The Government has launched a communication campaign to promote FR-Alert, its mobile emergency alert system to inform the population in a danger zone. There is nothing to install to benefit from it.
Operational since June 21, 2022, the FR-Alert general alert system is not yet well known by the French, despite its automatic deployment on all mobile phones. This is why the Government is launching a communication campaign via social networks, YouTube or even TV spots. Many municipalities are currently carrying out full-scale tests. In the test phase since April, EN-Alert was fully deployed at the end of June throughout France and the overseas departments, for owners of smartphones equipped with 4G and 5G – and by the end of the year for 2G and 3G devices. Set up by the Government, this emergency information system allows the authorities (police forces, emergency services, etc.) to send real-time notifications to the mobile phones of people in an area affected by to danger. The populations are then quickly informed that an incident has taken place or that there is a danger nearby, so that they can react accordingly. It is used in the event of an absolute emergency (natural or industrial disaster, attack, serious road accident, chemical or nuclear accident, etc.).
Many countries – Japan, the United States and even some European countries – have had such an alert system for a long time. But France has long been reluctant to implement it because of the many costs it generates. However, this device became mandatory due to the adoption of a European directive of 2018 which set a deadline for implementation on June 21, 2022. This is why the Ministry of the Interior waited so long to launch FR-Alert. The alert system was announced after the Lubrizol factory fire in Rouen in 2019, and was tested for several months.
As the Ministry of the Interior explains in its press release, FR-Alert is a system that alerts populations to report “any type of major event justifying alerting the population concerned for safety”. As soon as a person is in the area facing immediate danger, the device sends them alert notifications to their mobile phone – under Android and iOS – accompanied by a fairly strident sound signal, including when the mobile is in silent mode – however, it does not work if the device is switched off or in airplane mode. Users with traditional telephones receive an SMS. FR-Alert provides information on:
- nature risk (a fire, a flood, an industrial accident, etc.);
- the authority issuing the alert;
- the location of the danger (establishment, district, municipality, agglomeration, department, etc.);
- the attitude to adopt (stay at home, evacuate the area, etc.);
- if necessary a link to obtain additional information on an official website.
“This tool is complementary to existing alert systems in France (more than 2,000 sirens connected to remote triggering software, activation of TV and radio media for broadcasting alert and information messages on their antennas as well as the mobilization of institutional accounts on social networks, etc.) and constitutes an appropriate response to a wide scope of risks and threats” emphasizes the Ministry of the Interior. All this information and measures allow rescuers to save precious time in a crisis situation where every second counts.
What types of events are affected by FR-Alert?
All types of events justifying alerting the population for safety are concerned by FR-Alert, namely:
- Natural disasters: flood, storm and cyclone, fire, tsunami, volcanic eruption, hurricane…
- Biological and chemical events: pollution, leak of gas or dangerous products, nuclear incident…
- Health events: epidemic, pandemic, agri-food incident, etc.
- Technological and industrial accidents: failure of telecommunications systems, serious accidents on road, rail or air networks, industrial incident…
- Serious public security event
- Act of a terrorist nature: attack…
In these emergency situations, the Government sends an information message to the State portal. This alert is immediately transferred to the mobile telephone operators, who in turn broadcast it to the antennas of the network covering the danger zone, by cellular broadcasting (technology known as Cell Broadcast) – the message is broadcast via telecommunications antennas in the form of radio waves, on a dedicated channel – and via geolocated SMS – the message is broadcast via relay antennas identified in the sector to be alerted by the SMS Centre. The two technologies are complementary and allow optimal distribution. However, delivery times may vary depending on the phone brand, carrier, and location of the person.
The implementation of FR-Alert follows the failure of the application SAIP (population alert and information system). Indeed, given that it was necessary to download an application, few people were aware, and therefore concerned by the alerts. And even for those using SAIP, the system was not very functional, as evidenced by the attacks of July 14, 2016 in Nice. The alerts had indeed only been broadcast a few hours after the killing…
To overcome these problems and ensure that the vast majority of the population is alerted, this time there is no application to install on the smartphone. For iPhone owners, an update of the operator’s settings was normally requested via SMS in June, in order to allow the mobile to display these alerts. For those who bought an iPhone after the alert system went live, FR-Alert is already activated on the device. For Android smartphones, no manipulation has been done, because they are already configured in this way by default.
What to do in case of an alert notification?
The alert notification includes safety instructions to protect against this danger – sheltering, evacuation, sealing of entrances and windows, etc. – and to facilitate the work of the emergency services and the police. . A link to an official website generally provides additional information. Upon receipt of the alert, it is therefore important to familiarize yourself with all of this information and to perform the actions and behaviors indicated in order to protect yourself and reduce the risk of exposure to danger.