OTTAWA-GATINEAU – All wireless service providers must join Canada’s National Public Alerting System by next April, the CRTC said Thursday.
Emergency alert messages are issued by federal, provincial and territorial governments and emergency management officials to warn the public of imminent threats, such as fires, tornadoes, floods, water contamination and Amber Alerts.
Once the system is in place, wireless public alerting will allow emergency management officials to send alerts to mobile devices connected to LTE networks, which the CRTC said are now available to over 97% of Canadians. Once an alert has been distributed, Canadians will hear the same alert tone as they currently do on radio and TV, but alerts on mobile devices will also trigger a unique vibration cadence plus will contain a bilingual banner.
The Commission also directed the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) to resolve the outstanding issues before the mandatory distribution of emergency alert messages begins, and draft a public awareness campaign to educate the 30 million Canadian wireless subscribers on this new initiative. CISC must submit a progress report by July 5 and a final report by October, 3, 2017, detailing a proposed awareness campaign and test schedule.
The exact launch date for the distribution of alerts will be announced once the wireless industry has met the applicable standards and all required functionalities are in place, continued the CRTC.
“The Commission is working with the wireless industry and our partners in federal, provincial and territorial governments to provide Canadians with a reliable and efficient wireless public alerting system, as soon as possible”, said CRTC chair and CEO Jean-Pierre Blais, in a statement. “The National Public Alerting System is vital to Canadians, it has saved countless lives, including those of children through Amber Alerts. Once the system is in place, an even greater number of Canadians will receive alerts on their mobile phones and will be able to take appropriate safety measures.”
The wireless public alerting standard adopted by Canada has already been adopted by governments including the European Union, the United States of America, Israel, Chile and Japan.
Canadian broadcasters and television service providers have been distributing emergency alerts since 2015 through the Alert Ready system. The CRTC last September released an interactive map detailing which TV service providers plus radio and TV stations distribute emergency alert messages.
