The new ‘pocket’ siren technology, which was tested by the Estonian Ministry of the Interior in Tallinn, Pärnu and Rakvere on Wednesday solution is based on 5G broadcasting, meaning it can quickly transmit threat alerts in situations where mobile networks are down.

At 8 a.m. on Wednesday, a few dozen people gathered on the outskirts of Tallinn to take a walk with their mobile phones. They were testing how to signal danger using a newly-developed technology.

One of those involved was Stella Polikarpus – a researcher at the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences. Polikarpus told ERR that she signed up as a tester straight away. “New solutions like this are of great interest to me, both from a scientific point of view and practically as a citizen,” she said.

Phones with identical settings were distributed for testing. When a warning message was received, the phones should not only have vibrated, but also read the corresponding messages aloud. However, not everything went fully according to plan.

“There was no sound, but there was vibration and there was a text, though it didn’t start reading the text out loud,” Polikarpus added.

“This solution involves having very high transmitters on very tall masts. In essence, we need an estimated 20 masts to cover Estonia, compared to the 1,000 masts that mobile operators have,” said Kristo Kaasan, Levira’s technology director.

According to Kaasan, 5G broadcasting technology has been tested in stadiums in the U.S., but nowhere in the world has there been a trial as large as the one which took place in Tallinn, Pärnu and Rakvere on Wednesday.

One of the biggest pluses of the new technology, the ministry says, is the ability to use different types of notifications to warn people of different threats.

“Because the system we are testing has the capability to send different levels of threat notifications, we can have different threat notifications for a missile attack, for example, as well as for lower-level events, such as a missing person. According to the threat alert, you can also add an audible signal and you can turn it on and off,” said Kadi Luht-Kallas, advisor to the Ministry of Interior.

The deployment of 5G broadcasting technology will require the use of a pan-European frequency band as well as allocation agreements. According to Luht-Kallas negotiations on that front have only just begun.

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