New mobile alert tested in Stockholm and Gotland

Did your mobile phone recently emit a loud signal? You were not alone, SVT reports. The sound was part of the first test of the Agency for Civil Defence’s new SE-Alert warning system, which reached 2.6 million phones in and near Stockholm and Gotland counties.

The alert combined a beep with vibration and a warning message on the screen. It was issued alongside the regular test of Hesa Fredrik, Sweden’s traditional outdoor warning siren, on the first Monday of September.

Initially for the most serious incidents

SE-Alert will initially be used for particularly serious events when the public needs to be warned, such as an industrial accident or a nuclear accident.

“At the moment, we only use it in the event of a serious accident, such as an industrial accident or a nuclear accident. The threshold may be lowered once we have finished testing this,” Mikael Frisell, the agency’s director-general, said on SVT’s Morgonstudion programme.

The long-term aim is for ordinary VMA alerts, or important messages to the public, to be distributed through the system.

Will complement Hesa Fredrik

SE-Alert will not replace the familiar Hesa Fredrik siren. According to the Agency for Civil Defence, the traditional warning reaches only about 50 per cent of the population.

“Here, we can warn people in a completely different way and also limit the warning to a specific area. It should be seen as a complement,” Frisell said.

Warnings can be disabled

Before the test, Roks, the national organisation for women’s and girls’ shelters, warned that the alert could reveal hidden phones belonging to women exposed to violence.

Frisell said the agency would hold talks with Roks after the test.

“We are fully aware of this situation. My advice and recommendation is to turn off the phone if it is hidden and you are in a destructive relationship,” he said.

Most alerts can also be disabled, apart from the highest level of warning. Users can adjust some notifications in their phone settings so that the phone only sounds for an air-raid warning, which indicates danger to life.

Some phones will not receive the alert

SE-Alert reaches phones through a radio broadcast via mobile phone masts, which means phones in flight mode will not receive the warning.

Some older smartphones will also be excluded. According to the Agency for Civil Defence, Apple users need an iPhone 11 or newer, and the phone must have the latest updates installed.

A new nationwide test is expected in December. The warning system can already be used in a real emergency.