at the alert and further panic when they can't use their phones to find out what is going on........🤪

[Observer II]

Never use my old style cell phone, had £10 on it for 10 years !   However, my IT advisor has talked me into getting a new one, but my original caution is returning, as I read about how these phones allow the authorities to spy on you.  If this alert system is being introduced to tell us there's a nuke on it's way,  perhaps it will give us 4 minutes to panic, prior to being vapourised !    💀

[Bill]

Makes sense I suppose Sid, but I don’t quite get the bit about it disabling your phone.

The software was probably written by a nerdy oink who thinks everyone sits around with the phone in their hands. We hardly get any calls or texts and because our lives don’t revolve around the mobile, if we miss anything, it generally goes unnoticed for quite a while.

So, if we miss one of these alerts, it seems like we’ll have a completely dead phone, where’s the logic in that?

 

Bill 😊

[Confused52]

It doesn't work like that, press any button and the alert should go away. It will stay there waiting for you to see it until you do press a button. It will not stop you receiving incoming calls or texts. 

There are I think one level of alert you can't turn off and on my phone I cannot find any opt-out at all for cell-broadcast which is how it works.The message is essentially a souped up text message so the text is adjusted per use and the level information is to permit opt-out on some messages mainly test ones. 

It is best to leave it be as not all phones will work anyway and the test is the opportunity for you to find out which phone do and don't work. 

According to gov.uk it will not work on 2G or 3G connected phones and maybe only on Android 11 or IOS 14.5, so that is a waste of time!

[Evil Sid]

form the bbc website.

"A siren-like alert will be sent to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new government public warning system.

It allows the government and emergency services to send urgent messages warning the public of life-threatening situations like flooding or wildfires.

The test is expected to take place in the early evening of 23 April.

Phone users will have to acknowledge the alert before they can use other features on their devices.

A message will appear on the home screens of people's devices during the test, with vibration and a loud warning sound that will ring for about 10 seconds, even if the phone is set to silent."

so you need to acknowledge it to be able to use other features, whether that means calls and texts etc i do not know, but it sounds like that to me..

16 hours ago, Observer II said:

However, my IT advisor has talked me into getting a new one, but my original caution is returning, as I read about how these phones allow the authorities to spy on you.

i would think the authorities would have better things to do than spy on me via my phone. yes they can track your phone, but you can do that yourself with the right apps and most phones these days have that ability built in. you have more to wordy about with a smart speaker and alexa and home security cams that if you have not changed the default password for can be easily accessed........🕵️‍♀️

[Bill]

If it doesn’t work on 2 or 3g phones then that’s me out of the equation along with anyone who’s had a phone for more than a few years. I suspect the message would simply stay on the screen until you come to use it, in which case you’d have to press something and that’d be the acknowledgement. I doubt it'd disable the ability to receive incoming calls, although that’s the impression they gave on TV.

As for the government being able to spy on me, I’ve got nothing to hide so I’m not in the least bit bothered. In any case, as you say, technology enables big brother to be all over the place these days.

With Obs constantly broadcasting his anti-western views here, they’ve probably been spying on him for years.  😁😁

 

Bill 😊 

[Observer II]

Not "anti-Western" Bill - objective.    

[Observer II]

It's interesting that those wishing to march behind the banner of Western (US) hypocracy,  in criticising Russia; should reflect on what happened 20 years ago, when we illegally invaded Iraq.   No doubt they fell for Bliar's sexed up document about WMD's, which was subsequently proven to be false, so we were lied to by our own Government, and British Servicemen died, as well as over a million Iraqi's,  all because we didn't have the intellectual strength to question our own Government.    

[Bill]

Better put your phone in a lead lined bucket of water Obs just in case.😄 

 

Bill 😊

[Confused52]

1 hour ago, Observer II said:

It's interesting that those wishing to march behind the banner of Western (US) hypocracy,  in criticising Russia; should reflect on what happened 20 years ago, when we illegally invaded Iraq.   No doubt they fell for Bliar's sexed up document about WMD's, which was subsequently proven to be false, so we were lied to by our own Government, and British Servicemen died, as well as over a million Iraqi's,  all because we didn't have the intellectual strength to question our own Government.    

I've reflected. Firstly Blair is not a nice person and Alistair Campbell is worse. It was clear that their cover up in the David Kelly affair showed up the reason to doubt the Dossier. The reason things turned out the way they did was also because of the same old problem. Russia and China vetoed a further resolution and Germany and France didn't support action. The Security Council resolution could have been tempered if Russia didn't just veto any thing at all. The way to solve these issues is by using the security council because that would have never permitted an aim of regime change but if Russia had co-operated the US would have had to go along. Their excuse for unilateral action was the inability to get further authority past the equivocal 1441. 

However we didn't invade Iraq and annex it to the US did we? We did not invade a sovereign country with the intention of adding to an empire, and that did not occur. The notion that Iraq, mistake that it was - which generated large demonstrations in this country to oppose it, make the the invasion of Ukraine morally equivalent or in any way acceptable is utterly obscene.

Invading Ukraine which has been a member of the UN independently of Russia for the same length of time as Russia and annexing its territory twice. Acts in contravention of the UN charter and illegal under international law and then committing war crimes which are provably occurring under instruction from the Russian state itself is in a different league. 

The response from the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia to the indictment by the ICC was:

Quote from Medvedev: "Gentlemen, everyone walks under God and missiles. It is quite possible to imagine the targeted use of hypersonic Oniks from the North Sea by a Russian ship at The Hague court building. Unfortunately, it cannot be shot down. And the court is just a poor international organisation, not the population of a NATO country. That's why they won't start a war. They are afraid. And no one will feel sorry for them. So, judges of the court, look carefully at the sky."

The idea that a regime that steals children, blocks food supplies, targets civilians and permits officials to behave like thugs is morally equivalent to ours, whatever the shortcomings in our media, is puerile nonsense. Clever quips, diversions or other attempts to identify false moral equivalences will not alter these facts.

[Observer II]

Simply more hypocracy  -  the British public and Parliament were lured into mindless support for an illegal war,  which is why those with a more balanced approach steer clear of jumping on band wagons created by our elites.    

[Evil Sid]

so how was it for you?

in the event of an emergency such  as a zombie apocalypse, i will only find out when the zombies break down the door.

in other words i did not get the memo. reading the various news websites it seems i am not the only one one stated that she and her husband were sat next to each other. her phone got the alert but his didn't and both had the similar phones on the same network.

it does say that older phones may not get the message but seeing as mine is between 12 an d18 months old i would not think that was the problem. in fact in my settings for alerts i can even get earthquake alerts if available in my region.

[Observer II]

Mine was switched off !   😑

[Confused52]

The criteria were: 

iPhones running iOS 14.5 or later

Android phones and tablets running Android 11 or later; 11 was released to manufacturers April 8 2020

 

so if you allow for manufacture and waiting for the price to go down etc! Anyway I am sure you can see which version you have and decide if it was the phone or the network. The supply chain is too complicated for this sort of feature. The ETSI work produced a standard that worked all the way back to GSM and the oldest phone I have still in service from 2006 would have correctly worked with a GSM Cell Broadcast message.

Only the phone I have on Android 13 and Vodafone worked.

 

[Bill]

I didn’t get the alert, but then again, I wasn’t expecting it as my phone although looking quite modern and new, only works on 2 and 3G. I suspect a lot of the people who didn’t receive it may have had similar phones. My wife’s phone is a couple of years newer and that one did sound, but oddly, when I checked its settings, that too like mine was set to automatically switch between 2/3G.

From what I understood, only 4 and 5G phones were guaranteed to get the alert.

 

Bill 😊

[Evil Sid]

correct bill just those who had access to a 4 or 5g signal would receive the alert.

my phone settings are on automatic detection and switch to whatever the  best signal is between 2,3 and 4g, however it is an android phone and despite not being more than two years old only runs on android ten and you need android 11 or higher to get the signal.

not a well thought out system then. the idea is good but the execution, as always, leaves a lot to be desired. i am sure that they could have rolled out a system that would alert all phones no matter what they were, 2,3,4 or 5g and all operating systems not just the ones that the government think people are using.

how much of a problem this would be i do not know,but what it does mean is that if you want the emergency broadcasts then you may have to shell out for a new phone.

[Confused52]

Sid,

The system specified by ETSI does allow 2G and 3g phones to receive alerts. My old 2G/3G phone from 2006 displays them. The problem is that every Base Station needs to be able to securely receive the message to send out a cell broadcast. A number of the 2G Bases Stations are rather elderly and the management systems end to end being replaced would be difficult and in some cases impossible. The 3G networks are being retired this year and next and repurposed for the advanced version of 4G. The number of 2G masts is being reduced by all the operators and so making it not worthwhile trying to get 2/3G to send Cell Broadcasts. Everyone is being compelled, at their own expense (you are quite right) to change over to 4G but it is not for emergency alerts it is to turn off the old kit and re-use the frequencies to get more capacity for the same spectrum payments to HMG.

[ninearches]

Good job the government didn't rely on this system in WW2. I am sure the dulcet tones of the ARP warden to "get that effin light off " were much more reliable.

[Bill]

I’m not too worried about 3G being turned off as I rarely use the internet while out and about. As long as I can make 2G phone calls and receive texts then I’m happy.

 

Bill 😊

[Evil Sid]

well i can use 4g when available so should have no problem getting the alerts. the problem i have is that my phone only runs android 10 and you need android 11 or higher to get the alerts.

fine if you are on a contract that lets you upgrade your phone gratis. not so good if you are not and have to shell out for a new phone just to get emergency alerts at some time in the future.

although given the number of accidents on the motorway ad the number of times the swing bridges stick open you will be getting them every five minutes.....🤣

[ninearches]

My phone seems to have a critical alert section which seems to have been turned off at the time of the alert .

Would i really want to know if Putin was going to fry me in 4 minutes time ? I think not.