Telenet and F24 continue running the BE-Alert public warning system until 2028

Mechelen, January 17, 2023 - Telecom operator Telenet and software provider F24 will continue to run the Belgian government's BE-Alert warning system for the next six years. Both parties have won the public tender launched by the Federal Public Service of the Interior. Telenet and F24 have developed a complete solution for municipalities and government services when an emergency message must be sent out. ‘We’re very pleased to continue our collaboration with the National Crisis Centre,’ said Geert Degezelle, vice president of Telenet Business. ‘Our constant innovation continuously improves BE-Alert performance, as proven during the floods in Wallonia, now a good year and a half ago and also during the COVID crisis. So, we’re showing that Telenet provides complete solutions besides telecoms and entertainment with BE-Alert serving the government and the public.’ 

BE-Alert is the warning system used by the government to notify the public in the event of an emergency. The system allows a mayor, a governor or the Home Secretary to send a message to everyone affected by the emergency. This ensures the public receives necessary recommendations quickly, e.g. to close windows and doors in case of a fire.   

Telenet participated in the development of the BE-Alert system since its launch in 2016. So it has partnered with F24 for some time now. F24 has its headquarter in Munich (Germany) and is Europe’s leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider for incident and crisis management, alerting, public warning and business communication. 

Scalable and reliable solution for both local and federal governments 

In the past, BE-Alert was run by a consortium. Today, Telenet takes over both the infrastructure (connections, data lines) and the software (user interface). Telenet and partner F24 succeeded in developing a reliable and integrated complete solution for both local and federal governments. The system allows mayors to alert the public safely, quickly and efficiently in the event of emergencies.  

‘We’re very pleased to continue our collaboration with the National Crisis Centre. Our constant innovation continuously improves BE-Alert performance. We believe the public must receive information quickly and reliably. This renewed partnership shows that Telenet provides complete solutions in a variety of domains. We also want to make a difference in other areas in society,’ said Geert Degezelle, vice president of Telenet Business.

‘We’re happy to continue this successful partnership with Telenet and we are especially grateful that we can provide such an important service to the Belgian government and its citizens. In the past, we have demonstrated that our solution is capable of delivering efficient large-scale alerts. It’s also reliable during severe emergencies, such as the floods in Wallonia in 2021,’ said Benjamin Jansen, Vice President of Sales at F24.

More than one million addresses registered 

Currently, 1,145,588 addresses are registered with BE-Alert and 89% of the Belgian cities and municipalities are registered on the system. The goal is to register all cities in BE- Alert. 

During the July 2021 floods in Wallonia, BE-Alert was used extensively and proved its reliability.  On 15 July, more than 1.7 million location-based SMS messages were sent in less than 24 hours. We saw 37 municipalities sent out 60 warning campaigns as well as 40 information campaigns using the platform. 

European legislation requires public warning system for all countries 

As of June 2022, Article 110 of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) requires all EU countries to operate a public warning system that can send geographically targeted emergency calls to all mobile phone users in the affected area during a natural or man-made disaster. 

About F24 

^{F24 AG is Europe’s leading SaaS provider for incident and crisis management, alerting and business communication. The highly innovative F24 solutions for alerting and crisis management support companies and organisations around the world in efficiently and successfully managing incidents, emergencies and crises. F24 also offers solutions for the high-volume communication of sensitive content in the corporate environment.} 

^{More than 3,000 customers around the world rely on F24’s SaaS solutions to manage their communication requirements – either in the event of a crisis or as part of their daily communication of confidential content.}