The purpose of the system is to warn people in the vicinity of an emergency or hazard. An SMS text message is sent to their phone. Recent examples include the crash on Tallinn Ring Road and the oil storage tank fire in North Tallinn.

However, the system does not seem to work equally with all phones. In some cases, not even all phones in the same room.

Janek Murakas, crisis manager at the Emergency Response Center (Häirekeskus), said there could be several reasons for this.

"There are a lot of different reasons for this, perhaps one of them is related to mobile masts – we have had examples where people have contacted us and when we have investigated further, we have found that the mobile phones of people in the same apartment are connected to different masts, for example, and one mast is in the threat area, the other mask is just outside the threat area. Another possibility, which is even more likely to be the cause, is the mobile devices themselves – the way they are set up, the way they exchange information with the so-called mobile operator – a lot often depends on the devices themselves," Murakas said.

The system was also disrupted during the Uikala fire. Murakas said it is difficult to improve the threat notification system.

"Unfortunately, because it is operator-based and mast-based, that is just the way the system is /.../ It is up to each operator and actually the settings of the phone come into play. Generally, though, the newer the device, the more accurate it is at positioning and the more precise it is. The older the device, the more complicated it is," he said.

Murakas said EE-Alarm is only one way of relaying information about threats.

"Always monitor and check all other information channels. For example, in the case of Uikala, the Rescue Department started much earlier on its X account, but also in fact in the media, that this smoke could be dangerous, the EE-Alarm came later. In this sense, the EE-Alarm is certainly not a substitute for all other information channels, and this has been the case from the beginning," Murakas said.

The EE-Alarm system was completed in January last year.

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