UK Government tests the new UK wide emergence alert system as sirens and alert notifications sound out on mobile phones across the UK during this afternoons tests.
The new UK wider alert system is intended to provide a system for the UK government and other agencies to deliver UK wide alerts or local area alerts for issues that pose a risk to life and from wild fires flooding through to hostile actions from terrorise to nuclear attacks.
Government minister Oliver Dowden said the new emergency alert system will be used only in situations where there was an immediate risk to life.
The emergency alerts are delivered to mobile ie phones on the 4G and 5G networks.
However as this afternoons test of the system commenced at 3pm some appear not have yet received any alerts to mobile devices
The government says the alert will reach 90% of mobile phone users in the UK.
While it will work on all 4G and 5G phone networks, it will not include older "non-smart" phones.
In Penrith Town centre there was a bit of noise in the street with people pulling their phones out of their pockets to have a look.
But as we stood in Penrith this afternoon some members of the public hearing other phones giving out the audio alert tone looked at there mobile devices to find they had received no alert message.
Some have also reported been taken a bit by surprise as the alert came a bit early on there mobile phone activating a few minutes before 3pm.
Government Spokesperson from the Cabinet office said shortly after the test was conducted today “We have effectively completed the test of the UK-wide Emergency Alerts system, the biggest public communications exercise of its kind ever done. We are working with mobile network operators to review the outcome and any lessons learned."
“While the vast majority of compatible phones received the alert, we are aware that a very small proportion of mobile users on some networks did not receive it and will be looking at this as part of our review of the test.”
“We will also review any other information like the time at which people received the alert.”
A spokes person for the Three mobile network has said "We're aware that a number of customers have not received the test alert. We're working closely with the government to understand why and ensure it doesn't happen when the system is in use."
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