Cell broadcast on warning day: New program is being tested - it could have already saved lives
Created: 08/12/2022 15:28
By: Victoria Krumbeck
"Cell Broadcast" is the name of the system that can play warning messages on the cell phone in an emergency.
In Germany it was tested on the warning day, in other countries it has been used successfully for years.
Munich – On the nationwide warning day, the sirens should be wailing in many cities and the “Call Broadcast” system on cell phones should be tested.
But the warning day was not successful everywhere, because some mobile devices remained silent.
The flood disaster in the Ahr Valley showed that the warning messages in Germany hardly work and that improvements are necessary.
The "cell broadcast" system could possibly have saved the lives of many people back then, as examples from other countries also show.
Warning day: "Cell broadcast" saved thousands of lives
More than 180 people lost their lives in the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley.
Some of them could still be alive today if the people in the flood areas had been given better and quicker warnings.
Apps like Katwarn or Nina did send warnings, but these came too late or didn't appear.
The "Cell Broadcast" system is designed to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again.
Alert message on a mobile phone.
© Rolf Poss/IMAGO
Japan is considered a pioneer in warning systems.
The Great Kumamoto earthquake in 2016 completely destroyed 8,667 buildings and severely damaged 34,643.
Thousands of people sought refuge in sports halls and hotels due to the seven-magnitude tremor.
Despite the severe quake, the number of fatalities remained low in relation to the extent of the natural disaster.
A total of 49 people died, but the severe earthquake could have killed many more people.
Many were saved by the Japanese emergency warning system.
Kumamoto earthquake in Japan: People were warned by cell broadcast
"J-Alert" is the name of the system that has been warning Japanese citizens via a wide variety of channels since 2007, as reported by the
editorial network Germany
.
A comprehensive earthquake early warning system has been in place since 2013.
For the warning messages, data from measuring stations on land and in the sea are collected on measuring devices.
These are then forwarded to radio, TV stations, authorities or directly to mobile devices via "cell broadcast".
And all of that in five languages.
Many of the people who survived the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan said they received the first alert on their cell phones.
"Cell Broadcast" is also establishing itself as a successful system in other countries.
In a November 2019 test in New Zealand, around 87 percent of the population received a warning signal on their mobile phones.
In the Netherlands it was even 94 percent in a test.
Cell broadcast alerts should reach everyone
Warning messages are sent directly to the mobile devices via "cell broadcast", as the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) informs.
The messages are sent in certain sections of a mobile network, so-called radio cells.
Normally, each device registers itself automatically in a radio cell.
In this way, the central distributor of a radio cell can send warning messages to all mobile radio devices.
No other apps are required for the process, the alerts appear automatically on the mobile devices.
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"Cell broadcast" can reach countless recipients at the same time.
Even if the radio cells are overloaded, this has no effect on the transmission of the warning messages.
However, it is important that the mobile phone is not in flight mode.
After "Cell Broadcast" is to be introduced as a new warning device at the end of February 2023.
The warning is triggered via the modular warning system operated by the federal government and used by the states and municipalities.
Not all devices can receive the "Cell Broadcast Messages", such as older Apple models.
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