Emergency Mobile Alert

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An Emergency Mobile Alert sent on 25 March 2020 about the imminent national lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency Mobile Alert NZ, COVID-19, 25 March 2020.jpg
An Emergency Mobile Alert sent on 25 March 2020 about the imminent national lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emergency Mobile Alerts (EMA) is an alerting network in New Zealand designed to disseminate emergency alerts to mobile devices. Emergency Mobile Alerts are messages about emergencies sent by New Zealand authorised emergency agencies to capable mobile phones. The alerts are sent to participating wireless providers who will distribute the alerts to their customers with compatible devices via Cell Broadcast, a technology best suitable for public warning as it simultaneously delivers messages to all phones using a Mobile Cell tower. Similar solutions are implemented in the United States (Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA)), The Netherlands (NL-Alert), European Union (EU-Alert), Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Chile, Philippines. One2many B.V. [1] provides this modern Emergency Mobile Alert system including the Cell Broadcast systems and the CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) based centralised Public Warning management system.

Contents

Adoption Rate

Emergency Mobile Alerts has been used in New Zealand since November 2017, and every year a test message is sent which is broadcast throughout New Zealand. The reach of the Control Cell Broadcast message among New Zealanders who have access to a mobile phone has increased since the first test message resulting that on 24 November 2019 8 out of 10 mobile handsets (79%) received a test emergency alert message sent out by Civil Defence and a further eight (8%) percent didn’t personally receive the alert but were near someone who did reaching in the end 87% of the New Zealand population.

National Public Warning System implementations

Many countries have implemented location-based alert systems based on Cell Broadcast. The alert messages to the population, already broadcast by various media, are relayed over the mobile network using Cell Broadcast.

Notable uses

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency Alert System</span> Method of emergency broadcasting in the United States

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite and broadcast television and both AM, FM and satellite radio. Informally, Emergency Alert System is sometimes conflated with its mobile phone counterpart Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), a different but related system. However, both the EAS and WEA, among other systems, are coordinated under the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). The EAS, and more broadly IPAWS, allows federal, state, and local authorities to efficiently broadcast emergency alert and warning messages across multiple channels. The EAS became operational on January 1, 1997, after being approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in November 1994, replacing the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), and largely supplanted Local Access Alert systems, though Local Access Alert systems are still used from time to time. Its main improvement over the EBS, and perhaps its most distinctive feature, is its application of a digitally encoded audio signal known as Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME), which is responsible for the characteristic "screeching" or "chirping" sounds at the start and end of each message. The first signal is the "header" which encodes, among other information, the alert type and locations, or the specific area that should receive the message. The last short burst marks the end-of-message. These signals are read by specialized encoder-decoder equipment. This design allows for automated station-to-station relay of alerts to only the area the alert was intended for.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pager</span> Wireless telecommunications device

A pager, also known as a beeper or bleeper, is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknowledge, reply to, and originate messages using an internal transmitter. In Japanese, it was commonly called a pocket bell or pokeberu (ポケベル), which is an example of wasei-eigo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency population warning</span> Warning issued by authorities to the public en masse

An emergency population warning is a method where by local, regional, or national authorities can contact members of the public to warn them of an impending emergency. These warnings may be necessary for a number of reasons, including:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cell Broadcast</span> Method of sending messages to multiple mobile phone users

Cell Broadcast (CB) is a method of sending messages to multiple mobile telephone users in a defined area at the same time. It is defined by the ETSI's GSM committee and 3GPP and is part of the 2G, 3G, 4G LTE (telecommunication) and 5G standards. It is also known as Short Message Service-Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB) or CB SMS.

The Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) is a warning siren used in Australia to alert the public of danger. The siren is played over radio, television or public address systems in public places to warn of bushfire, flood, cyclone, tsunami, earthquake or terrorist attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wireless Emergency Alerts</span> Mobile device emergency announcement system in the United States

Wireless Emergency Alerts, is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency alerts to mobile devices such as cell phones and pagers. Organizations are able to disseminate and coordinate emergency alerts and warning messages through WEA and other public systems by means of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.

The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is an architecture that unifies the United States' Emergency Alert System, National Warning System, Wireless Emergency Alerts, and NOAA Weather Radio, under a single platform. IPAWS was designed to modernize these systems by enabling alerts to be aggregated over a network and distributed to the appropriate system for public dissemination.

ALERT FM is an emergency notification system that delivers messages from state, local, and/or private sector officials to citizens, schools, businesses, and first responders using the Radio Data System of local FM radio stations. Messages are transported from a secure web-based portal to the data sub-carrier via GSSNet, a satellite data delivery system. These alerts and messages are then received on ALERT FM receivers or on cell phones equipped with active FM chips and properly installed software.

An emergency communication system (ECS) is any system that is organized for the primary purpose of supporting one-way and two-way communication of emergency information between both individuals and groups of individuals. These systems are commonly designed to convey information over multiple types of devices, from signal lights to text messaging to live, streaming video, forming a unified communication system intended to optimize communications during emergencies. Contrary to emergency notification systems, which generally deliver emergency information in one direction, emergency communication systems are typically capable of both initiating and receiving information between multiple parties. These systems are often made up of both input devices, sensors, and output/communication devices. Therefore, the origination of information can occur from a variety of sources and locations, from which the system will disseminate that information to one or more target audiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberta Emergency Alert</span> System used in Alberta, Canada

Alberta Emergency Alert (AEA) is a public warning system in Alberta that warns the public on impending or occurring emergencies affecting an area. The system was implemented in October 2011, replacing the former Alberta Emergency Public Warning System. Alerts are disseminated through various media outlets including television and radio, internet, social media mobile apps, and cell broadcast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alert Ready</span> National alerting system of Canada

The National Public Alerting System, branded as Alert Ready, is the national warning system in Canada, broadcast to Canadian television, radio, and wireless devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ShakeAlert</span> Earthquake early warning system for the United States

ShakeAlert is an earthquake early warning system (EEW) in the United States, developed and operated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners. As of 2021, the system issues alerts for the country's West Coast. It is expected that the system will be expanded to other seismically active areas of the United States in the future.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NL-Alert</span>

NL-Alert is a Cell Broadcast alarm system in use by the Dutch government to quickly alert and inform citizens of hazardous or crisis situations. Using this system, authorities can send messages to users of mobile phones in specific areas by using specific cell towers to alert phones within their reach. NL-Alert is one of the first implementations of the EU-Alert or Reverse 1-1-2 legislation as defined by the binding European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) using the Cell Broadcast technology for the delivery of public warning messages to the general public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Hawaii false missile alert</span> False alarm sent over all communications media in Hawaii, United States

On the morning of January 13, 2018, an alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert System over television, radio, and cellular networks in the U.S. state of Hawaii, instructing citizens to seek shelter due to an incoming ballistic missile. It concluded with "This is not a drill". The message was sent at 8:08 a.m. local time. The state had not authorized civil defense outdoor warning sirens.

Reverse 1-1-2 is a public safety communications technology used by public safety organizations throughout the world to communicate with groups of people in a defined geographic area. Reverse 1-1--2 allows authorities to rapidly warn those in danger, directly through their mobile phones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EU-Alert</span> European system for warning the population in the event of a desaster via cell phones

EU-Alert is the generic term for the European Public Warning Service based upon Cell Broadcast technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency Cell Broadcast System</span>

Emergency Cell Broadcast System (ECBS) is an alert broadcast system in the Philippines, designed to disseminate emergency alerts and warnings to mobile devices via cell broadcast services (CBS)

There are various Wireless Emergency Alerts in Germany which inform citizens about important incidents, disasters and dangerous situations, as well as severe weather. Since February 2023, the alerts of the four main systems have been shared and disseminated in parallel.

The United Kingdom's mobile phone alert system is an emergency population warning system that uses cell broadcast. The coalition government first considered the technology in 2013-2015 but the project was shelved due to concerns over the cost, following the coronavirus pandemic the first test alert sent in May 2021. The warning system is intended for use in major incidents such as flooding or terror attacks. The Emergency Alert System was launched on 19 March 2023, and tested on a nationwide basis for the first time on 23 April 2023.

The National Messaging System (NMS) is an upcoming Australian cell broadcast emergency population warning system that is slated to replace the current location-targeted, SMS-based Emergency Alert system. It is currently expected to be in operation by late 2024.

References

  1. "New Zealand Selects one2many for National Emergency Mobile Alert System". www.businesswire.com. February 9, 2018.
  2. "Survey report" (PDF). www.civildefence.govt.nz. 2017. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  3. "Second emergency alert test: Almost double NZers get message". RNZ. January 4, 2019.
  4. "Nationwide test survey" (PDF). getready.govt.nz. 2019. Retrieved 2020-05-11.