AT&T to Send Emergency Alerts to U.S. iPhone 4S/5 Owners [Update: iPhone 4 Users Also Included]

[Aldaris]

You are aware, are you not, of the OFF switches?

As notes earlier in the thread 2/3 can be turned off. Presidential alerts are mandatory.

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The broadcast alert system was not limited to "free over the air" TV and radio. Subscription TV providers (cable and satellite) are also required to participate in the Emergency Alert System. Those guidelines can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, specifically at 47 C.F.R. § 11.11(a).

For cell providers, Congress made the program voluntary. The only reason you'll be "forced to accept" Presidential Alerts is because your cell provider voluntarily decided to participate in the alert program. 47 U.S.C. § 1201(a) ("The [FCC] shall . . . adopt relevant technical standards, protocols, procedures, and other technical requirements . . . to enable commercial mobile service alerting capability for commercial mobile service providers that voluntarily elect to transmit emergency alerts.").

I don't think show time or HBO has been interrupted. The major networks have but nick jr and the like don't.

Again I'm not against it being there, as much as I'm against the lack of the option.

 

[CosmoPilot]

It's amazing Sprint & Verizon have had this for quite some time. However, as soon as AT&T incorporates it, all madness ensues.

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As notes earlier in the thread 2/3 can be turned off. Presidential alerts are mandatory.

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I don't think show time or HBO has been interrupted. The major networks have but nick jr and the like don't.

Again I'm not against it being there, as much as I'm against the lack of the option.

You can turn it off/on and/or utilize Do Not Disturb scheduling. That's a lot of options in my opinion.

 

[marvin4653]

I don't think show time or HBO has been interrupted. The major networks have but nick jr and the like don't.

Again I'm not against it being there, as much as I'm against the lack of the option.

Yes, HBO and Showtime absolutely would be interrupted. Television broadcasters, not individual channels, are the entities that are required to broadcast the message. In other words, it's not HBO that inserts the Presidential Alert; instead, it's Comcast or DirecTV or another television provider that interrupts their current broadcast content with the alert.

The system was tested back in 2011, and here is some of the coverage of that test:

Comcast's message to subscribers:
"This test will last approximately three minutes and will be seen on all local, cable, and satellite TV stations across the country, as well as radio. Your Comcast programming will be temporarily interrupted. However, as soon as the test ends, you will be returned to your regularly scheduled programming."
http://info.xfinity.com/Portal/content/Comcast/Service/2011/11November/10740EAS.aspx

"No matter where you tune in, or what satellite TV channel you're watching, you'll hear the same message and tones: several beeps followed by a message, then more beeps."
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2016716848_eas09m.html

Here's coverage from the New York Times. Notice the picture at the top of this page from the test, showing a TV displaying a message from DirecTV:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/its-only-a-test-but-what-a-test/

You can read reactions of Comcast subscribers who watched the test in this forum; they mention that their set-top boxes were forcibly tuned to a specific station when the alert happened:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26407834-Nationwide-EAS-Test-11-9-2-00-PM-EST~start=60

 

[parseckadet]

I do not want to install this update on my phone especially considering the NSA bs going on. Apple needs to allow people a way to upgrade without this "feature" installing.

Does anyone here seriously think that this update has anything to do with the NSA spying on you? Do you really think that if they needed to update some setting or whatever on your phone that they would really display a message that told you about the update? Put away your tin foil hat and use some common sense for once.

 

[rorschach]

... I agree on 'public' communication systems, like tv radio etc. The president doesn't need to be buzzing in my pants. But seeing your avatar anything I say about your dear leader will cause a roll eyes comment.

Sending a text message is hardly intrusive, and is the natural evolution of existing emergency alert systems.

Besides, in 60 years of operation, no president has ever activated the national EAS -- despite 9/11, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and countless other disasters and incidents.

 

[dforshaw]

I just checked my iPhone 4 MC319LL/A and it looks like they sent out the carrier update for that as well.

I checked my wife's iPhone 4 MC610LL/A and it wasn't there, but as soon as I went to check the Carrier version, it received the update and got the new notifications…

 

[pubwvj]

I _REALLY_ do _NOT_ want this. The problem is what they consider an issue either I don't want to know about or I've already taken care of. I don't want to be told about every amber alert, every tornado warning, every snow storm, etc. This is totally unnecessary and intrusive. It interferes with dealing with real stuff. It is also useless. This sort of thing should be optional. One should be able to opt-out.

We should also be able to opt out of the political announcements. Too bad Congress gave themselves an exemption on the Do-Not-Call list.

 

[firewood]

Anyone care to explain what a Presidential alert might contain?

This system was designed in the cold war era to warn that a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead was heading toward your locale. I think you'd want to know as soon as possible (to run down into an underground shelter, perform last rites appropriate for your religion, etc.)

One might also want to promptly hear those weather alerts for the kind of EF5 tornados that scours houses right off their foundations into splinters is heading in your direction.

If you don't want to hear these alerts, the people around you might want to know so they can take cover while you turn off your annoying phone and wait to get blown apart.

 

[marvin4653]

I _REALLY_ do _NOT_ want this. The problem is what they consider an issue either I don't want to know about or I've already taken care of. I don't want to be told about every amber alert, every tornado warning, every snow storm, etc. This is totally unnecessary and intrusive. It interferes with dealing with real stuff. It is also useless. This sort of thing should be optional. One should be able to opt-out.

We should also be able to opt out of the political announcements. Too bad Congress gave themselves an exemption on the Do-Not-Call list.

It is optional. You can opt-out of all of these alerts on your phone, with the exception of the "Presidential alerts." Presidential alerts are only for "grave emergencies when national communications resources may have been damaged and the survival of the Nation is threatened," and have never been used in the 63-year history of the national emergency alert system.

Take a look back at the main posting of this story, and you'll see that after your phone is updated you'll have toggle switches under Notifications in your Settings app that allow you to turn off these alerts if you don't wish to receive them: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17428758/

I enjoyed reading about your tiny cottage project a while back when I saw the signature on one of your posts in the forums.

 

[Intell]

I _REALLY_ do _NOT_ want this. The problem is what they consider an issue either I don't want to know about or I've already taken care of. I don't want to be told about every amber alert, every tornado warning, every snow storm, etc. This is totally unnecessary and intrusive. It interferes with dealing with real stuff. It is also useless. This sort of thing should be optional. One should be able to opt-out.

We should also be able to opt out of the political announcements. Too bad Congress gave themselves an exemption on the Do-Not-Call list.

You do realize that there is an option to turn them off. And the presidential alerts would only be used in extreme national emergencies. Not for spamming your phone with text messages to vote for the party of current incumbent president.

 

[Juan007]

I also would like to opt out. I will resort to using jailbreak / hacked firmware if needed. My phone belongs to me, and not to the president or anyone else. I don't want to receive spam alerts.

 

[Verbatim Cookie]

Glad I don't have an iPhone, I don't want that communist Obama sending me text messages about the Democrats campaigns. Blah blah Reagan blah blah.

umm those would not fall under presidential alerts.

To me this is just an example of people not understanding what a presidential alert is.

I believe the part of Hastings101's post that I quoted was meant to be satirical. (I wouldn't have gotten it if s/he hadn't included the second sentence, though.)

Anyone care to explain what a Presidential alert might contain? We don't have a President where I live

Well, isn't there a national government where you live? Hasn't your government set up a similar emergency notification system?

 

[Intell]

I also would like to opt out. I will resort to using jailbreak / hacked firmware if needed. My phone belongs to me, and not to the president or anyone else. I don't want to receive spam alerts.

Once again, there is an option to turn them off. And the presidential alerts would only be used in extreme national emergencies. Not for spamming your phone with text messages to vote for the party of current incumbent president.

 

[Dopeyman]

Really! I don't know about updated firmware for FT. But I have jailbroken iPhone to use FT over cellular which have grandfathered plan. I will wait to get updated iOS 7 and try to get FT over cellular, hopefully.

After this emergency news update was when I noticed that I was able to do this.

I was actually looking for that free hotspot that was mentioned earlier. But I still gotta pay for that. This FT over cell is good enough though.

 

[thelatinist]

It is one thing to use the spectrum on public space like tv (when it was/is free) over the air, radio as it is free over the air.

It is ALL public spectrum. As a nation we've decided that one of the best ways to use it is to allocate a portion of it to certain private companies for use in providing cellular telephone service. You paid your cellular telephone company for the service of providing you with voice and data over that spectrum; you didn't buy the exclusive right to its use, and your use is subject to restrictions that we, through our government, have placed on it. For instance, the transmission power of your handset is limited to 2W and it is required to have technology that makes it possible to locate you for E-911 purposes. All perfectly reasonable. And, as I said, you have the ability to opt out by not subscribing to cell service.

But this is really quite silly anyway. AT&T is not even being required to send these messages. It is a service that they have chosen to offer to their customers. AT&T could have chosen not to participate in the program, in which case they would not be able to transmit amber alerts and weather alerts but would not be required to transmit Presidential alerts. But they didn't. AT&T has the right to offer you whatever kind of service they want, and your remedy if you don't like it is not to pay for it. Period.

 

[Juan007]

Once again, there is an option to turn them off. And the presidential alerts would only be used in extreme national emergencies. Not for spamming your phone with text messages to vote for the party of current incumbent president.

Once again, it's my phone, not the President's. National emergency or not, I don't want to be spammed. Also, this can easily be abused in non-emergency situations in the future.

OPT OUT.

 

[marvin4653]

Once again, it's my phone, not the President's. National emergency or not, I don't want to be spammed. Also, this can easily be abused in non-emergency situations in the future.

OPT OUT.

Are you familiar with the Emergency Broadcast System? The often-referenced "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system..." message that's been around since the '50s? These alerts are like that system on your phone. This isn't "spam."

The effectiveness of the Emergency Alert System depends upon the system only being used during emergencies so that people will take the alerts seriously. Federal law and regulations tightly restrict the use of the special warning sounds and messages precisely so that the alerts will be taken seriously if they are needed. For example, with regard to the version of the alerts that are broadcast on television and radio, federal regulations specifically forbid any use of the system under non-emergency conditions (notice how the regulation forbids even the transmission of a simulated version of the alert):

"No person may transmit or cause to transmit the EAS codes or Attention Signal, or a recording or simulation thereof, in any circumstance other than in an actual National, State or Local Area emergency or authorized test of the EAS." 47 C.F.R. § 11.45.

Even if a broadcaster wants to make an announcement to their subscribers explaining how the alert system works, the broadcaster "may not simulate or attempt to copy alert tones or codes." 47 C.F.R. § 11.46.

As many comments have mentioned, the presidential alert system has never been used in 63 years. Easily abused? It's never been used.

 

[thelatinist]

These tinfoil hat people amuse me. They have been given the option to opt out of every type of message that we are likely to receive in your lifetime, but they're fretting over a the fact that they can't opt out of the type of message they won't get except in the direst of emergencies. Anyone who thinks their biggest annoyance if we're under nuclear attack will be an unsolicited message from the President giving them potentially life-saving instructions has got some serious issues.

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I found it interesting that federal regulations prescribe the message tone and vibration pattern that a phone must produce when it receives an alert:

Message tone:
The audio attention signal must have a temporal pattern of one long tone of two (2) seconds, followed by two short tones of one (1) second each, with a half (0.5) second interval between each tone. The entire sequence must be repeated twice with a half (0.5) second interval between each repetition.

For devices that have polyphonic capabilities, the audio attention signal must consist of the fundamental frequencies of 853 Hz and 960 Hz transmitted simultaneously.

Thanks for this info. It makes a lot of sense, though: this is the same pattern of tones and combination of frequencies used in broadcast EAS messages. I imagine that a lot of science went in to finding the combination that would best draw people's attention, and we've been trained by fifteen years of broadcast tests to sit up and take notice when we hear those tones.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

This would've been useful three days ago, when a tornado landed half a mile from my house during the really bad storms we just had.

But nonetheless, at least we finally have WEAs on AT&T.

 

[Dopeyman]

This is a new feature in IOS 7 that they decided to let be available for everyone now.

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AT&T about two weeks ago made FaceTime over wifi available to all customers.

I was not aware of that. Last time I talked to them they said they would never have it for unlimited. Just for the other plans.

 

[xdhd350]

These tinfoil hat people amuse me. They have been given the option to opt out of every type of message that we are likely to receive in your lifetime, but they're fretting over a the fact that they can't opt out of the type of message they won't get except in the direst of emergencies. Anyone who thinks their biggest annoyance if we're under nuclear attack will be an unsolicited message from the President giving them potentially life-saving instructions has got some serious issues.

My sentiments exactly. Back in my days of being a radio dj, I was required to read the EBS test script once a month, verbatim. No alternate wording allowed. The tones also had strict requirements. There was also a red envelope that arrived once a month at the station with the 'authentication code' so we would know for sure if it was ever the 'real deal'.

These messages aren't 'spam'. It's clear from reading this thread that the nation is becoming a bunch of selfish idiots who want to remain clueless in emergencies.

 

[marvin4653]

Thanks for this info. It makes a lot of sense, though: this is the same pattern of tones and combination of frequencies used in broadcast EAS messages. I imagine that a lot of science went in to finding the combination that would best draw people's attention, and we've been trained by fifteen years of broadcast tests to sit up and take notice when we hear those tones.

I think you're right. I couldn't find much information about it, but that two-tone sound was adopted in the early 1970s, replacing an earlier single tone at 1,000 hz. This was one of few contemporaneous comments about the research process that I could find:

The deadline for submission of proposals for consideration by the NIAC special working group [a special national industry advisory committee working group] was September 5, 1963 [this report was published on February 13, 1969!]. Of 13 proposals submitted, four were selected for field testing — Philco, General Electric, CBS ‘Homealert‘, and Zenith. On the basis of these tests, a composite two-tone transmission standard (employing 853 and 960 c./s. audio tones) was recommended by the NIAC special working group for intensive investigation. Recent testing of equipment for the proposed NIAC two-tone system yielded a high percentage of positive responses with no falsing. In re Public Notice Concerning EBS Signaling and Public Alerting System, 16 F.C.C. 2d 666 (Feb. 13, 1969).

It's actually been quite interesting to learn a little bit about the alert system and its history.

 

[thelatinist]

AT&T about two weeks ago made FaceTime over wifi available to all customers.

Do you mean over cellular data? If so, my grandfathered AT&T 4S still tells me that I need to change data plans when I try to turn on that switch in settings. Do I need to update something?

 

[Aldaris]

Or the ones that's aren't clueless and keep up on what's going on through news and what not and would probably be aware of suck an emergency through other channels than having a push notification.

 

[Intell]

Once again, it's my phone, not the President's. National emergency or not, I don't want to be spammed. Also, this can easily be abused in non-emergency situations in the future.

OPT OUT.

While the hardware is yours, the software is licensed from Apple and you're using public radio spectrum in a federally overseen land. They can do what they please to the device.