The first public test of the U.K. Mobile Emergency Alert System took place on Sunday, encountering issues including complaints from various stakeholder groups, an early start and widespread reports of people not getting the alert at all.
By Joe Fay
The U.K. government ran its first country-wide mobile phone emergency alert test on Sunday, surprising large numbers of U.K. mobile users with early alerts but leaving customers of one major operator in the dark entirely.
The system, very similar to what is used in the U.S., is designed to warn residents of “danger to life nearby”, such as severe flooding, fires, extreme weather and terrorism, via a text message and siren like noise. The need for such a system was brought into stark contrast at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government struggled to send out text messages to the population with guidance on what to do in response to the outbreak.
They are distributed by 4G and 5G mobile phone system, so customers with older devices or who connect to legacy 3G or earlier masts, are effectively cut off.
The test was set to run at 3pm BST on Sunday, April 23, following smaller local tests earlier this year. However, alerts were hitting phones some minutes before 3pm.
More worryingly, subscribers to provider Three reported not receiving any alerts at all.
In a statement on Twitter the company said it was aware “a number of customers” had not received the alert. “We're working closely with the government to understand why and ensure it doesn't happen when the system is in use.”
The Cabinet Office said described the test as, “The biggest public communications exercise of its kind ever done. We are working with mobile network operators to review the outcome and any lessons learned."
It added, “While the vast majority of compatible phones received the alert, we are aware that a very small proportion of mobile users on some networks did not receive it and will be looking at this as part of our review of the test.”
One thing we know already is that as well as being 4G and 5G only, the system is restricted to smartphones and tablets running iOS 14 and later, and Android 11 and later. Residents with non-compatible devices are reassured that “The emergency services have other ways to warn you when there is a threat to life.”
The government has assured UK people that the tests will not collect any data from devices, and the alerts themselves are free.
Pre-alert publicity emphasized this was not a “scam”. However, it seems inevitable that cybercriminals will attempt to exploit the rollout over time now that the format of the alerts is know.
Equally inevitable, conspiracy theorists on social networks quickly lumped the system in with other favored bugbears such as COVID-19, the climate emergency and 5G health risks.
The test only applied to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as self-governing British Crown Dependencies are not included in the system, though the Isle of Man warned residents that depending where they were on the Island it was possible they could connect to a UK network and receive an alert.