Mysterious messagesent to mobile phones from BG-ALERT, scared many Bulgarians last night. The message received by some of the customers of one of the mobile operators warns of an impending danger. This morning, the Ministry of the Interior released to the media a position provided by the contractor involved in the implementation of the BG-ALERT system. It states that inin connection with planned national tests of the BG-ALERT system for early warning through mobile networks, preliminary tests were conducted on November 1 from 18:55 to 19:00. Due to “human error”, two different messages were sent over the network of one of the mobile operators and were received by their end customers. From the company apologize to the population and all concerned parties and institutions for the anxiety and inconvenience caused. And they add: “After the established functionality of the system, we hope that in the future it will be an important tool for notifying the population in the event of disasters and accidents”.
They are coming in November tests of the BG-ALERT system, it is clear from the schedule published on the website of the system. The purpose of the tests is to verify the functioning of the system, as well as for the population to gain an idea of the messages and their accompanying behavior on mobile devices. For the regions Vidin, Vratsa, MontanaLovech and Pleven testing will be on November 14. During each test for half an hour from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m., a message containing text in Bulgarian and English will be broadcast. The receipt of the message on the mobile device is expected to be one-time and accompanied by a specific sound and vibration, even with silent mode enabled. On November 29, a national test will take place throughout the country.
BG-ALERT is a system for the distribution of messages to warn the population in case of dangerous events (disasters, emergency situations and others posing a threat to life, health or property) through the networks of mobile operators to the end devices of citizens (mobile phones, tablets and some smartwatches. BG-ALERT is a supplement to the existing National Early Warning and Disclosure System.
