Coding error leads to botched test of Canada’s new emergency public alert system

Officials botched the first widespread test of Canada’s new emergency public alerting system on Monday, blaming a technical glitch for the shaky rollout of the system designed to deliver emergency alerts over LTE wireless networks to compatible mobile devices.

Emergency management officials from federal, provincial and territorial governments have long delivered emergency alerts to the public in partnership with Canadian broadcasters, led by The Weather Network owner Pelmorex Corp. But last year, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission mandated that wireless carriers participate as well. In theory, the new system will be able to take advantage of ubiquitous wireless technology — there are about 31 million wireless subscriptions in Canada — to distribute targeted warnings depending on a user’s exact location.

The trial run was scheduled to start Monday. The CRTC told Ontario and Quebec residents they would receive a test alert with a unique vibration, ambulance-like sound and text message.

But the test did not go as planned in Quebec, where only those who had installed the Weather Network app received the alert, while in Ontario, only some received an alert even if their device was compatible, leaving many questioning how the Alert Ready system would function in a real emergency.

Pelmorex, which was responsible for the tests along with emergency management officials, blamed a coding error for the failure in Quebec.

“A space incorrectly included in the coding prevented the Alert Ready system from sending the Quebec test message to compatible wireless devices,” Pelmorex stated on alertready.ca.

“The purpose of a test alert is to comprehensively verify all system components so that in the case of a real threat to life situation, there is confidence the emergency alerts will be distributed successfully. The mis-configuration was quickly corrected.”

Pelmorex did not respond to questions by deadline about what went wrong in Ontario.

Representatives from wireless carriers BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. said they were investigating why some customers did not receive the test alert.

The CRTC is monitoring the situation. “These tests are conducted to ensure that the alerting system is functional,” the CRTC stated.

Consumers cannot opt out of receiving public alerts on their wireless devices for public safety reasons.

It’s unclear whether officials will conduct another test in Ontario and Quebec. The rest of Canada is scheduled to receive test alerts on Wednesday.

Canadians can check if their wireless devices are compatible at alertready.ca.