The future purpose of the emergency alert system will be to warn citizens if there is a real life-threatening emergency nearby, such as a wildfire, flood, or terrorist attack. The system is therefore location dependent. A bilingual Welsh-English version of the message was sent to people in Wales, albeit with an autocorrect blunder in the Welsh translation.
Having been warned for weeks about the test, many members of the public were surprised to receive their alert at different times. They commenced at 14:59, but some phones received their notification as late as 15:21, after which the Cabinet Office instructed networks to stop the transmission.
Although the trial was mostly successful, many phones did not receive the alert. As well as phones that were switched off, on aeroplane mode, or that had disabled the alert, many Three customers failed to receive the message. The mobile network provider is working with the Cabinet Office to resolve the issue to ensure a fully functional alert system can be in place for the future.
In addition, only certain smartphones were compatible with the system: iPhones running iOS 14.5 or later, or Android phones running Android 11 or later. These are 4G or 5G devices, therefore the system is not currently accessible to everyone. In fact, according to the Cabinet Office, 20% of UK mobile phones were not compatible for the alert.
The UK is not the first nation to introduce an emergency alert system. Countries such as Canada, Japan, and the US already have similar systems in place. New Zealand made frequent use of their own system during the pandemic, alerting citizens to changes in lockdown measures. There have also been instances of an alert being used to broadcast urgent news of a missing person. However, things can sometimes go wrong, such as in 2018, when people In Hawaii were falsely warned of an imminent missile strike.