The system is intended to complement existing channels for VMA (Important Message to the Public) such as radio, television, apps and the warning signal Hesa Fredrik.
“It is a new way to warn the population of acute, imminent danger. It is a new, additional capability in civil defense,” says Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Minister of Civil Defense (M) at a press conference.
This is based on experiences drawn from Ukraine, where, since the start of the full-scale invasion, they have had a good ability to quickly reach the population with warning messages that allow people to seek protection.
Hard to miss
The new warning system is expected to reach mobile phones in more than 95 percent of Sweden’s area. No app is needed; the warning system is activated automatically through system updates from Apple and Android. It should work for all mobile phones from 2016 or newer as long as they are updated.
The sound is different from text messages or push notifications.
It doesn’t sound like anything else and will therefore be hard to miss, says Bohlin.
The ability to send mass text messages already exists, but the system is often overloaded. One such example is the fire at the Oceana water park in Gothenburg a couple of years ago, when in some cases it took up to 24 hours for the text messages to arrive.
Major information campaign
The system will be implemented on July 1 and an extensive information campaign will begin on Monday. In September, the new alarm is planned to be tested for the first time alongside the regular Hesa Fredrik signal.
Then we will see whether it is in all of Sweden or only in certain geographical areas. But the goal is to test full-scale with both Hesa Fredrik and SE-Alert on the phone, says Mikael Frisell, Director General of the Swedish Civil Defence Agency.
Similar systems exist in many other countries and have been high on the wish list of both the Minister of Civil Defense and the Swedish Civil Defense Agency.
The fact is that when I took over as Director General a year and a half ago and we started talking about the protection of civilians, I personally began to push this issue. The Government Offices were thinking the same way when we started to focus on the protection of civilians. So this was met in a good way, says Mikael Frisell.
SE-Alert is based on a technology that reaches everyone in an area at the same time, without sending to individual phone numbers. The only requirement is that the mobile phone is connected to the mobile network, updated with the latest software, and turned on.
SE-Alert has four levels, the highest of which, flight alert, cannot be turned off. Although other levels can be turned off, it is recommended that you do not.
The senders are the same people who issue VMA today, such as the police, the Swedish Transport Administration and the emergency services.
The system will begin to be implemented in stages this summer and will be fully operational by the turn of the year.
