New test emergency SMS messages expected
A new wave of test emergency text messages are expected to be sent to mobile phones across Cyprus on Friday afternoon, the interior ministry said.
The messages will be sent at different times to phones located in different districts, with the ministry saying that after an earlier test, which saw some users receive messages as much as two hours late or not at all, “the necessary technical adjustments have been made”.
It added that those “adjustments” were made in collaboration with telecommunications providers, “so as to improve the message sending process”.
On Friday, users with pre-paid sim cards are to be the first to receive messages, at 4.30pm, regardless of their location, with messages set to be sent to users in different locations at 30-minute intervals.
Messages will be sent to users in the Paphos district at 5pm, to users in the Famagusta district at 5.30pm, to users in the Nicosia district at 6pm, to users in the Larnaca district at 6.30pm, and to users in the Limassol district at 7pm.
The messages will contain a reference to the district in which the recipient is located, with the ministry clarifying that the district referenced will be the district in which the user lives, according to information they provided to their telecommunications provider, and not the district in which they are necessarily located at the time they receive the message.
The ministry added that the aim of the test is “to ensure the ability to send a large number of messages in a short period of time, so that the system can be used as an additional measure to inform the public, if and when needed”.