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.

Not the most auspicious start of testing, but I am sure they will get the bugs worked out.

In regards to reports that some people did not get the alerts on their phone. Looks like there was the main issue with the test itself. The other being what I posted earlier today, in that many people thought they would get the alerts, but their phones were not compatible or on a LTE network.

Remains to be seen how the next round of testing goes on May 9th.

Wednesday
Yukon 1:30 p.m.
Northwest Territories 1:55 p.m.
Alberta 1:55 p.m.
British Columbia 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.

Nothing on either of our phones today. We'll see on Wednesday.

Guess I’m in luck if ever in Canada. The new phone I got for long walks (because I never carry my large’ish, drop-prone smartphone) is a 3G/4G/LTE enabled (not smart) flip-phone. Excellent voice quality, ruggedized and easy to carry which is all I wanted for this phone. If I’m out & about and I need a phone, I probably really need a phone. With this one if I take a fall the phone has a better than even chance of still functioning.

It’s one of the many Kyocera models (depending on your carrier)...


No affiliation other than as a customer.

My husband didn't get an alert on his cell phone either. This is a good reminder of why I'm so glad he's not in the IT world anymore. LOL!

Wednesday's test here produced unsuccessful on my phone. Many - but not all co-workers received the alert. A straw poll showed that there was a wide mix of phones and carriers which received the alert and similar for those who did not.

Testing disparity was reported in other provinces and early results seems it depends on the phone model and which version of OS software it is running when the alert was sent.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/emergency-alert-ready-testing-canada-1.4654888

Our office was full of the newest Apples and Androids both work and personal. Not one received the signal. It wasn't the carrier's problem.

The alert on the radio was 10 min. late which means that if there was a warning for a tornado there wouldn't have been any effective notice.

However, our 2-year old PROVINCIAL alert system also chose to send out a test alert. That worked perfectly so it appears the Federal system needs to work out the kinks before its ready for prime time.

Nothing received here. So yes, many bugs to work out.

That doesn't bother me, though. I'm kind of old-fashioned, having grown up in the country, and have this habit of watching the sky.

CORRECTION:
Whoops, I spoke too soon.

DW did receive the message at work, but as soon as she silenced the alarm the text disappeared. I'm not sure if there's a way to correct that -- if I'm in a meeting when this goes off, my automatic reflex would be to shut off the sound in the quickest way possible.

I did not receive the message, but my Motorola is older and only a few iterations are LTE capable. So, it's probably a hardware issue on my end.