Telefónica and Intersec roll out public warning system in Germany

European public warning system specialist Intersec was chosen by O2 Telefónica to run a new system for alerting German people in times of emergency.

The Public Warning Cell Broadcast system was officially deployed on ‘Nationwide Alert Day’, otherwise known as ‘Warntag’, on 8 December last year, but Intersec only felt confident enough to issue a press release about it today. They broadcast a couple of alert messages from the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief and, while it’s not clear who received them, the system is presumably set up to access all German mobile phone subscribers, regardless of the provider.

“We have selected Intersec because their carrier-grade solution meets all regulatory requirements while being sustainably resilient and scalable,” said Jochen Bockfeld, Director Common Services of O2 Telefónica. “The successful nationwide test of the Cell Broadcast technology as part of the Warntag 2022 has proven the high performance of the alerting solution and the professionalism of the partner.”

The press release bangs on about compliance with data privacy regulations a fair bit, which may indicate the bureaucratic minefield EU providers of such services have to navigate. Cell broadcast technology is designed to instantly send short messages to all phones in a geo-fenced area. It should be identified by phones as an emergency alert and prioritised accordingly, which is especially important at times when networks are heavily utilised, as they’re likely to be in emergencies.

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