Government alerts in my iPhone?

I got that alert on my iPhone as well, and I just checked Notifications and I also have the new "Government Alerts" toggles.

The alert didn't really help, I live 1/2 a block from the bay, and 4 blocks from the ocean, I kinda know that I'm at risk for flooding.
THANKS OBAMA

EDIT: It seems we both have T-Mobile, so that may be the cause.

 

They are available on carriers with certain phones. AT&T for example doesn't have these kind of alerts for the iPhone, but it's available on some other phones.

 

I get alerts from time to time using a flip phone & iPhone on Verizon. Tornado warning, and high winds in Florida. Normally late/early morning hours.

 

Correct. It's an ios6 feature, depending on the carrier from my understanding.

http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/2670/20120616/ios-6-features-government-alerts-emergency-weather.htm

 

It's only on T-Mobile, from what I know. Sucks, AT&T should have the same on the iPhone.

 

Sprint users have it too. All 6 of them.

 

Sigh - so many wrong answers...

It's called CMAS and its' genesis pre-dates the current administration.

It's not a iOS feature, but iOS does now support it.

Various carriers have deployed CMAS, ATT is not one of them.

Versions of CMAS and CMAS-like systems have been deployed around the world.

There are existing threads on this, search.

 

thanks for clearing it up, worst thing i ever see around here are wrong or misinformed answers.

on a side note, yes ios6 now supports it and it is deployed on money carriers who support its use. i know for a fact Verizon and Sprint support it, as i get the notifications as well as my buddy on Sprint with a droid device.

 

Verizon does support it. We had an Amber alert here a couple of weeks ago while my wife and I were watching TV and good God! It made the most hideous sound! I thought it was the TV going bezerk. As soon as I figured out what it was I turned it off. If I had been asleep I would probably have had a heart attack.

 

Sort of a tangent, but did they ever find the kids? We were driving when the alert hit. Heard it in the radio, saw billboards, and my wife got it on her vzw line. I didn't hear anything after that night though.

 

I am a AT&T customer and was roaming and got an alert.

I was in Japan a few months ago and my phone woke me up making a sound I had never heard it make before and then the earthquake hit.


Pretty cool I got the notification a few seconds before I felt the shaking.

Edit: However it was all in Japanese but it wasn't hard to guess what the message was about.

 

Yes they did find the kids the next day.

 

Yesterday during Tropical Storm Andrea, my co-workers with Sprint iPhones were getting these CMAS alerts throughout the day, but none of us with Verizon or T-Mobile got them (even though we have the option in Notifications to turn the alerts on/off).

Guess there are some other variables involved.

 

It all depends whether or not you are in that specific area. I believe it issues alerts based on towers, as opposed to your phone's GPS which is a good thing, saves battery life.

I have T-Mobile, and I got that alert yesterday, too.

 

That's ETWS - Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System, a precursor to CMAS which I'm fairly sure started in Japan.

Yes, it can warn you before the quake is felt.

That sounds like a mis-configuration on Sprint's side (or on Verizon/TMobs side, but less likely).

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VERY quick CMAS description:

* Warning agency (NWS for example) defines a warning area by drawing a shape on a map (circle, box, rectangle, etc), and warning text

* Cells that serve that shape transmit the warning message

That's it. The phone are always listening for the message, if you move out of the warned shape area, you won't get the alert.

Now, I had assumed that the co-workers in the previous reply were all in the same location. If not, that would explain the difference in warnings. Alternatively, if Sprint's cells were to be bigger, then the warning area will be bigger as well.

 

A few weeks ago I got an Amber alert on my 4S and finally had to turn the setting off. I got about 15 or so in less then two hours while I was at work and it was just too annoying. Some of those alerts came within five minutes of each other.

 

This sounds like something incredibly useful. I'm surprised all the carriers are not on-board, it doesn't even sound like something hard to implement.

 

I also got warnings on my 4S and my Nexus 4 for blizzard warnings. The only problem is is that once a warning came through at 5AM. The national weather service apologized for sending the warning way too early which was 24hrs in advance.

 

I'm on Sprint and I got a Flash Flood notification yesterday, that was the second time I recieved an alert, the first one was for a Blizzard Warning.

Interestingly enough, I got no alert for Hurricane Sandy, nor did I get an alert for a Tornado Warning we had.

 

Yep. Wish my carrier (Rogers/Fido) here in Canada had this feature. It is indeed useful.

 

i just installed the iOS 7 ip5 beta and AT&T now has these alerts. We didnt have them before.

 

I just got my first alert on my Verizon 4S ever. It was about flooding...

 

Not sure why anyone would think these are a bad thing......

I about one a month on Sprint.