Alert Ready Emergency Message Service

[FidoStephen]

Hey everyone,

Starting April 6, 2018, Alert Ready will be sending life-threatening emergency alerts to cell phones and wireless devices that are compatible with Wireless Public Alerting (WPA).

All wireless service providers will have the capability to distribute emergency alerts directly to WPA-compatible wireless devices using Cell Broadcast distribution.

These alerts will only be sent for threat-to-life situations, and it is not possible to opt out (not that you’d really want to).

In the event of such an emergency, a government issuer will deliver the alert to the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) System, which will deliver it to wireless service providers, or broadcast companies.

In order to receive these alerts, the device must be:

1. An LTE-device
2. Compatible with Wireless public alerting (WPA) (see list of compatible devices below)
3. Connected to an LTE cellular network at the time the emergency alert is issued.

DEVICE COMPATIBILITY

Current compatible devices (if purchased from Fido and the device software is kept up to date):

iPhone 5s/6/6+/6s/6s+/7/7+/8/8+/X

Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2XL

LG Q6, V30, G6

Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, S8, S8+, Note 8, J3, S9, S9+

Huawei P10, P10 Plus, P10 Lite, GR5

You can check out more FAQs here.

Stay safe!

FidoStephen

[CP7]

I have an LGG5 on contract till April 2019. It does not appear on this list. Will you be adding it at some point? 

[Cawtau]

Hello CP7, Welcome to the community! Not all LTE-capable phones are able to receive the alerts. The device needs to have special software embedded in it which allows for messages sent by your service provider, via Cell Broadcast, to be received in the standard Alert Ready format. You would have to contact LG Canada to inquire whether your phone (LG H831) is compatible with the system. For more information regarding the Wireless Public Alerting system you can try https://www.cwta.ca/for-consumers/wpa-sasfp/ . If your phone is not compatible, you might consider downloading an app similar to Alertable. It connects to the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) System that carriers will be using to deliver emergency alerts. See https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/04/06/lte-wpa-april-6-alert-ready/ . Hope this helps :) Cheers

[Jolomar]

How can you turn government alerts off?  I just got two for a missing child in Thunder Bay.  Whilst this is sad,  Thender Bay is a huge distance from where I live.

[pnyknights]

---

---

Same here, 4 alerts now

I swiped to dismiss the notification but the alarm kept going, and the voice read out the whole thing too without anything left on my screen to dismiss it

Good thing I wasn't in any meetings!

The fourth one even sounded off even though I had the phone on vibrate only

[FidoAmanda]

Hey Jolomar and pnyknights! 

Welcome to the Community, Jolomar.

As stated in the blog above, it's not possible to opt out of these messages. Government regulations mandate that all compatible wireless devices receive these alerts.

They can be very specific to a limited area of coverage. If you receive an emergency alert, you are in an area where there is an imminent danger.

Hope this helps! 

[patrickchan]

i can confirm this works with the following

asus zenphone 2 (staples purchase mobile via rogers sim), as prepaid rogers sim

samsung s9+ (purchased via samsung store in edmonton), as per Fido post paid sim

[patrickchan]

i am glad to confirm, it worked in Edmonton, Alberta 28 Nov 2018 at 1355 local time (minus 7 GMT) , on Samsung S9+ (purchased at Samsung store , sim free phone),

[LittleBlackDog]

Recent purchase of an LG G6 a-la-carte (no contract, phone paid in full) for use with my current Fido services this past fall, and can confirm I did receive the November 2018 'Test Alert'. I usually keep my phone set to 'Do Not Disturb', which made it a lot easier to handle (visual alerts only, including the new Alert system's alerts). 

I have to agree with Jolomar here: I'm in Toronto, and I fail to see how my receiving an alert from hundreds of miles away (if we're talking Thunder Bay, Ontario) would allow me to make any meaningful difference in the matter. I did receive an Alert (the first 'real' one since the test in November) this evening, and while it was close to home (what I interpreted as a child (11) abduction, with the perpetrator (41, of the same last name as the youngster) last known to be moving/driving eastbound on the 401), if someone's travelling at speed on a major highway, they could be a long ways from anywhere I could get to, assuming I somehow chanced upon them. 

Regardless of all that, I am glad that this service exists, as there are a lot of people who will receive it, and more than one might make enough of a difference to get someone who's been abducted home or at least away from a place or person with whom they're not safe. It's more important that word does get to someone who will make that difference, than any lack of ability I myself have to do anything about it alone. I would not switch it off on my smartphone, even if I could. Confirmation that it is working, on my LG G6 model phone.

-LBD.

[kathym]

Something needs to change here. It is after midnight I was asleep in bed and I get 4 alarms (amber alerts)which I cant turn off??? We should have a way of turning these things off for sleep etc Now I will have to turn my phone off and rely on home phone, same when I go out will have to turn off if in a place where silence is needed. Next phone I will be looking for one that has a turn off feature

[kathym]

No Fido I don't want a badge I want you to turn off these alerts so we can still use our phone if needed without getting woken up....one pissed off customer

[Willbur]

That is sooo stupid, I work nights I don't want to be woken up for this and your telling me the only way to silence it is to shut off my phone ?  Not very useful that way i might want my phone for a real emergency i could actually help with as opposed to some emergency 300 miles away.  That was kinda why I bought the phone in the first place, to have for emergencys now, I can't even leave it on for fear it'll start screaming at me again at full volume with no way to silence it.  We should have a choice it's one thing to be notified it's another to be harassed, since you can't turn it off I now have a phone that's a paper weight and at best an alarm clock.  May be you'll let us pick which alerts can come through, if not, I'm not sure what i can do.  I hate to think my new phone is garbage but I'm not puting up with this. I work nights, sleeping during the day is difficult enough without being woken up by this. I have to have my phone on to help me look after my aging mother upstairs it's the only way she can contact me, now I can't even use my new phone for that !  LET  US TURN IT OFF OR AT LEAST RECEIVE THEM WITHOUT SOUND NOT EVEN a Simple BEEP !  People in movie theatres must love this, 100 phones suddenly go off at full volume, even if in airplane mode too I bet, and drowned out the movie or office meeting with no way to turn it off or prevent it from doing it again, and again, and again whenever it wants you have absolutely no  control.  Funny I thought it was my phone but apparently not..

[nancyalarose]

I think it is just lazy of you not to allow us to control our own phones. You are pretending that we are the problem for wanting to control the amber alerts when in fact you probably just don't want to figure out how to let us. I had turned off the amber alerts after the last time. The child was in Toronto and I am in Ottawa. That is not geo specific. Also, was sending an amber alert twice because the French wasn't on the 5 a.m. alert an error?  Do I understand correctly that even though I have now turned off all alerts, I will continue to get them unless I remember to silence my phone? I use my phone as an alarm. Not impressed. Figure this out Fido.

[Cawtau]

Hello @nancyalarose, Welcome to the community! While the alerts are relayed via mobile providers, they are not the ones responsible for sending the alerts. The CRTC requires wireless service providers to distribute alerts on all compatible wireless devices connected to an LTE network in the target area. I understand you might not think Ottawa was considered the target area that particular case. However, it was the OPP who decided the alert was to be sent out Province-wide, not the mobile providers. The likely reason they issued the Province-wide alert is because people have been known to travel. Did you realise that the Amber Alert was issued in Sudbury, ON? They could have just as easily continued on the bus to Ottawa if they were not found in Toronto. Or they could have gotten off the bus early and made other arrangements elsewhere. You can get more information at AlertReady.ca Hope this helps

[nancyalarose]

Not addressing what I said. Others are able to disable the amber alerts. I see them saying so on Twitter. The provider is the one who decides. Yes I know it was from Sudbury, yes I know it was province wide, yes I know why these are sent. My question was if I disabled all notifications will I still get the alerts. My other question was is it a mistake that it was sent twice in order to include the French. The answers that you provided above are not answering my questions.

[Cawtau]

Hello again, I'm not sure Twitter is the best source of accurate information... The website provided above (AlertReady.ca) would likely provide better answers than what can be found on Twitter. Contrary to what people might think, the providers do not decide; they merely relay the broadcasts. Government issuer --> NAAD System --> Alert Distributor --> Public. If the Government issuer updates the alert, then another alert goes out with the additional information. In this case, that additional information was the inclusion of French. Not convinced? The exact same alerts were sent to the Alertable app, which is provided directly by PEASI (Public Emergency Alerting System). They have no affiliation with any of the mobile providers. Some phones have settings to disable the alerts (https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-turn-off-amber-alerts/). However, there are conflicting reports as to whether the Canadian System overrides those phone settings or not. According to the AlertReady website, the alerts respect the settings on your phone. That is, a compatible wireless device that is set to silent will display an emergency alert, but will not play the alert tone. However, some people on Twitter and in various forums have noted that they still received the audible tone despite having their phones on silent or with DND enabled. You should be able not receive the Alerts by disabling LTE. Cheers

[Taandr]

And I bought an iPhone 15 Pro Max and I don't even have such settings about notifications and of course there are no notifications either. Is this a bug or is it supposed to be like this?

[FidoLony]

Hey @Taandr, 

we would suggest to get in touch with Apple care to review this! 

[Taandr]

I already wrote to Apple support. They told me that it was the operator's problem and that I should contact Fido. 

[FidoFaiza]

Hi @Taandr,

You can reach us via these methods to further discuss this.