Federal Council wants to modernize mobile phone alerts in case of disasters

The Federal Council wants to modernize the way it warns people in the event of a disaster and adapt it to changing habits. To that end, he's expanding alerts through mobile phones and other digital channels. Existing alarm systems should be retained.

She said the state government discussed the Defense Department's strategy on the issue at a meeting on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Federal Council tasked the department with submitting proposals for consultation in the first half of next year.

The Federal Council wants to improve alerts for the population, in particular through the introduction of new mobile phone alerts using cellular radio technology. The technology is based on mobile networks and can send text messages of approximately 500 characters in each language to all mobile phones within antenna range.

Applications still matter

In addition, the Alertswiss app and its website, already used by 2.2 million people, will be further developed. Regarding sirens, the Federal Council believes that they should remain an important part of the warning system. In particular, they have high reliability.

The states are currently responsible for this. The Federal Council now wants clarity from the Ministry of Defense on how costs and responsibilities will be allocated in the future.

The Federal Office for Civil Protection (Babs) presented the basic principles of the multi-channel strategy at a media conference in July.

The federal government estimates that an additional CHF 213 million will be needed between 2027 and 2035. Additional financing should also be part of the advisory template.

Warning via radio

The strategy also includes emergency muster points, as most states already have emergency muster points. In addition, radio stations will continue to be obliged to broadcast warning messages in the future. According to Wednesday's communique, radio warnings remain important, particularly in the event of a failure in the mobile phone network or power supply.

The SRG transmitter is connected to the Babs operating system. Since 2023, the federal office has also been operating a system for transmitting reports to private broadcasters.

FM emergency radio is too expensive

However, the Federal Council no longer wants to continue operating very shortwave emergency radios (VHF) in shelters. He explained that the system would be expensive to maintain, even in a war scenario, and Babs believed that short, quick stays in shelters were more likely than staying in shelters for weeks and months on end. .

The decision on FM broadcasting also corresponds to an earlier announcement by the federal office. “There is no point in maintaining FM if everyone stops listening to FM,” Babs director Michaela Schärer said when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency in July. Converting to DAB+ will involve very high investment costs and will result in little additional benefit.

(Standard Data Authority)

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