It took a while but the Feds finally got around to putting together a comprehensive alert system for cell phones. You can't opt out and there is no charge for it. You will hear it unless you have your phone turned off or the sound is disabled. If you have one of the newer smart phones, the alert with its distinctive (and very annoying) tone will be broadcasted. The system will follow your phone and you will only receive alerts for your specific location. (A tornado in Edmonton won't give you an alert in Calgary!) A test of the system will be broadcast on May 5. One question, I haven't found an answer to is "If a visitor to Canada from the US was roaming on a Canadian network, would they also receive the alert?" After all, the signal is being pushed out by the Canadian cellar networks, would it affect all applicable cell phones?

I know we have had other alert systems in place for a while (my local city, my province and the weather network have all had systems in place for at least 2 years) via cell phone and TV but the Feds have finally created the national system. Hopefully, we won't get the false alarms of the type that hit Hawaii over a nuclear threat. We also don't have a DEFCON type of alert either.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canada-cellphone-emergency-alert-1.4605656

This could be a very good thing. The devil is always in the details, of course. But it looks like it doesn't rely on SMS (texting) or data services (mine is usually turned off). All it needs is an LTE capable phone and a connection to a tower.

My understanding is that with a phone that is turned off, the alert will be generated on the phone when you turn it back on. And if the sound is turned off, you would at least get the message to read.

Being Canadian,would the texting be bilingual? tres dificile et ingenioux!!

Yes indeed, I expect that bilingual alerts will be provided in areas where there is a mix of language preferences. Up here, you choose a language preference when you sign up for, well, anything.

For universal clarity, though, it may be simpler to repeat a section of Richard Condie's wonderfully demented NFB classic "The Big Snit" ... about 3:00 in ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1S5pAF1YYA

Nationwide test planned next week for Canada.

Millions of cellphones, tablets and other portable devices will sound off across the country next week to test Canada's new public emergency alert system.

The country's broadcast and telecom regulator says the tests will be carried out next Monday in Ontario and Quebec and on Wednesday in the rest of the country.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/emergency-alert-test-1.4642815

Here are the scheduled times for the tests. All times are local:

Monday

Quebec: 9:55 a.m.

Ontario 1:55 p.m.

Wednesday

Yukon 1:30 p.m.

Northwest Territories 1:55 p.m.

Alberta 1:55 p.m.

British-Colombia 1:55 p.m.

Saskatchewan 1:55 p.m.

Manitoba 1:55 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador 1:55 p.m.

Nova Scotia 1:55 p.m.

Prince Edward Island 1:55 p.m.

New-Brunswick 6:55 p.m.

I've got a cell phone with no sim card. I'm interested to see if it goes off during testing this afternoon. It will call 911 but will 911 call it? I think you have to be connected to a network to get the alerts.

The test alerts can only be received on some LTE and WPA enabled phones. So if you have a an older phone that only has 4G, you will not receive the alert.

More info.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/04/06/lte-wpa-april-6-alert-ready/

As expected, my phone didn't go off. The alert just came across my tv though. It was very clear that it was a test. Phew!

The test failed on Quebec cell phones. Apparently the sender of the signal to the cellular service providers didn't work; but the signal to TV stations did work.