Mobile phone emergency alert/siren

Box Brownie said:
On the Jeremy Vine show a few days ago he was wittering on about this and as per his usual IMO verbal diarrhoea he said "all smartphones and tablets......" would get the alert!

Now, as not all tablets are actually connected via the mobile network his looseness of details might prompt some folk to complain/try to report that the alert system was not working???

IMO he is constantly being argumentative to stimulate discussion by his lack of details in his 'pontifications' :(

As for whether our phones get it, well I surmise they will.......but hopefully those who have very particular needs for their phones not to receive it, have managed to turn off that function AOK?
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JV = Daily Mail Radio IMO! Nearly as bad as the Feltz woman.
 
Nod said:
JV = Daily Mail Radio IMO! Nearly as bad as the Feltz woman.
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FWIW I rarely listen but that day the OH had R2 because another article caught her attention.

PS I typically these days have R4 with You & Yours on
 
As for today's test ....

My phone received it but the OH 's phone did not :thinking:
 
My wife's phone received the alert at 3pm, mine (different network) was a couple of minutes later.
 
I meant to switch my phone off but forgot. :eek:


Nothing so far!!
 
My phone got it a couple of secs before 3pm

As my hearing aids were out the level was bearable but I"ve no idea what was said as I swiped to screen to open the phone and it switched the alert off
 
Mine went off at 2:59pm.....and nothing yet(?) on the OH phone.
 
Strange. Even though I have a cellular iPad, it didn’t receive the alert. Nice and loud on my watch and phone though. And early!
 
I'm pleased to inform you all that neither of our iPhones responded...

...not that it has anything to do with our setting or network preferences to ignore it.... ;)

iPhone Network alerts off Ixus 70 IMG_4377.JPG
 
Glad to say turning it off was the right idea. Would have lost afternoon snoozing time otherwise!
 
Nothing here... the whole family had phones on, but nothing
 
N N NNN NNNNoth.............. hi...................... ng ca................................................... n............. poss........................sibly ...................... go wr.................ong. Watch out for the flash!
 
I got it, Little Miss P didn't, not sure on Wifey as she's at her mum's.

At least I'll be OK if it ever goes belly up. :LOL:
 
I'm all for the alert system.
Would you have wanted to be alerted before
North Sea Flood - 1953
The Great Storm of 1987
The flooding we get these days.

Only a total fool would not want some warning if possible.
 
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whiteflyer said:
Only a total fool would not want some warning if possible.
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True, very true, but...

There was a perfectly effective, reliable and universal U.k. wide alarm system in use from the 1930s to the 1990s. This consisted of high power sirens backed up by secondary sound signals at a local level. Decommisioning this "at the end of the cold war", was a fairly typical political miscalculation. It existed, used simple and well understood technology and was very flexible. Moreover, it was universal because nobody needed anything except a pair of ears to benefit from it. Replacing it with the complex, fallible, expensive and far from universal mobile phone system is a mistake several orders of magnitude worse than providing less than half the required number of lifeboats on the S.S. Titanic.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
True, very true, but...

There was a perfectly effective, reliable and universal U.k. wide alarm system in use from the 1930s to the 1990s. This consisted of high power sirens backed up by secondary sound signals at a local level. Decommisioning this "at the end of the cold war", was a fairly typical political miscalculation. It existed, used simple and well understood technology and was very flexible. Moreover, it was universal because nobody needed anything except a pair of ears to benefit from it. Replacing it with the complex, fallible, expensive and far from universal mobile phone system is a mistake several orders of magnitude worse than providing less than half the required number of lifeboats on the S.S. Titanic.
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I well remember them testing our local siren back in the day, and agree simplicity is often the best.

If they can get it working properly in the UK (this first test didn't) I hope they think about expanding it, like the USA yellow alert for missing/abducted children, which is were modern tech come into play as photos can be sent of said child.
 
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We got it on our phones, one iPhone and one android, but not on either smart watch
 
Nothing here, another government app that only works sometimes / or partly (y)
 
Neither my phone or my Wife's phone rang. I think my wife's phone is not even 4G. My phone automatically drops 4G and picks up my Wi Fi when at home so probably why it did not ring. Unlike some, I would prefer to hear about an emergency in advance; this service is common in other countries. Clearly, for a Nuclear war an advanced warning may not be much use but it could be useful in the case of floods, earthquakes, riots, invasion, a new virus etc.

Dave
 
Supposedly only those on 4g or 5g would have got it and seemingly nobody on 3 or their MVNOs did. Impressive :rolleyes:
 
Four phones in the room, 4 simultaneous alerts. Bizarrely the MIL’s phone played the klaxon, and then read the text message out verbally whereas the others just played the klaxon.

Not sure of us other three cancelled it too quickly or what.

My phone then asked if I wanted to disable them going forward….
 
It seemed to pass me by.

I was watching the Formula E coverage with my phone(turned on) in my pocket and heard nothing.

Dave
 
Cobra said:
Nothing here, another government app that only works sometimes / or partly (y)
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Looks like the issue are network related, nothing to do with the government at all.

Nor is it a government app, it's part of the system software built into all new mobile OS and installed globally .
 
whiteflyer said:
Looks like the issue are network related, nothing to do with the government at all.
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4G 200 yards from a recently ( this year) installed 5G mast.
I'm still saying useless app.

whiteflyer said:
Nor is it a government app, it's part of the system software built into all new mobile OS and installed globally .
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But its the government that controls it ...
 
Cobra said:
4G 200 yards from a recently ( this year) installed 5G mast.
I'm still saying useless app.


But its the government that controls it ...
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The government does not control the networks, and most issue seem to be on 3, does not matter where the mast is if you're provider isn't sending the signal.

The government controls the message not the technology to send it, if you want to blame the "app" blame Apple and Google.
 
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whiteflyer said:
does not matter where the mast is if you're provider isn't send the signal.
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I'm on BT mobile & internet, I'm pretty sure they would be on the ball.
But basically I'm glad it never arrived, seems the government won't be invading my privacy, or sending me any random future texts.

Back to my original point, it seems that a lot of people never actually got it, so that's another failed app, invented by the government (y)
I wonder how much money this one costs.
 
whiteflyer said:
The government controls the message not the technology to send it, if you want to blame the "app" blame Apple and Google.
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You're quite correct but I still say it's using a sledgehammer that won't crack the nut. :coat:
 
Cobra said:
I'm on BT mobile & internet, I'm pretty sure they would be on the ball.
But basically I'm glad it never arrived, seems the government won't be invading my privacy, or sending me any random future texts.

Back to my original point, it seems that a lot of people never actually got it, so that's another failed app, invented by the government (y)
I wonder how much money this one costs.
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What the hell are you on about "invented by the government" would that the the American, Canadian, Japaness or the Netherlands governments, who all use the same system.

They were looking into it in 2014, but no department wanted to spend the one million it would have cost then.
 
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whiteflyer said:
They were looking into it in 2014,
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So 9 years later they decided it was a good idea?
Think of all the disasters they could have adverted in that time.
whiteflyer said:
no department wanted to spend the one million it would have cost then.
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Is that all? I can't find any reference to costs.
I would have thought it would be a lot more wasted money.
even if you look at the poll right here 60% said they never got it.
 
When it first decided to send out an emergency alert in the first weeks of the national lockdown, they had to send each message indiviually, the networks churned through users’ phone numbers sequentially, sending out tens of thousands of messages every minute with millions of devices attached to the four main networks, it still took more than 48 hours for the alert to be delivered to every device.

The system tested should be within 15 mins of the decision to alert to every device (and can be regionally based)

The £1 million was in 2014, I do expect it to be much more now as a private company was involved, Everbridge, a Boston-based company that already operates similar alerts in Estonia, Spain, Germany, Norway and Denmark.

The 2014 thinking behind the system

 
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Cobra said:
4G 200 yards from a recently ( this year) installed 5G mast.
I'm still saying useless app.


But its the government that controls it ...
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It is NOT an App. The government originates the message which the various companies are supposed to put on the network. Also, it was a test and as such it would be intended to identify problems.

Dave
 
My main phone, on EE, went off at dead on 3pm, just as I was about to walk downstairs !!
Luckily I don't have the volume up high
My back up phone, on Gifgaf, was turned off, so idea if that would have got it
 
Dave Canon said:
It is NOT an App. The government originates the message which the various companies are supposed to put on the network.
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Fair enough, you know the worse part about NOT getting the alert? ( and there seems to be a hell of a lot of people that didn't)
Is realising that you are not a designated survivor when the world explodes :(
 
TFFT!!! I'd rather go up in the first blaze of gory than linger until I run out of fresh corpses to feed on...
 
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