I’m on Three, alerts all switched on but nothing on my phone.

Seems an appropriate place to drop this

I’m confused. I didn’t get the alert (three) but the wife did, but what’s this about a voice? We only got the alerting tones.

Did anyone else get more than one alert? I received three. 2.59, 3.01 and 3.02. Wife on same network, same phone and in same room as me only got one.

I think it’s a great idea and am fascinated that people manage to get upset by it.

You Three types – bearing in mind next to sod all coverage in the sticks, I’m guessing you’ll mostly city based. So come the armageddon, you are all basically bolloxed in the first wave of missile strikes regardless of a wee notice on your phone. So no real biggie.

Maybe they could replace the sirens with some soothing mindfulness and we can all be annoalated at peace with whole idea rather than sharting ourselves.

I’d forgotten the alert, and the time, so it made me start for a second, but that’s all. Dunno why so many people are having a fit of the vapours about it, it’s a one-off national trial for something that’s mostly going to be for local extreme events, like flooding, weather events, etc.

I got mine (Talkmobile).

Wife didn’t get either of hers (Talkmobile and 3 on a dual sim).

Daughter didn’t get hers (3).

Looks like more work needing to be done.

As for not needing it, I presume nobody saying that lives near any potentially nasty infrastructure.

Looks like more work needing to be done.

Generally what the point of testing is.

If they hadn’t done this, then there was some sort of actual disaster and the warning system didn’t work, the tinfoil-hat brigade would obvs be going “well, it hasn’t been tested properly!”

Wife turned her work phone on at 11pm and it went off like a klaxon. Is it meant to issue tge alert 8 hours after the event?

the could listen to R3 concerts from my mums phone on iplayer……yes you guessed it – deep in the middle of the Pastoral symphony and whammo its the end of the world as we know it!!!

Wow I never thought Radio 3 would try a Beethoven/REM mashup.

I think the alerts should be done by Edward James Olmos.

Mine didn’t go off, hubby’s did.

Gobochul, turning off an alert system you never expect to get used sounds unnecessarily paranoid.

We do get large flooding events and weather patterns are likely to be more extreme.  We do get wildfires which reach populations.  We do get terrorist incidents.  We have had reservoirs at risk of breaching the dam.  We do get major gas pipe ruptures.  We do find unexploded ordinance.  We do have (aging) nuclear power stations.  We do have oil refineries and chemical plants.  Our relationship with Russia is the worst it has been for decades.  Viruses remain a threat.

Given that many of those evacuations involve police/fire going door to door to tell people to leave it seems we don’t rely on people listening to traditional media quickly enough.

as someone who lives out of ear shot of the gas alarms at the local chemical factories but if the wind is blowing the right way very much in the fall our zone I welcome it.  Given other people I know who are in the audible alarm area I would likely hear quickly if there was cause for concern but if you were visiting the area I wonder if you would have the same network?

even if you turned it back on after the test I don’t understand what silencing it achieved – 5 seconds of peace?  But no idea if it worked on your phone, and no idea what the sound or screen look like on your phone so slightly increased confusion if it is needed OR increased risk of being scammed by some “fake alert”.

Was quite the cacophony walking around Costco…

I have not seen anyone “having the vapors” or in any way getting upset about this.  I have seen a fair few people question its value and being cynical about the purpose.

I have it turned off and will not be turning it on again.   I don’t want to be disturbed by either testing again ( clearly this test failed so will have to be done again) or by alerts which are irrelevant to me.

I have never seen a single thing in the UK for which this would have any utility

I have never seen a single thing in the UK for which this would have any utility

I assume that it can be targeted by connection to cell towers.

Getting a message to avoid Borough Market/London Bridge whilst people we running around killing people with knives would have been useful.

By the time the alert got out it would have been obvious on the ground.  How many people who were not in the immediate area came into the danger zone after the police were informed?

I’m intrigued what the alert actually said. And there’s definitely a fundamental flaw in it. I only saw it at 5pm when I got back in the car to drive home. There was a screed of Welsh which I couldn’t read.
I swapped into Google maps to find out how far to home and then couldn’t find the alert again when I wanted to read the detail

Edit: ooh, found it. It’s still there under Notifications. Cool.

 have never seen a single thing in the UK for which this would have any utility

Some folks have already on this thread suggested that the ability to have had this sort of alarm may have reduced confusion post the 7/7 bombings and other events (like the Ariane Grande concert bombing in Manchester)

It may have utility to reinforce flooding alerts. Hebden Bridge for example uses a siren currently that goes off in the event of a flood warning, targeted alerts to mobiles could give much more information, and could be shown to folks who live in Hebden but are elsewhere, and enable them to either make plans to stay away, or get back early to make preparations.

The events in Salisbury may have benefitted from information deployed this way. Major rail collision or airport closures like-wise.

I can think of loads of events where having information directly targeted may help.

Opinions can differ.  I can see in none of those examples it making any difference at all indeed by alerting people not affected it could make things worse.

I don’t live in a flood zone, I don’t live near a chemical plant, I see no way it would have made any difference to those bombings.  You don’t get the warning before the bombing but after.  Confusion on the ground is obvious – go a different way

its a solution in search of a problem IMO

@tjagain you must be walking about with your eyes shut then. Just off the top of my head nuclear power stations have an emergency alert system for anyone in the immediate exclusion zone radius should an off-site incident be declared. That system is entirely restricted to households in that area, with a general alert obviously more people can be made aware.

Flash floods happen.

Extreme weather happens (just a couple of months ago folk were getting trapped by snow on roads previously declared safe with more folk following).

Road and rail accidents involving chemicals happen.

its a solution in search of a problem IMO

Your lived experience is different to mine, I’ll be leaving it on.

Squirrelking – explain why/ how a mobile phone alert will make any difference rather than just stating it will?

It may have utility to reinforce flooding alerts. Hebden Bridge for example uses a siren currently that goes off in the event of a flood warning, targeted alerts to mobiles could give much more information, and could be shown to folks who live in Hebden but are elsewhere, and enable them to either make plans to stay away, or get back early to make preparations.

I see what you’re saying but does this system have that capacity?

In Norway they have the National Register which has the address of all residents and their phone numbers. We sometimes get alerts if there is an emergency situation developing and our house is in the vicinity (I’ve had one such message when there was a fire in a paper factory and our house was within the blast zone if there was an explosion).

I don’t think the UK has anything like a National Register that has every citizen’s address and phone number? Therefore any alert is going to be population wide, right?

Short of imminent nuclear antihalation, I can’t think of any emergency that where it would be relevant to the entire population. Tsunami maybe?

Has a Tsunami ever hit the UK?

Bruce – its targeted by cell towers – so everyone in an area not everyone in the UK

and could be shown to folks who live in Hebden but are elsewhere,

Is that possible?
I thought it was targeted to the phone’s current location.

( don’t get me wrong, it should be a piece of piss to do but not sure if they can do it)

Such as? TV, radio, Facebook…?

I think the main warning depends on distance from the explosion and if its airburst.

It seems that it is easy to dismiss it when it sounds.

Erm.. easy? Pull over, search the back of the van for whatever bag the phone is in assuming its even switched on?

please hand your licence back immediately if that is going to cause you to crash your car

Its the **** who drive into those of us who don’t have phones switched on….

Had my phone ping one of these alerts while in California, warning of a possible child abduction complete with car description and license plate.

Surely it’s worth leaving on to catch a nonce?

Did everyone take out their automatic rifle and start shooting similar looking cars?

Before such a message could be sent out, it would have be confirmed that an incident serious enough to warrant the use of the system. By the time that was done you would of heard about through other means.

It took a year to decide if cheese and wine is a work event or party.

Well one example might be you’re heading into manchester for a concert

Or you could get a “sod you, this is being sent from our underground bunker” alert… probably 5 minutes after but all the cell towers will be out anyway from the EMP so a bit pointless.

What are we meant to do anyway? Is it a Masada moment where we are meant cut our loved ones throats before the fallout?

I could see it being used in some flooding cases but I do hope it’s not controlled by the same folk who do the “weather forecast” for the Daily Mirror

If you have a smartphone and give a shit the met office does those for free.

Teej – yes there are undoubtedly many other ways that people find out about issues, from panicked crowds to police knocking on the door to seeing the queue of cars stuck ahead of them. This system is just another way of finding out, and you believe it will never be used so what’s the harm in leaving it turned on just in case you are somewhere (maybe on one of your epic trips) where something notification-worthy does happen. Maybe a cocaine frenzied bear loose in a forest – I saw a documentary about that 😀

It’s another situation where the government/those in charge can’t really win. The omniscient declare the system “pointless” yet if an unforeseen situation does occur where it’s useful/life-saving they’ll want to be alerted, the same as everyone else, lest we suffer the cries of “why wasn’t I warned” 😂

I see what you’re saying but does this system have that capacity?

Honestly I don’t know whether it does. But if I can currently sign up for email/ text alerts from the EA about flooding, it’s not beyond wild fantasy imagining to enable this system to do the same. I wouldn’t trust this government to do it, but it’s certainly possible technologically.

and you believe it will never be used so what’s the harm in leaving it turned on just in case you are somewhere

I believe it will be overused.  I don’t think its needed.  I think we will get alerts that are of no use at all.

It’s another situation where the government/those in charge can’t really win. The omniscient declare the system “pointless” yet if an unforeseen situation does occur where it’s useful/life-saving they’ll want to be alerted, the same as everyone else, lest we suffer the cries of “why wasn’t I warned”

TBF, those who need ‘warning’ often will be the ones with zero common sense – see some of the stories from folk going out/travelling in Beast from the East, various floods and drivers who pile into deep water, winter storm warnings which people dont event have a few beans in the cupboard and couple of candles ready in case etc….

I think we will get alerts that are of no use at all.

OK, so would you bother to turn it back on if there are no spurious/irrelevant alerts in the next 12, 24, 36 or whatever months?

I’m not paranoid about this.

I just think it’s pointless.

The only event I can see it being of any much use, MAYBE a terrorist attack of some kind.

However, as I’m pretty certain facts would need to be established before sending any alert, by which time anyone in the area would be aware.

I wonder how much this has cost?

I wonder who was contracted to make it happen? Serco maybe? No dodgy dealings there then.

The current government spaffing money on crappy systems that are implemented by their mates?

Has a Tsunami ever hit the UK?

Yes. The 1607 Bristol Channel flood may have been one – a considerable loss of life and, I think, if happened today would do for the Hinkley point power station/s.

This alert system would be handy if there was a recurrence of the Windscale fire of ’56. Well obvz not a recurrence, but something similar. Actually, the one that caught fire is still standing, so maybe a recurrence.

anyone else have issues after the alert?

my network was playing up and then the phone (iphone13) crashed, needed a reset to get going again

I just think it’s pointless.

Not sure where you are, but around here we’ve relatively recently had…

– flash flooding taking out homes while still occupied
– multiple moorland fires spreading fast endangering lives
– a dam at sudden risk of imminent collapse above a town

+ genuine terrorist attacks, some stopped one sadly not

The tinfoil hat vibe is strong on this thread.

Yuo – from the folk desperate to find a use for this 🙂

Take the example of the manchester bombings.  so everyone in the city centre gets the alert and all start heading out of the town centre causing traffic issues making it harder for the emergency services to get to the bombing site and creating more confusion.  Potentially causing more deaths as everyone panics to get away