FR-Alert: what to do to receive anti-attack and disaster alerts?
Today, when you receive text messages or notifications, it’s often Facebook that warns you of a comment on your cat’s photo, a reminder for a Doctissimo appointment, a spam to steal your training hours. or a loved one who still doesn’t have an Internet plan on their Nokia 3310. Soon, that’s good the government which will send you messages to help you avoid finding yourself in uncomfortable situations, even in life-threatening situations.
EN-Alert: prevention is better than cure
Even if local initiatives already existed, it is today the French government which will deploy by the end of June a new alert system called FR-Alert. It will allow anyone with a mobile phone to receive alerts if an emergency occurs in France. So, without you having to do anything, a notification will appear large on your screen accompanied by a sound that is unpleasant enough that you cannot miss it. This will be possible for cases of force majeure and therefore never to be taken lightly. This concerns attack alerts, industrial, chemical or nuclear accidents, serious road accidents or natural disasters.
From the end of June, the new population alert system we have put in place, FR-ALERT, will provide real-time telephone alerts to all people close to a major disaster.
A unique system to strengthen the safety of French people following Lubrizol pic.twitter.com/ss3ML1Hjld— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) May 18, 2022
Don’t expect to be bombarded with notifications all year round, however, and each submission should be taken very seriously.
Our regions have talent
FR-Alert will indeed target locally those who will receive the alerts. If an accident occurs, only people in the vicinity will receive the alert message. They will know what behavior to adopt and which area to avoid so as not to put themselves in danger. To ensure that messages are received as quickly as possible, the system uses a technology called cell diffusion which relies on a dedicated channel. A massive sending of notifications will therefore be done without risk of delay or slowdown as can sometimes be the case with simple SMS (for the evening of 1er of the year for example).
Notifications can be received by all 4G and 5G compatible phones, even if they are locked. On the other hand, no miracle to be expected if your device is off or in airplane mode. As for those who still use 2G or 3G phones, another device – which will use basic SMS technology – will be deployed later.
If FR-Alert is officially launched this month, it is quite simply because a European directive of 2018 made the use of such a system is mandatory in all countries of the European Union with a deadline for implementation of June 21, 2022. It was time because this kind of alert sending initiative is already present in many other countries. Often the victim of earthquakes and tsunamis, Japan has been using it for more than 15 years, for example. It is also widespread in the United States, Canada, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Peru or Chile for example. In the EU it’s been a long time dragged feet and of course, France waited until the last moment to comply with the directive.
EN-Alert will be automatically activated for phones running Android. iPhone owners, on the other hand, will receive a request for ” carrier settings update“, so that Apple brand devices can display its alerts.
This morning you may have received a “carrier update”. It is necessary for FR-ALERT. pic.twitter.com/ZOBJAczjLk
— GRZ (@GuillaumeRozier) June 4, 2022
