It was a patchy launch for the test of the government’s new emergency alert system, with reports of some users being woken up by the booming alarm in the early hours of Monday morning.
While the alert was scheduled to go out at 3pm on Sunday, some people said they did not receive the notification, while others reported the alert arriving early or late.
One mobile user told The Independent they had not received the alert on Sunday afternoon, but 2.30am on Monday.
Others took to social media with similar tales, with one user exclaiming: “Why have I just received a 2nd severe alert notification at 2:30 am? Nightmare!
“Scared me to death!!” they added.
In response, a third recipient said: “So did we! Was such a lovely way to be woke up!”
Posting to Twitter, another said: “So my watch sent out an emergency alert this morning; had a nice chat with my close contacts, at 2:30.”
Professor of telecommunications, Nigel Linge, said that it is not surprising the emergency alert did not work “perfectly”.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he said: “You can only do so much in the labaratory to see if something is going to work.
“This is why we test fire alarms in buildings when there are no fires.
He added: “It is not unusual that a test of this type did not work perfectly. That is what you expect. I don’t think anyone in the mobile phone industry would be surprised that it wasn’t perfect.”
The Independent understands the alert had to go through different infrastructure used by mobile operators – which don’t all operate at the same speed.
Customers on the Three mobile phone network were among those to report not receiving the communication test.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the company said it is aware a number of customers did not receive the alert, and it is working with the government to prevent this in the future.
The Independent has approached the Cabinet Office for comment.
In a statement issued yesterday, a UK government spokesman said: “We have effectively completed the test of the UK-wide Emergency Alerts system, the biggest public communications exercise of its kind ever done.
“We are working with mobile network operators to review the outcome and any lessons learned.”
