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Swiss government plans to expand emergency alert system

The Confederation presents its strategy for alerting the public
The Confederation presents its strategy for alerting the public Keystone-SDA

On Thursday, the government presented its multi-channel strategy for better informing the population in the event of danger.

In addition to traditional siren and radio alerts, as well as Alertswiss services, it plans to introduce cellular broadcasting.

This technology enables short messages to be sent to all mobile phones in a given area, explains the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP) in its document.

The war in Ukraine has shown just how important mobile telephony is for communicating and keeping up to date. The FOCP will therefore study the possibility of providing a WLAN network and mobile phone charging facilities at emergency meeting points. These are set up by the authorities when ordinary telecommunications channels are no longer available.

The cost of operating and developing warning and information channels are estimated at CHF300 million up to 2035.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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