The Department of Telecommunications, in partnership with the National Disaster Management Authority, has initiated a nationwide testing phase of the indigenous Cell Broadcasting system to bolster emergency communications during both natural and man-made disasters. Developed by the Centre for Development of Telematics, the system has been operationalised across all 36 States and Union Territories and supplements the SMS-based Integrated Alert System (SACHET), which has already issued over 689.9 billion messages in more than 19 Indian languages.
The new Cell Broadcast (CB) system enables near real-time, geo-targeted alerts to mobile phones without relying on network congestion, making it ideal for critical events such as tsunamis, earthquakes, lightning strikes and industrial accidents like gas leaks or chemical hazards. Unlike traditional SMS, CB messages are broadcast to all mobile devices in a given area, regardless of mobile carrier or network traffic.
As part of the rollout, the nationwide testing campaign will run for 2–4 weeks and cover the entire country. During this period, users may receive multiple test messages in Hindi and English, especially if their handsets have CB test channels enabled. These messages are part of the system validation process and do not require any action by the recipients.
The test message in English reads: “This is a TEST Cell Broadcast message sent by the National Disaster Management Authority in coordination with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India, as part of testing the Cell Broadcast solution for disseminating alerts. During the testing of the Cell Broadcast solution, you may receive this message multiple times on your mobile handset. Please ignore these message(s); no action is required at your end.”
Once fully validated, the system will be used for official alerts in multiple Indian languages on all mobile devices, regardless of prior test settings. This will ensure a broader and more inclusive reach, especially during emergencies.
