Emergency officials will soon be able to warn millions of Canadians of imminent threats such as fires or Amber Alerts by sending mass alerts to their mobile phones.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Thursday it will require all wireless providers to participate in a national public alerting system on their LTE networks, which are available to 97 per cent of Canadians. Wireless providers have one year to implement the system that will reach more than 30 million wireless subscribers.
The Big Three providers – BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. – all participated in consultations and support the creation of such a system, which builds on the radio and television emergency alert system in operation since 2014. Given the proliferation of mobile devices, officials have been working to send alerts via mobile networks.
Emily Jackson – Financial Post-April 6, 2017
Want More Investigative Content?
