Seven major U.S. carriers covering 97% of American mobile subscribers will participate in the Wireless Emergency Alert system, but not all mobile phones will be able to receive the alerts. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile USA, Cricket, Cellcom, and U.S. Cellular will start using the system this month. Created by the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and CTIA, the Wireless Emergency Alert system will deliver short messages to users whose phones are enabled to receive them. These will include extreme weather alerts (location-based), Presidential alerts and AMBER alerts, which give information about missing children.
Mobile phones that have the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) logo on the box will be capable of receiving the alerts. Subscribers who do not have phones capable of receiving the alerts may be able to upgrade their phones’ software. The CTIA lists WEA websites for each of the participating carriers to help consumers find out whether they can enable their phones.
The alerts will not be text messages and so should not be affected by congestion on mobile networks. Users whose phones are enabled will be able to set their devices to ignore weather alerts and AMBER alerts, but will not be able to opt out of Presidential alerts.
