Support for NL-Alert in iOS7

We have been waiting for it for some time, pushing Apple now and finally it seems to happen: Apple supports the NL-Alert public warning service of The Netherlands Government.



But, the title of this post is slightly misleading. The support is in principle not part of iOS7, but of the operator package that a consumer receives depending upon the SIM card that is put in the IPhone or iPad. So this makes the support for NL-Alert operator dependent. When confirmed, I will inform you via this blog which operator packages do provide support.

It is not yet confirmed to what extent the IPhone is compatible with the requirements set forth by the US WEA system, which was adopted by The Netherlands Government. The WEA standard describes the phone to generate a siren tone, combined with a vibration cadence, upon receiving an alert.

It is confirmed that Apple's implementation does not follow WEA in the following areas:
1) The support in The Netherlands is opt-in, while the WEA standard defines it to be opt-out
2) Support for Amber Alerts is not present. In the US, support for Amber Alerts is confirmed to be present.