The CRTC has announced when emergency wireless test alerts take place during Emergency Preparedness Week on May 8, they won’t happen in Ontario or Quebec, due to flooding in these provinces.
Previously, only Quebec was slated to bypass the wireless test alerts, but now Ontario has been added to the mix.
“Ongoing testing of the National Public Alerting System provides an opportunity to validate and improve the system’s performance and reliability to ensure it operates as intended on TV, radio and wireless networks in the event of a life-threatening situation,” explained the CRTC in a press release.
The following alert schedule will take place on May 8, 2019:
Alerts will be sent to wireless public alerting compatible devices connected to an LTE network, such as an iPhone 5 or newer.
The CRTC says “Since the implementation of wireless public alerting in April 2018, more than 120 alerts and updates have been successfully delivered by emergency management officials to warn Canadians of imminent threats.”
Wireless alerts are managed and sent out by Pelmorex, the parent company of The Weather Network.
If you want to opt out of these wireless test alerts on May 8 (they will freak the crap out of you), you can set a reminder to turn your phone into airplane mode 5 minutes before the alert is scheduled, or follow this tutorial to disable LTE on your iPhone.
