Emergency alert phone notifications being tested in the UK

It was only after the pandemic, in which the government was heavily criticised for lagging behind other countries in its technical response, that the stance on launching an emergency system changed.

While Brits waited anxiously on endless contradictory guidelines spouted on the news, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and South Korea used cellular masts to send mobile alerts and effectively control the spread of the virus.

‘Getting this system operational with the national test means we have another tool in our toolkit to keep the public safe in life-threatening emergencies,’ says the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Oliver Dowden. ‘It could be the sound that saves your life.’

Following the experiment later this month, the government assures that messages will only be sent if there is an immediate threat to life present. That isn’t unsettling at all.

In all seriousness, increasing measures to ensure better public safety is a good thing – so long as systems are protected from hijinks or major malfunctions seen in the past, that is.

You may recall that in 2018, Hawaiian authorities accidentally warned people of an incoming ballistic missile strike that didn’t exist simply because an employee ‘pushed the wrong button.’ That obviously cannot happen again.

Under no immediate geopolitical threat, and unlikely to deal with major impacts caused by global warming anytime soon, it would be interesting to see how often emergency messages were sent and whether they had any measurable benefit.