The campaign to publicize the new addition to the start of the May test of the country’s emergency sirens – a cacophony of noise from all Danish mobile phones – cost the Ministry of Defense 8.7 million kroner to orchestrate, according to official documents to which DR has access.
And it wasn’t money well spent, experts argue, as the campaign to inform the public about S!RENEN didn’t make it clear that it wouldn’t be audible if most phone users didn’t have a fully up-to-date operating system.
This explains why only 64 percent of the country’s mobile phone owners can confirm that they received the alarm siren through their devices, according to figures from DEMA, the emergency response agency responsible for informing the public.
Key information was missing
Professor Jakob Stoustrup, an expert in electronic systems at Aalborg University, cannot believe the mistakes in DEMA’s campaign, since DKK 8.7 million was spent to publicize S!RENEN.
“I have nothing nice to say about having a fully updated phone. It was a key piece of information that was missing from the communication,” he says to DR.
But while it was made clear via sirenen.dk that “your Apple phone can safely receive alerts via S!RENEN if it’s an iPhone 8 or newer that’s updated to iOS 16.4 or newer,” along with provisions for Android -phones, the information was not effectively disseminated in the media.
The absolute majority knew about the extra siren
Prior to the test, most media were more interested in the siren’s potentially harmful effect on vulnerable groups, such as ex-veterans. Many feared that the siren could be triggered.
It was widely reported that there was only one way for the public to silence their phones: by turning them off.
And it was certainly well publicized, as 98 percent of the public knew what was coming, according to a Megafon survey.
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Source: The Nordic Page