Public warning systems

public safety

100% of the population

It takes more than a text to keep people safe. To maximize the reach and effectiveness of the alert to the population, Intersec offers a resolutely multi-channel and specialized software suite for public alert and crisis management requirements.

It addresses the specific needs of various public authorities, telecommunication operators, and mission-critical organizations involved in the global early warning and public warning architecture at a national, regional or local scale, in due respect to data privacy regulation. Our public warning solutions cover 30% of the population in the European Union.

Warning

At a national scale

At a local scale

Intersec PWS fully meets, and even exceeds, requirements enacted by the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC).  Article 110 mandates EU countries to operate a public warning system that can send geo-targeted emergency alerts to all mobile phones located in the affected area during a natural or man-made disaster.

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Intersec PWS helps mobile carriers to perfectly meet public warning and emergency alert requirements of the country.  As a comprehensive and scalable unified product, it facilitates mobile carrier deployment phases, and eases day-to-day activities to keep service always operational.

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In a few clicks, entitled users can send an alert to all subscribers in their municipality or territory and mobilize stakeholders to manage and resolve the situation.

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Dedicated users can monitor recovery progress in real-time thanks to customized dashboards and alert messages, allowing for flexibility to adapt to any scenario and ensure plans get executed properly.

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Fully Compliant

With anonymized and aggregated data, our solutions fully comply with all international industry standards and data privacy regulations: 3GPP, ETSI, EMTEL, ATIS, OASIS CAP, GDPR, Etc.

Agile and future-proof

Take up any types of challenges and expectations in a MHEWS (Multi Hazard Early Warning Systems) implementation. Integrating meaningful data streams in this control room system offers crisis management staff a 360° view of the situation.

18 years of ICT expertise

This high tech combination of high-speed message sending and location intelligence capabilities coupled with AI algorithms allows our customers to operate massive multi-channel communications, and measure in real-time their effectiveness.

The Intersec difference

Coverage of 30% of the EU's population

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Intersec is the European Union's leading PWS provider and a strong proponent of combining Cell Broadcast and Location-Based SMS to stay ahead of the crisis management curve. The Intersec public warning solutions are deployed in France, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, and Luxembourg, and in other regions of the world.

Resolutely modern and multichannel

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The alert management technologies, via Cell Broadcast, Location-Based SMS, as well as all legacy and new digital diverse communication channels (outdoor sirens, TV/radio, DAB+, websites, social media, OOH display, GNSS…), are all consolidated in Intersec's comprehensive value proposition. Combining these technologies dramatically increases the efficiency of the system, and accelerates nationwide messaging broadcast, while ensuring full interoperability with existing services.

Powered by fast data and AI-enriched features

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  • Mass-scale real-time geolocation stack to manage 10B+ of points per day
  • Fast multi-criteria targeting engine to generate any type of alert campaigns, from the simplest to the most complex
  • Extensive PII data protection, with strong anonymization process, non reversible
  • Real-time population heatmaps computed from aggregated statistics, derived of anonymized location data

Modular and future-proof platform

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  • Composable solutions to fit perfectly in customer environment and to integrate smoothly within all the ecosystem
  • No limit in the number of channels, and seamless extension to new channels over the years, as technologies evolve.
  • Built on a robust software core and an abstraction layer easing deployment of evolutions without major upgrades
  • Support CNF deployment, over secured private cloud infrastructures

In just a few steps

Live feeds of risks and threats

Early warning and information feeds, about natural risk and forecast, industrial or biological risks, or law enforcement situation

Alert is triggered from the operational portal

Authorized issuers define and validate alert characteristics : contents and channels, zones of information and level of alerts, Etc.

Alert aggregator orchestrates broadcasting

The alert aggregator disseminates alerts through the proper communication channels and infrastructures

Broadcasting infrastructures

Each of them is responsible of handling correctly alert commands and delivering the alert to the affected areas

Success stories

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Context

Since June 2022, the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) Article 110 requires all EU countries to operate a public warning system that can send geo-targeted emergency alerts to all mobile users located in the affected area in case of an emergency. 

Progressing on technology transformation, the French Ministry of the Interior, alongside the three major national mobile operators – Orange, Bouygues Telecom, and SFR – selected the Intersec public warning solution to implement a fully integrated alerting architecture for the years to come.

Solution

  • 100% coverage of cell phones in use in metropolitan France and French overseas territories (more than 80 million units) 

  • Multi-channel portal combining all alerting media:  Cell Broadcast, Location-Based SMS, sirens, social media, websites… and ready to integrate with Galileo

  • Tactical management of a crisis with real-time population heatmaps, retargeting capabilities, and highly contextualized communications

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We were attracted by the completeness of the Intersec solution, by its experience in delivering messages on a very large scale depending on the real-time location of recipients, and by the willingness of its teams to keep this solution at the cutting edge of technology over the years to come.

Romain Moutard

Director of the FR-Alert program

Context

Article 110 of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) mandated all EU countries to operate a public warning system that can send geo-targeted emergency alerts to all mobile users located in the affected area in case of an emergency. 

Telefonica O₂ Germany was looking for a partner able to deploy Cell Broadcast technology in a collaborative manner, in full compliance with data privacy regulations, and in alignment with the EECC requirements.

Solution

  • As the European Union's leading public warning system provider and with 19 years of experience in the telco industry, Intersec had demonstrated its ability to deploy nationwide public warning systems at Tier-1 operators

  • Intersec partnered with Telefónica Ingeniería de Seguridad (TIS) to ensure seamless and smooth integration in record time

  • On 2022 Nationwide Alert Day – Warntag – Telefonica successfully broadcasted two alert messages - in German and in English – from the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief in just a matter of seconds, confirming the high-end performance of the solution

The high level of expertise and experience of the Intersec professional services team enabled a smooth integration in record time. This success is a testament to the relevance of this partnership, where Intersec's expertise and ours work together in the best possible way.

Victor Fortes

IT Project Manager, O₂ Germany

TECHNOLOGY

Cell broadcast and location-based SMS

Why Cell Broadcast?

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Cell Broadcast is an instrumental technology when dealing with Early Warning and Emergency Warning in critical or degraded situations, or when time is of the essence.

The alert text message is issued by a Cell Broadcast Entity (CBE) and broadcasted by the Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) to all mobile devices in a defined area. Such short messages (SMS-CB) benefits from a specific display and possibly a notification accompanied by a particular ringtone, to be recognized instantly as an alert.

The Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) is a powerful technology: one may reach millions of devices in a few seconds even if the operators’ networks are congested and in full privacy data protection compliance as the phone numbers of the subscribers are not used in the broadcasting operations.

Why Location-Based SMS?

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First of all, SMS channel offers the perfect compatibility level, being supported by 100% of mobile network and phone generations all over the world for 30+ years.

Leveraging on a genuine real-time cellular geolocation technology, public warning via LB-SMS unlocks dynamic and adaptative public warning strategies, to cope with any situation and throughout the crisis management timeline.

This great flexibility is typically expressed in the wide variety of targeting scenarios:

  • address the SMS alert to all subscribers inside or entering the impacted area, optionally add devices that were recently in the zone
  • send distinct SMS content to inbound roamers with specific information in their language
  • alert subscribers roaming abroad of a particular situation there, or in home country
  • recontact people afterwards, even if there are not anymore inside the impacted area, to provide follow-up instructions and situation updates, and return-to-normal or post-event information.

Moreover, thanks again to the SMS technology standard, managing authorities can monitor in real-time the effectiveness of the alert dissemination within the population through aggregated and anonymized delivery statistics.

Which public alerting technologies to use when facing an emergency?

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Intersec strongly believes that governments and mobile network operators should adopt a multichannel approach in order to maximize the chances of disseminating information to as many people as possible in case of an emergency. Possible channels include using people’s phones, but also sirens, social media, TVs & radios, emails, variable message signs… The choice to combine certain technologies depends on various factors, including:

  • the nature of the event
  • the number of people to be reached
  • the required speed to communicate
  • the state of the mobile networks
  • etc.

So, which technologies to use when facing a tsunami, flash floods or a dirty bomb for example?  Let's look at some concrete examples in this infographic.