OAKVILLE – This is why we have tests. The new Alert Ready emergency alert system underwent its first two large public tests today over wireless and they didn’t work as planned.
No one in Quebec received an alert at the scheduled time on their phones and in Ontario, many did, but many did not.
In Quebec, Pelmorex, the company which created and operates the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) System, identified a small coding error – an extra space in the code – as the reason why the system failed to send out the alert to all Quebecers with compatible wireless devices. The alerts were successfully sent out on TV and radio, however.
In Ontario, the Alert Ready partners are still investigating what happened, how many did receive the test – and why so many wireless devices did not receive the test alert.
Judging from the large reaction on Twitter and among many people we asked on Monday, we can’t readily identify any correlation among those who received or did not receive the test message. People using various devices with various carriers received, and didn’t receive the message. We heard reports of some families who own the same devices on the same carrier where some family members got the alert and some didn’t.
Any rumours you see on social media saying certain carriers didn’t send out the alert as planned or that some major manufacturers’ devices are incompatible should be summarily dismissed. The Alert Ready partners are investigating.
Cartt.ca will have more on this as the problems are clarified and on what fixes are planned.
It’s not known at this time if the tests set for May 9th across the rest of Canada will be delayed.
