The UK government on Sunday afternoon tried its new emergency alert system on citizens’ mobile phone, spurring a mild apprehension among the populace.
The national emergency alert system saw millions of phone users in the country received a resounding and reverberating alarm on their mobile devices for a few seconds.
The technology was developed by Japanese firm Fujitsu, government officials said.
A 3:00 p.m. timeline was scheduled for the alerts to go off but some people received the alarm on their mobile devices a few minutes before the stipulated time while others received the alerts some minutes late.
The alarm rang for only 10 seconds on millions of phones across several places all over the UK including at entertainment and sporting events such as at Premier League matches.
The alarm also sounded on phones that were switched off. It was accompanied by a message which read: “This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new UK government service that will warn you if there’s a life-threatening emergency nearby.”
Meanwhile, some citizens have taken to social media to complain that they did not receive the alarm on their mobile devices.
The new alarm system is a concept inspired by similar technologies that are already in some countries like Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States which are being used to notify their citizens when any danger to their lives or properties is lurking.
“Keep Calm and Carry On. That is the British way and it is exactly what the country will do when they receive this test alert at 3:00 pm today.
“The government’s number-one job is to keep people safe and this is another tool in the toolkit for emergency situations,” said Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden before the test.