Improvements in AT-Alert in Styria

For about a year now, Austria has had the AT-Alert warning system for Android and Apple mobile phones, which is used in addition to civil protection sirens to warn of natural events or emergencies. On Saturday, October 4, 2025, the civil protection test alarm will take place across Austria between 12:00 and 13:00. The digital warning system AT-Alert will also be tested nationwide.

"Presidential Alert" as the Highest Alert Level in AT-Alert

AT-Alert allows authorities to send text messages directly to mobile phones in a danger region via the mobile technology "Cellbroadcast". People should be able to be reached quickly and comprehensively with information in the event of impending or occurring dangers. Behavioral recommendations are also given. The text is sent in the area to be "warned" to every mobile phone of domestic and foreign mobile operators, in German and English. In Austria, around 20,000 mobile network sites, commonly known as cell towers, are available for this purpose.

The highest alert level, the so-called Presidential Alert, cannot be deactivated in the smartphone operating systems. In Styria, it was decided to use only two of the seven different alert levels, namely emergency alert ("Presidential Alert") and hazard information. Anything else would be confusing, according to Eitner, based on experiences from the one-year operation. Eitner also pointed out that the AT-Alert should be seen as a supplement to the civil protection sirens. It complements them but does not replace them.

AT-Alert: Strictly Protected Network

The triggering of an AT-Alert message is carried out - originating from the Styrian State Warning Center - via a strictly protected IT network through two redundantly executed so-called "Cellbroadcast Centers". One is located in Vienna, the other in Vorarlberg. The message is then forwarded within tenths of a second to the three mobile network operators operating in Austria. The message is then broadcast in the specified trigger area - the danger zone where everyone should be warned via their mobile phones - to all affected cell towers, also within a few tenths of a second. From the cell towers, the message is transmitted in the form of a radio signal to every mobile device registered in the radio cell.

Reception problems can be manifold: either the phone is in "flight mode", is not switched on, or is in a radio shadow at the time of triggering. This can be a basement, an elevator, a remote alpine area, or a side valley. Whether the phone is technically suitable can be checked on a link from the German Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance: https://www.bbk.bund.de/DE/Warnung-Vorsorge/Warnung-in-Deutschland/. Mobile phones from a Chinese manufacturer are not suitable for the AT-Alert due to legal issues.

Loud Tone and Vibration Sometimes Startle

Notifications about the emergency alert level always arrive with a loud tone on the mobile phone, even if it is set to silent, and it also vibrates. The loud tone and vibration caused alarm: some pressed the "OK" button to "silence" the phone. However, this caused the notification to disappear from the desktop. It was therefore recommended in such cases to check the AT Alert website of the Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH for information about the danger situation: warnungen.at-alert.at

An AT-Alert notification, according to Eitner and Hohenberger, is not a regulation, not a decision, and is also not legally binding. It is the individual responsibility of each person how they handle the information. An example was described of how one specifically reacted to a potential danger situation. During an extreme weather warning for the Spielberg area on June 26 during the Formula 1 Grand Prix, it was known that there were many Dutch campers. Therefore, the warning was also broadcast in Dutch in the Spielberg area.

The activations are carried out exclusively on behalf of an authority by the state warning centers or the federal warning center (BM.I EKC - for police situations). Each activation point can trigger nationwide and therefore represent other activation points in an emergency. Three regions have been defined for this purpose, with Styria together with Upper Austria and Carinthia forming the central region. Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland are the eastern region, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Salzburg the western region. If necessary, the three activation points of these countries can represent each other. In border cases - the area to be warned is near the border of another federal state - the neighboring state must be informed.

Lessons Learned from the Use of AT-Alert in Styria

Styria has created four scenarios for activations. For example, the responsible disaster protection authority (municipality or district administration) can ask the state warning center to trigger an AT-Alert if the latter is not yet aware of the event. Another scenario: An activation occurs due to a predicted weather situation, for example, based on the results of an AMAS meeting (Austrian Multi-Hazard Impact-Based Advice Services). This is a regularly convened committee with the country's experts from meteorologists, hydrologists, geologists, forestry directorate, water management, torrent and avalanche control, and emergency organizations.

Among the "Lessons Learned," the Styrian disaster protection officials counted the first use in the federal state (and in Austria) on September 15, 2024, due to heavy rainfall and flooding in the municipality of Thörl (Bruck-Mürzzuschlag district) as well as a storm warning in five other districts. So far, the population warning in Styria has been triggered for three events - namely for Thörl, for Spielberg, and the smoke development in Hartberg on August 13, when liquid leaked in a disposal company.

The storm warning on September 15, 2024, for the districts of Hartberg-Fürstenfeld, Graz-Umgebung, Voitsberg, and Weiz and the city of Graz was explicitly broadcast for each district and the city of Graz. This revealed another source of error: for example, drivers on the southern motorway (A2) from Carinthia to Vienna, starting from the Pack to the Wechsel, received a total of five notifications on their phones. Therefore, the activation process for cross-district broadcasts was optimized: only one notification is now issued for situations in multiple districts. In the situation in Hartberg, there was a repeated warning after the all-clear - because people entered the area to be warned for the first time after the all-clear. Here, too, the process steps were optimized. Another challenge was defining the activation area using a polygon. In this case, all mobile phone masts within the polygon send - even beyond the defined area. Therefore, the danger area must be defined in the text of the notification and possibly neighboring federal states must be informed.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.