For everyone who claims that sms text messaging is dying, this is the latest solution from the Swedish authorities…
But I can bet my ass, that it will not work on Sailfish phones. 
To receive VMA via SE-Alert you need to
-have a smartphone that is newer than 2016 and updated with the latest software
-be connected to the mobile network
-be in the area covered by a VMA.
Sorry for Swedish site text, but you can probably use Firefox translation or something similar.
I already sent them a message, because I’m kind of pissed of by the Swedish authorities disrespect and lack of democratic consideration.
Fellow Swedes! Please use my message as inspiration, and send them your own ‘bitch slap’.
Here it is…
Topic: SE-alert
Vad händer om jag har valt att inte använda något av de amerikanska övervakningssystemen på min mobil?
Själv har jag valt det enda helt Europeiska alternativet, Sailfish OS (13 år gammalt Finländskt projekt, f.d. Nokia-system), och jag utgår utan vidare ifrån att jag inte kommer att få några varningar. Vad har ni för avsikt att rätta till detta missförhållande?
Med vänlig hälsning
xxxxx
E-post: kontakt at mcf.se
There are improvements in the area though:
This is not MCF doing the wrong technology choice - it is about as standard as it gets.
If it does not work that’s on SFOS, +/- hard-to-integrate android drivers.
Wow, that is much more than I had expected, but then again, why on earth do we always have to adapt to google/apple standards? Android drivers shouldn’t rule our world.
So again, I think European governments should do things in a platform independent way. You and me (or Jolla) shouldn’t have to bend over to the amerikans yet one more time.
I think you’re barking up the wrong tree here. Cell broadcast is not a google/apple way of doing things, it’s an ETSI standard. You would be hard pressed to find something more European and/or platform independent in the mobile space than the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.
I think the whole idea is beyond stupid. In some areas they have replaced, or want to replace, the old system “Hesa Fredrik” (think air raid siren) with this. The first sign of foreign attack will likely be a inoperative cell network. Just how is this system a good idea?
We have had this system already in place for 2-3 years now in Norway:
That’s not the case here. If i’m mistaken, please back up your claim with sources.
Citation needed.
Ok, then I stand corrected, and that is somehow a relief.
Actually the support for cell broadcasts in SFOS was implemented (and even tested with a test alert in NL) many years ago, it’s just that there was no UI for subscribing to particular topics (message identifiers). But you could subscribe from the command line if you knew how.
EU-Alert message identifiers are listed e.g. in Wikipedia (or TS 123 041 and TS 102 900 if you prefer reading the specs).
Hopefully soon there will be a convenient UI for that.
NL-alerts are hit or miss for me, I’ve only received the monthly test message once.
Anyway Nephros has made a GUI for managing the subscribed channels a while back: Is there any way to disable cell broadcast messages? - #14 by nephros
Can you point at the command to subscribe to the hex codes described in Wikipedia?
This command subscribes the first slot /ril_0 to EU-Alert levels 1-4 (note that wikipedia gives identifiers in hex, ofono takes decimals):
dbus-send --system --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=org.ofono /ril_0 org.ofono.CellBroadcast.SetProperty string:Topics variant:string:"4370-4378,4384-4391,4396"
and this command checks the current subscriptions:
[defaultuser@Xperia10II-DualSIM ~]$ dbus-send --system --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=org.ofono /ril_0 org.ofono.CellBroadcast.GetProperties
method return time=1779549450.282466 sender=:1.9 -> destination=:1.5661 serial=19935 reply_serial=2
array [
dict entry(
string "Powered"
variant boolean true
)
dict entry(
string "Topics"
variant string "4370-4378,4384-4391,4396"
)
]
[defaultuser@Xperia10II-DualSIM ~]$
if your country has a test alert system, you can add identifier of the test alert topic to that list and verify that it (hopefully) works
Here you go: Flera kommuner saknar Hesa Fredrik – Norsjö kan få mobil-larm i stället | SVT Nyheter
(site won’t open in sfos browser and could be unavailable outside sweden)
My point was that I believe it to be a bad idea to rely on the mobile network to always be working in crisis situations. It will be the first thing to go down if we’re ever attacked.
The communication infra is equipped with UPS and diesel generators and is very distributed. No, it’s not the first thing that does down, as Ukrainian practice shows. The electricity in your home may disappear but mobile phones typically keep working until they run out of battery.
During the blackout of 2025 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout - Wikipedia the mobile phones (including mobile internet) worked for about 4 hours (in my place) after electricity was cut in the entire country.
Thank you for raising that situation. I think it must be one of the most interesting modern stories of societal technical disruption. I really believe there’s a lot to learn from studying it, but I understand that it’s sensitive from a security standpoint. The way things are in Europe right now.
That says they might not build out Hesa Fredrik in some places - nothing about replacing.
They also call SE-Alert an app, which is false.
It should not be only about foreign attacks but also about other catastrophes, be it local or nationwide, caused by nature or man. But I can tell only about Germany and since a few years we have test alarms again like in the 80s. After the end of the cold war they stopped the alarns and also stopped servicing the alarm systems. Now they are partly resurrected and partly built up new. The cell broadcast warnings are an additional system nowadays. The authorities want to have several independent alarm systems in parallel.
Yeah. They are not saying this system will replace the air raid sirens in areas that are missing those today. But, no investment will ever be made to put up an air raid siren there now when we have this shiny new and cheap system. So, basically the same as replacing the old robust system that all areas really should have.
Last winter I had a power outage during a bad storm that killed electricity in my area for 12 hours straight. The cell towers shut down mobile data after about 8 hours. Probably to conserve power. BUT, how hard would it be to jam/disruptthe grid in an area under attack? That is my biggest concern.
Not sure how the old air raid system works these days. The sgnaling to turn the siren on probably travels through the cell grid anyways…