A new telephone alert and information system to inform the population in the event of a major crisis (climate, chemical, terrorist risk) will be tested during an exercise of an unprecedented scale, called Domino, in the Bouches-du-Rhône from Monday.
The “FR-Alert” system, never tested in France “on a real population”, represents “an essential technological advance compared to the siren, as important as when we went from the tocsin to the siren”, commented Thursday, during a press conference, the Director General of Civil Security Alain Thirion.
Soon generalized throughout France
This technology will make it possible to reach “all the telephones in a given territory” via a “priority” SMS, which can thwart a possible saturation of the networks, he added. Operational on all telephones from June 2022, “FR-Alert” is intended to be generalized in France.
From May 17 to 18, “people in one of the areas determined by the exercise scenario will be able to receive a notification accompanied by a specific sound signal, even if the mobile phone is in silent mode”, and this without having previously installed any application on the phones, according to Alain Thirion.
The system will be tested during a risk management exercise “of an extraordinary scale”, specified the regional prefect Christophe Mirmand. From Monday to Friday, around the Etang de Berre, more than 1,000 people will be mobilized every day.