This is not an exercise: from today IT-Alert is officially active throughout Italy

Over the last few months we have often heard about IT-Alert, the new one public warning system Italian which will serve to warn the population in case of emergencies and imminent dangers. Until now we have dealt with IT-Alert exclusively through test messages, which served to verify the functioning of the system, but from today, 13 February 2024, IT-Alert is officially active throughout the national territory.

This public warning system is based on sending messages to all citizens who are in a potentially risky area: the alarms are managed by the Civil protection and are received by anyone with a mobile phone switched on and connected to a cell phone located in the affected area.

At the moment, IT-Alert will be used for the following scenarios:

• Collapse of a large dam
• Major accidents in industrial plants
• Nuclear accidents or radiological emergency situations
• Volcanic activity in the areas of Campi Flegrei, Vesuvius and the island of Vulcano

However, there are other scenarios for which IT-Alert is not yet activated, and on which further tests will be performed.

Specifically, the system will come tested one more year for other scenarios that may affect our country: intense rainfall, tsunami generated by an earthquake and volcanic activity of Stromboli. Furthermore, even for the risks for which the system is already active, there may be other experiments, which in any case will be indicated by the term “TEST” at the beginning of the messages.

We remind you that IT-Alert is a system of one-way communication: the messages are automatically sent by the Civil Protection to all cell phones that are connected to specific cell phones (and which are therefore located near areas involved and at risk). Furthermore, since it is an emergency alert, all devices that receive the alert message ring (with a sound similar to a siren) even if they are in silent mode.