Wireless emergency alerts one year later, are Canadians safer?
The wireless emergency alert system in Canada has made significant improvements, showing that Canadians are safer today than they were last year.
Alertable is the only commercial emergency alerting platform that is fully integrated with Canada’s national public alert system, Alert Ready.
Alertable is a smart emergency alert platform for notifying more people of disasters and hazards. Traditional ways of alerting the public to emergencies like through TV and radio are still appropriate but are becoming less effective as people ‘cut the cord’.
And while new smartphone wireless alerting is a positive step forward, not all smartphones are compatible with this new technology. And you will not be alerted if away from home or work, or if your phone is silenced. Also, wireless alerts are only sent for active threats, not developing ones, leaving little time for preparation and prevention.
Communities that have phone-calling, SMS and email alerting systems have experienced low adoption rates since you need to sign-up before you can receive alerts, which many people 1) forget to do, 2) mean to do but never do or 3) don’t want to do (for privacy reasons, since personal phone numbers and email addresses must be supplied). Those that have signed-up have reported instances of not receiving alerts late at night when their phone is silenced (volume switch off, do-not-disturb on, etc) and they don’t hear the phone call, text or email come in.
Enter Alertable. Alertable provides more ways to notify people of threats. A mobile app with an “Override Silent Mode” feature for critical alerts, website and social media feeds are already available. Integration with smart speakers like Alexa echo, Apple HomePod and Google Home devices are planned as are chat bots for online communications platforms like Slack, Facebook Messenger and WhatApp are just a few ways Alertable is planning to notify the public differently.
Alertable is the only commercial emergency alerting platform that is fully integrated with Canada’s national public alert system, Alert Ready. People with smartphones that are not compatible with Alert Ready’s new wireless alerting can still be notified with Alertable. For those that do have compatible phones, Alertable still provides a way to receive a wireless alert when away from home or work. Alertable also provides much more value information than can be fit into a wireless alert message.
And, emergency management officials using Alertable to send alerts to the public can have those alerts broadcast on TV, radio and wireless message since Alertable has been granted trusted feed status with the Alert Ready system. In fact, Alertable is the only commercial alerting system on the market that has been granted that status.
Take care. Be prepared.
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