Test operation starts

From today, warning text messages will be sent to Styrians

In future, warnings of disasters will be sent via cell phone.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com, Thomas Zeiler, zVg)

After years of delay, a new system is finally starting today: in the event of disasters and crises, the population will be informed via cell phone. The big trial for "AT Alert" will take place on October 5.

The debate has followed almost every natural and severe weather disaster in recent years: could the population have been better prepared if the new cell phone alert system had finally gone live? After all, work on the so-called "cell broadcast" has been going on for years, and promised completion dates have been postponed time and again.

But now the time has come and Austria-wide testing has begun: "We have already successfully tested the system on a virtual level. Now the mobile network operators are activating it," explains Günter Hohenberger, Head of the Styrian State Warning Center. The first Styrians should therefore receive test warnings on their cell phones in the course of this week. "These will be clearly marked as such," says Hohenberger.

Günter Hohenberger (left) heads up the Styrian warning center (pictured with Head of Catastrophe Protection Harald Eitner).

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Big rehearsal on October 5
It will start with small communities that are not close to other federal states (warnings from other federal states could also arrive in border areas). The areas will then be gradually expanded. The big test will take place on October 5 as part of the annual civil protection test alert. Not only will the sirens be wailing, but every cell phone owner should receive a test warning at noon.

Incidentally, no separate app or complicated registration is required to receive the warnings in future, for example in the event of natural hazards such as storms, chemical accidents or sensitive police operations. All you need to do is activate the reception of these messages in your cell phone settings (see image above) - whereby the highest level (emergency alert) cannot be switched off at all.

Every cell phone in a certain region receives the message in the event of an emergency - and later also an all-clear. The advantage over sirens is that specific information about the incident can also be transmitted.