Early warning & public alerts (EWS/PWS)

public safety

100% of the population

It takes more than a text to keep people safe. To maximize the reach and effectiveness of the early warning services, Intersec offers a resolutely multi-channel and specialized software suite for early warning, emergency alerts, 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 regulations. Our public warning solutions cover 30% of the population in the European Union.

400M people covered

Our EWS/PWS solutions cover 400 million people worldwide. Intersec is also leading EU provider with public alerting systems deployed in France, Germany, Croatia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria... mostly combining Cell Broadcast and Location-Based SMS to stay ahead of the crisis management curve.

Real-time location data

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

Multichannel approach

Our EWS/PWS incorporates high-speed messaging, location intelligence, and AI algorithms to ensure efficient communication and real-time effectiveness measurement. Resolutely multichannel, our emergency alert system can seamlessly adapt to various communication infrastructures, including but not limited to telecom networks.

For all public safety stakeholders

Mobile network operators (MNO)

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MNOs' infrastructures and modern technologies make it possible to reach 100% of the population. Intersec offers a multichannel, end-to-end and modular approach of national public warning architecture combining Cell Broadcast, location-based SMS, advanced analytics, and AI features, maxiziming the potential of telco data. 

Intersec PWS helps mobile carriers to perfectly meet early warning, 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.

Public authorities & agencies

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The Intersec public warning solution enables the authorities to leverage emerging technologies to detect and respond to incidents and critical events as they arise. It delivers cutting-edge tools such as density heatmaps, automatic selection of the appropriate communication channels depending on circumstances, in-app notifications, sirens and retargeting of populations in case of emergency alerts. 

The Intersec Crisis Management Portal 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, 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…)

Local authorities & communities

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As a complement to the Intersec crisis management portal, Intersec has designed Trela to enable all those involved in emergency alerts to exercise their duty to alert those under their responsibility more effectively, using additional communication channels, integrating specific mapping, taking account of citizens' preferences and habits, etc.

Emergency alerts deserve 100% attention. With Trela, they can leverage 100% of digital channels: SMS, emails, mobile app, website, phone calls, social media, and digital signage.

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.

Mission-critical organizations

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Disruptive events such as health hazards, extreme weather, or even supply chain disturbances can impact business continuity. The Intersec solution allows crisis management teams to keep control and monitor recovery progress in real-time, ensuring response plans get appropriately executed.

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 (the use of emergency text message system for instance). 

Warn. Alert. Protect.

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

Alert is sent out instantly

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

Read more

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

Context

In the heat of August, with temperatures over 40°C, and following a breakdown in the ventilation system, a fire broke out in a factory. The industrial site produces various chemical products for the fine perfumery, detergent and lubrication markets. Rapidly, the fire became uncontrollable. Toxic chemicals began to escape. A regional crisis unit was set up and the Prefect launched a crisis management operation. 

Solution

On a national level, a location-based SMS was immediately triggered by the Prefecture in surrounding regions to all citizens exposed to the risk using FR-Alert.On a local level, the mayors of the affected cities decided to refine the instructions for the inhabitants closer to the plant and sent 3 messages using Trela: 

  1. The 1st one targeting the people living less than 5 km away instructing strict confinement, 
  2. The 2nd one to a buffer zone to ask them not to go near the plant, 
  3. The 3rd one to a predefined group of parents to ask them not to approach the schools until the end of the alert

Trela then replicated the messages on the cities’ social networks and transmitted through voice calls the messages to people who did not have a cell phone, mostly elderly people.

Discover Trela

With Trela, we support mayors, presidents of inter-municipalities and managers of critical infrastructures in the exercise of their competences in the face of risks to effectively complement the crisis management of the government which has FR-Alert.

Charlotte Thomas

Trela Director

Context

Croatia, with a population of over 44 million and a significant annual tourist influx, recognized the need for an advanced national PWS to respond to the European mandate for modern digital public warning systems. The Ministry of the Interior and Civil Protection Directorate aimed to enhance crisis communication, specifically targeting segments of the population in real-time during emergencies.

Key requirements included improved processes, new communication channels, and the ability to adapt mobile messaging based on individuals' changing positions relative to the crisis.

Solution

  • Using cell broadcast and location-based SMS, Intersec provides the technology that will enable the MoI/CPD to provide early warning and subsequent crisis communications in case of national emergencies such as floods, fires, epidemics,or terrorist incidents
  • The solution facilitates real-time crisis communication in foreign languages without violating personal data protection regulations.
  • All three national telecommunications operators in Croatia confirmed participation, ensuring nationwide coverage and reaching up to 100% of mobile device users.
The Croatian government wanted the best technology possible in order to serve its population in a crisis. As part of an end-to-end solution that enables government and network operators to work seamlessly together from the outset, Intersec will deliver a public warning system for Croatia that will keep citizens informed and protected for many years to come.

Ingolf Ruh

Chief Revenue Officer, Intersec

TECHNOLOGY

Cell broadcast is not enough

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.

Toward a multichannel approach

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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…

Combining these technologies dramatically increases the efficiency of the system, and accelerates nationwide messaging broadcast, while ensuring full interoperability with existing services.

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.

Enriched 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

Prepare for tomorrow

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Fully modular and future-proofed, the Intersec platform is scalable to prepare for tomorrow:
  • 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