On Saturday afternoon (May 2), mobile phones across India beeped in sync. If you’re at home with your family, relaxing, and suddenly all the phones start beeping together, you’ve probably panicked, wondering what the emergency is. However, it was only an experiment with the government’s disaster warning system.
The alert came with the message: “Extremely high alert!” India launches a cell broadcast service using indigenous technology, to provide instant disaster alert service to its citizens. Attention citizens, safe nation. No action is required by the public upon receipt of this message. This is a test message. -Government of India.”
In a post on X on Friday, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) informed citizens of the launch of an advanced public alert framework on May 2, aimed at enabling timely communication during critical situations.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Ministry of Home Affairs, is coordinating this system.
The alert message I received, accompanied by a loud beep, was a test of the same system. The Ministry of Transport on Saturday urged citizens not to panic and made it clear that no action was required on their part.
“If you receive an alert message on your phone, do not panic. This is part of the testing of the emergency alert system so that accurate information can be delivered on time during disasters. During testing, this message may appear repeatedly. Ignore it; you do not need to do anything,” the DoT said.
A similar nationwide test of the emergency alert system was conducted in February this year, when iPhone and Android users reported receiving a “test alert” notification accompanied by a loud beep.
“This is a TEST Cell Broadcast message sent by the National Disaster Management Authority in coordination with the Department of Telecom (DoT), Government of India, as part of the testing of the Cell Broadcast solution for alert dissemination,” the notification said.
