Nationwide warning day: At 11 a.m. the cell phones rang

At 11 a.m. today, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance had all sirens and mobile phones in Germany sound the alarm as a test. A new system was used for the first time.

A test alarm caused many mobile phones to ring at 11 a.m. on the nationwide warning day in Germany. The warning was triggered by the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). Mobile phone owners also received a warning via the cell broadcast system for the first time. At 11:45 a.m. the all-clear was given.

The test alarm was also distributed via radio and television stations. Anyone who installed warning apps such as Nina or Katwarn on their smartphone also received a reference to the test warning in this way.

With the nationwide warning day, the authority wants to find out how many people a warning of dangers would reach in an emergency.

With the cell broadcast method, an automatic notification goes to every mobile device that is switched on at the time, has reception and is running the latest software. Because it was just a test, the people who received the warning didn’t have to do anything.

The first warning day failed

There were many problems on the first nationwide warning day on September 10, 2020. Among other things, the message from the warning apps Nina and Katwarn only arrived on the smartphones a good half hour late. If it had actually been an emergency, many citizens would not have noticed. The Federal Ministry of the Interior had therefore described the test alarm as “failed”.