Who received the phone alert?
Who received the phone alert? I knew it was going to happen (see post below) but it still startled me.
Also, I got it even though I was on wifi, and the original story said you had to be on LTE to get it.
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Kate
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Meezly 15:01 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
I did.
Marc 15:03 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Yup, just received it while on wifi which was a bit surprising to me as well!
fliflipoune 15:05 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
The LTE connexion is still active even if you’re on Wifi, unless you turn it off explicitly, or you are somewhere without signal.
Kate 15:07 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
I wonder what kind of crisis would be major enough to require this signal.
jeather 15:08 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
I received it, what was most startling is that my phone started reading the alert out loud as if the entire thing were English, it was incomprehensible. (I also received it on my old phone which doesn’t have a SIM card.)
Mathias 15:12 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
I did too
Bill Binns 15:20 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
I received it on my old US phone that doesn’t even have service at the moment (It was called a “Presidential Alert” but the body was written in French). Weird.
I did not receive it on my Videotron cell phone. My wife is on Fido and she didn’t get it either.
Ephraim 15:49 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
@Kate – Amber alerts, missile attack, terrorist actions, dirty bomb.
Got it on Videotron.
Bert 17:19 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Yeah, got it.
What types, I am sure that that questions is asked a lot… Yes it is…. https://www.alertready.ca/#types
As long as a phone has a SIM it (obviously) can receive these messages and will complete calls to 911. No service is required. I am guessing that in your case the message presentation wrapper is hard-coded and only with a place-holder for the message itself. The Canadian and US systems are based on Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Alerting_Protocol so are of course interoperable between carriers and devices. If you walk back through wiki to the US EAS system it goes in to detail of the Rube Goldberg setup of it all.
Mark Côté 17:26 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Went off in the middle of my lecture because of course it did.
Chris 18:49 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Bert, a SIM is not required. The SIM only has your phone number/client info and a little bit of memory. It’s the phone’s built-in antenna that allows it to connect to the network. You can also call 911 even without a SIM card.
Kate 19:29 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Ephraim, this is the thing. If it’s a missile attack or a dirty bomb, there’s not a lot we can do. Terrorist actions tend to be too localized for this kind of wide alert to be useful.
Does the Amber Alert use this system or do they have some other channel? I don’t remember what it sounded like when we had one.
EmilyG 19:29 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
I heard it on the radio.
Ephraim 19:44 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Kate, a large fire, an industrial fire, wildfire or forest fire… avoid the area. Tornado, flash flooding (remember the river Decarie?) Earthquake, hurricane or tornado… seek refuge, stand in a doorway, get in the bath tub, etc. Avoid an area because of a biological, chemical or dirty bomb. They are usually concentrated in one area… head in the other direction. Oh and don’t drink the water! There is a bomb at the Atwater metro, get off the metro before that station! Terrorists. A trunk spilled hazardous material over a large area. Amber alert. An attack by a shooter (like at the Polytechnique)
Bert 19:49 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Any emergency alert, Amber or other uses the same protocol and procedures.It’s all the same channel.
EmilyG 20:33 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
It makes the same sound no matter what kind of alert it was.
A couple years ago, I was in a restaurant that had a TV, and the sound came on the TV with a storm warning.
denpanosekai 21:11 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
Who didn’t get it, really? Seemed like a major success.
MarcG 22:21 on 2020-11-25 Permalink
I have a cheap Nokia brick phone w/ Fido for emergencies and didn’t get anything. If not for this blog I wouldn’t have known anything about it.
Chris 00:36 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
denpanosekai: I didn’t get it.
Daisy 06:52 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
I have no cell phone, only a landline, so I didn’t get it either.
dhomas 07:31 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
Amber Alerts also come in via this system. We got one in July for Norah and Romy Carpentier.
I was going to get into the technical details, but Bert beat me to it. Thanks for the details!
Blork 13:59 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
Confirming what Chris said about not needing a SIM. I have an old iPhone without a SiM that I use as an iPod, and it got the alert.