EU-Alert

EU-Alert is a Public Warning System designed to disseminate emergency alerts to mobile phones based on Cell Broadcast technology, as defined by ETSI standards.

Cell Broadcast is not affected by traffic load; therefore, it is very suitable during a disaster when load spikes of data, SMS and voice calls usage (mass call events) tend to significantly congest mobile networks, as multiple events have shown.

The alert level is defined by the severity of the warning, e.g. threat to life, imminent danger or advisory message.

The mandatory implementation of the public warning system will have to be in place by 21 June 2022 for each EU member state (Full text of the European Electronic Communications Code).

Requirements under the Legislation: According to the directive a Public Warning System (PWS) must be able to: Possible alternative for EU-Alert to use other electronic communications services, such as location based SMS or apps.

In France because of the limited success of the downloadable Mobile App SAIP (Système d’Alerte et d’Information des Populations) the service has been stopped as of June 2018.

While mobile networks require knowledge of subscribers’ locations for normal operation, this is usually not maintained at all times at the granularity of the single cell level.

The methods used by the MLC to track mobile devices as they move around the network are not standardised and are subject to a certain level of inaccuracy.

Based upon last years experience the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency concluded in a report published in May 2018[33] that in case of serious events it's extremely unlikely that Public Warning Messages via SMS will work and will be delivered in a timely manner (less than 1 minute).