{"id":103920,"date":"2025-08-30T23:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T23:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103920\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T23:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T23:43:13","slug":"time-and-date-when-millions-of-mobile-phones-will-go-off-at-once-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103920\/","title":{"rendered":"Time and date when millions of mobile phones will go off at once | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of mobile phones will sound in unison across the United Kingdom when an emergency alert system<\/a> is tested next week. The second ever national alert test<\/a> will take place at around 3pm on Sunday September 7, in what the Government calls \u201cone of the largest public safety exercises of its kind\u201d.<\/p>\n

Phones will vibrate and emit a siren-like tone for ten seconds, with a test message appearing on screens to make clear the alert is only a drill. Planned for Sunday afternoon, the timing has been carefully chosen by emergency planners in COBR, to minimise disruption to work and school routines.<\/p>\n

Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: \u201cNext Sunday will be one of the UK\u2019s largest public safety exercises in history, as we ensure the Emergency Alerts system is ready to help keep the country safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe test alert will be issued by COBR, the government\u2019s emergency planning team whose work usually takes place behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmergency Alerts have the power to save lives. In real life emergencies, it\u2019s vital to rapidly share warnings and advice, which is why we keep the system on standby 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n

COBR brings together ministers, senior officials and expert planners to coordinate the national response during major incidents.<\/p>\n

Since the Emergency Alerts system was launched in April 2023, it has been used five times to warn of life-threatening danger, including during Storm \u00c9owyn in January 2025, when 4.5 million people across Scotland and Northern Ireland received an urgent warning of extreme conditions.<\/p>\n

The system has also proved invaluable in local emergencies. In Plymouth, more than 10,000 residents were evacuated in hours after an unexploded Second World War bomb was discovered.<\/p>\n

Only 4G and 5G enabled phones and tablets will receive the alert next Sunday. Devices also need to be turned on and within range of a mobile phone mast.<\/p>\n

The message will say: \u201cThis is a test of Emergency Alerts, a UK government service that will warn you if there\u2019s a life-threatening emergency nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not need to take any action. In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

It follows the publication of the government\u2019s Resilience Action Plan, which sets out plans for a \u00a31 billion new network of National Biosecurity Centres and \u00a34.2 billion to strengthen flood defences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of mobile phones will sound in unison across the United Kingdom when an emergency alert system is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50578,50576,49,50,1414,50579,51,47,52,48,50577,1415],"class_list":["post-103920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cobr","tag-emergency-alerts","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics-section","tag-public-safety-exercise","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-national-alert-test","tag-uk-politics-section"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}