Public emergency alert - being sent to your phone
Discussion
Disastrous said:
dvs_dave said:
Not difficult is it? Darwin will take care of the rest.
That’s not really what Darwinism is (assuming you mean that, rather than the man himself mopping up survivors?).In an active shooter event, it would be really unlikely that there would be enough time to evolve a competitive advantage over those around you.
There are so many practical and procedural issues with such a system. If I was walking past a dam above a village and I could see the wall cracking….what do I do? Phone the police. Do they believe me? Do they come and inspect? Do they then call a special number and request a mobile phone warning is sent to the local area? Is that then validated? Is the wording for it available as a pre defined message? How long does this take?
Same for a suspected bomb at a public place (having been in this situation I have first hand experience and can’t see such a messaging helping with crowd control!!).
Maybe for a slow moving nuclear warhead or a tsunami it would work. Or maybe if there was a storm overnight and they wanted us to stay off the roads (they’ll be blocked anyway).
Same for a suspected bomb at a public place (having been in this situation I have first hand experience and can’t see such a messaging helping with crowd control!!).
Maybe for a slow moving nuclear warhead or a tsunami it would work. Or maybe if there was a storm overnight and they wanted us to stay off the roads (they’ll be blocked anyway).
OutInTheShed said:
rscott said:
Interesting tweets from someone who appears to know what they're talking about (or at least can post convincing garbage 
) - https://twitter.com/davwheat_/status/1650149573313...
Suggests the main issue Three had was that they only sent it once in many cases, rather than repeating it, so many devices missed it
When Three sends a signal to someone's phone telling it to ring, how often do they need to send that more than once? ) - https://twitter.com/davwheat_/status/1650149573313...Suggests the main issue Three had was that they only sent it once in many cases, rather than repeating it, so many devices missed it
I would have thought the average Three phone was receiving more than one basestation most of the time.
For sure, out here in ruralshire, we get times when a phone doesn't get any signal at all, and times when we only get 2G. But that's a small % of the time for a tiny number of phones.
Then again, quite a lot of people are using wifi calling, because their cellular coverage is poor, I wonder if these phones are treated as 'off the network'?
It does sound like they've not done the background work of 'paper engineering' and just rushed into launching something?
It's generally not good to do public testing until you know something works!
The actual mobile delivery system is a well defined international standard, in use in several other countries. The only custom part is the interface used by government to communicate to the 4 network operators.
Gazzab said:
So I see that some of the work for developing this system went to Fujitsu (post office debacle) and in turn to Infosys. That should help with heating the swimming pool.
Is there anything to suggest Infosys was involved in the UK dpeloyment? I would be totally unsurprised if they kept it in the family, but the information out there claims infosys weren't involved.
g4ry13 said:
Gazzab said:
So I see that some of the work for developing this system went to Fujitsu (post office debacle) and in turn to Infosys. That should help with heating the swimming pool.
Is there anything to suggest Infosys was involved in the UK dpeloyment? I would be totally unsurprised if they kept it in the family, but the information out there claims infosys weren't involved.
Gazzab said:
g4ry13 said:
Gazzab said:
So I see that some of the work for developing this system went to Fujitsu (post office debacle) and in turn to Infosys. That should help with heating the swimming pool.
Is there anything to suggest Infosys was involved in the UK dpeloyment? I would be totally unsurprised if they kept it in the family, but the information out there claims infosys weren't involved.
The technical side of how the system will deliver these alerts is quite interesting, I never knew that these alerts could appear on your phone even if it hasn't got a sim card fitted.
Fyi there is a thread on potholes on the roads forum, including my contribution on cycling on the awful roads today. I've written to my MP about it, just got the usual bog standard reply that the gov have reserved £XXX amount for roads and that you should report potholes on the usual council websites...
Back to the emergency alert system. No, it's not needed, particularly today with all the other rubbish that's happened since covid, far better things to spend the money on. Doubt very much that there will be any back tracking, looks like we're stuck with it along with how much it costs to run each year.
jameswills said:
Why not fix the dangerous pot holes so when you’re riding a bike you don’t have the risk of death? That would make me feel much safer than some bloody alarm going off for something I can do nothing about. The whole thing is just plain insane.
If only it were that simple! For every problem you have there will always be someone with a more important problem that needs dealing with first. Fyi there is a thread on potholes on the roads forum, including my contribution on cycling on the awful roads today. I've written to my MP about it, just got the usual bog standard reply that the gov have reserved £XXX amount for roads and that you should report potholes on the usual council websites...
Back to the emergency alert system. No, it's not needed, particularly today with all the other rubbish that's happened since covid, far better things to spend the money on. Doubt very much that there will be any back tracking, looks like we're stuck with it along with how much it costs to run each year.
rscott said:
Phones aren't constantly connected to the base stations - they poll at regular intervals, so the base had to repeat it multiple times.
The actual mobile delivery system is a well defined international standard, in use in several other countries. The only custom part is the interface used by government to communicate to the 4 network operators.
So did Three not implement the 'well defined' standard properly?The actual mobile delivery system is a well defined international standard, in use in several other countries. The only custom part is the interface used by government to communicate to the 4 network operators.
The fact that it worked for some Three customers (if that's correct?) suggests the gov't bit worked?
Gazzab said:
There are so many practical and procedural issues with such a system. If I was walking past a dam above a village and I could see the wall cracking….what do I do? Phone the police. Do they believe me? Do they come and inspect? Do they then call a special number and request a mobile phone warning is sent to the local area? Is that then validated? Is the wording for it available as a pre defined message? How long does this take?
Same for a suspected bomb at a public place (having been in this situation I have first hand experience and can’t see such a messaging helping with crowd control!!).
Maybe for a slow moving nuclear warhead or a tsunami it would work. Or maybe if there was a storm overnight and they wanted us to stay off the roads (they’ll be blocked anyway).
You could phone police/fire and they'd go out and have a look, cordon off area, start thinking about plans for evacuation etc. They'd also involve the environment agency as they regulate reservoir safety and an engineer would go to inspect, along with reservoir owner and their engineer. Local authority would also be involved. The engineers would decide on the risk and likelihood of collapse.Same for a suspected bomb at a public place (having been in this situation I have first hand experience and can’t see such a messaging helping with crowd control!!).
Maybe for a slow moving nuclear warhead or a tsunami it would work. Or maybe if there was a storm overnight and they wanted us to stay off the roads (they’ll be blocked anyway).
If alert was deemed necessary, digital forms are filled in along with message wording, emailed to Cabinet Office along with a phone call. Content and justification is discussed. If agreed, cabinet office do their bit and the alert gets sent to the mobile masts in the defined area. This process can around 30 minutes.
Message wording is bespoke to each incident but templates exist to make this a bit easier/quicker.
xx99xx said:
Gazzab said:
There are so many practical and procedural issues with such a system. If I was walking past a dam above a village and I could see the wall cracking….what do I do? Phone the police. Do they believe me? Do they come and inspect? Do they then call a special number and request a mobile phone warning is sent to the local area? Is that then validated? Is the wording for it available as a pre defined message? How long does this take?
Same for a suspected bomb at a public place (having been in this situation I have first hand experience and can’t see such a messaging helping with crowd control!!).
Maybe for a slow moving nuclear warhead or a tsunami it would work. Or maybe if there was a storm overnight and they wanted us to stay off the roads (they’ll be blocked anyway).
You could phone police/fire and they'd go out and have a look, cordon off area, start thinking about plans for evacuation etc. They'd also involve the environment agency as they regulate reservoir safety and an engineer would go to inspect, along with reservoir owner and their engineer. Local authority would also be involved. The engineers would decide on the risk and likelihood of collapse.Same for a suspected bomb at a public place (having been in this situation I have first hand experience and can’t see such a messaging helping with crowd control!!).
Maybe for a slow moving nuclear warhead or a tsunami it would work. Or maybe if there was a storm overnight and they wanted us to stay off the roads (they’ll be blocked anyway).
If alert was deemed necessary, digital forms are filled in along with message wording, emailed to Cabinet Office along with a phone call. Content and justification is discussed. If agreed, cabinet office do their bit and the alert gets sent to the mobile masts in the defined area. This process can around 30 minutes.
Message wording is bespoke to each incident but templates exist to make this a bit easier/quicker.
Jasandjules said:
Are we really such a pathetic nation that now we want mobile alerts?! What exactly is an emergency to warrant such an alert? If we are driving are we allowed to look at our phones to check what the danger is? If not, why not?
Yes - we didn't need alerts on our smartphones when we beat the Nazis did we?
king old bellyaching this thread is. :-D
Randy Winkman said:
Jasandjules said:
Are we really such a pathetic nation that now we want mobile alerts?! What exactly is an emergency to warrant such an alert? If we are driving are we allowed to look at our phones to check what the danger is? If not, why not?
Yes - we didn't need alerts on our smartphones when we beat the Nazis did we?
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