Emergency Alerts To Cell Phones Are Here, But Not For Everyone: What You Need to Know
InstantWeather
Compatible cell phones and wireless devices in Canada will be receiving emergency alerts sent out by Alert Ready as of April 6, 2018. These are the same alerts used for potentially life-threatening situations currently sent to television, radio, cable and satellite service providers for broadcast to the public.
We will also be sending out these government issued alerts with our Text Message Alerts (TMA) service and on our Facebook & Twitter pages.
Not all cell phones and wireless devices will be able to receive the Alert Ready cell broadcast alerts, so we have compiled information to help you better understand how these alerts will work and whether your phone will be receiving them.
Compatible phones and devices must be:
- An LTE* (sometimes called 4G LTE) smart phone or device
- Wireless Public Alerting (WPA) capable, meaning it has special software to receive Alert Ready format messages sent by Cell Broadcast
- Turned on and connected to an LTE cellular network (Edge, 2G, 3G wont work)
*LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a 4G wireless standard, but is not the same as HSPA+ or WiMAX, which are often called 4G.
To find out if your phone is compatible, Alert Ready has a convenient link here to select your service carrier.
This will take you to your service provider page about Alert Ready and will include the list of their compatible devices. Some pages may have a drop down or button for the list, others may have a link you need to click on for a pop-up. Some examples are shown below.
If you are unsure of your phone model, you can find it by going to Settings and selecting ‘About Phone’.
These emergency alerts will have your phone sound the same audible alarm used for television and radio, and make your cell phone vibrate. The message will appear much the same as a text message, but it’s not actually a text, and will be received by any compatible phone within range of the cell tower broadcasting it. These messages are sent by Cell Broadcast distribution and use a dedicated part of the network that is separate from those used for text/voice and data. Please note that you cannot opt out of receiving these alerts, but you do not have to have data and/or text messaging and there will be no charge for it.
If your phone is off or set to Wi-Fi Only, or you have disabled LTE network connections, you will not receive this message. If you turn on your phone, disable Wi-Fi, enable LTE network connections and enter in the range of the broadcasting tower, you will then receive it.
Alert Ready will be conducting test alerts across Canada for wireless, television, and radio broadcast. The test alert schedule is listed below:
You can learn more about cell phone alerts, the types of alerts you might receive, and who is responsible for those alerts, at the website Alert Ready.
As mentioned above, we will also be posting Alert Ready emergency alerts to the relevant Facebook/Twitter pages and sending them out via our instant Text Message Alerts system to those subscribed for 11c per day. They will also be included in our upcoming free Instant Weather app.
Our Facebook/Twitter pages can be found by searching “Instant Weather province/territory name”.
You can subscribe to our Text Message Alerts through our website. Simply log in with Facebook (easiest method) and subscribe for the fastest alerts in Canada.
To learn more about how our premium Text Message Alerts service is different from what Alert Ready offers, we have put together a detailed write-up here:
IW (Tammy M.)
References:
https://www.androidauthority.com/4g-vs-lte-274882/
https://www.androidcentral.com/everything-you-need-know-about-4g-lte-canada
http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/support/faq.html?q=wireless-public-alerting-system&etcid=VAN:568