THUNDER BAY -- Starting early next month, critical and potentially life-endangering situations will prompt an ominous-sounding alert on Tbaytel customers' smartphones.
The company, along with wireless providers across the country, is joining the National Public Alerting System on April 6.
Tbaytel spokesperson Katie Crowe says it's the result of an order from the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, and follows a similar order issued to TV and radio stations a few years ago.
Alerts will be distributed on wireless networks for situations that pose an immediate threat to life.
In an interview Monday with Tbnewswatch, Crowe said these include "natural disasters such as floods or forest fires that are imminent in your area, that could require evacuation. It certainly involves Amber Alerts where the life of a child is in danger."
The alerts, she said, "will be specific to where you are...just warning of imminent danger and with instructions on what people need to do."
Crowe said the alarm signal will be the same one that's currently used on TV and radio.
The system, designed to work with devices connected to an LTE network, only functions when a smartphone is turned on, and has not been muted.
However, if an alert is still in effect, the alarm will sound when a device is powered up. "The alert keeps being sent as long as the information is current and there is still imminent danger," Crowe said.
She said most Tbaytel mobility customers currently use LTE network-enabled devices.
The federal and provincial governments have jurisdiction over the issuing of emergency alerts and who is authorized to issue them.
The Alert Ready website lists a wide variety of scenarios under which the public could be notified about emergencies, including dangerous weather, urban or industrial fires, hazardous spills and terrorist attacks.
A test of the system will be conducted across Ontario on May 7, 2018.
More information is available online at alertready.ca and at Tbaytel.net/alertready.
