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

Munich, January 17th 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.’

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.

‘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. And amongst others with our contribution to the STELLAR project we will further enhance our services in the future and therewith also for the Belgium Crisis Center,’ said Benjamin Jansen, Vice President of Sales at F24.

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.

More than one million addresses registered

Currently, 1,145,588 addresses are registered with BE Alert and 89% ofthe 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 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider for resilience. More than 5,500 customers worldwide rely on F24’s digital solutions, which support companies and organisations through all areas of resilience. Solutions cover business messaging and service notification, emergency and mass notification, incident and crisis management, as well as governance, risk and compliance.

F24 supports customers in virtually every sector ranging from energy, healthcare, industry, finance, IT, tourism and aviation to a wide variety of public organisations. Many years of international experience have made F24 experts in improving resilience with digital solutions.

About Telenet BV

As a provider of entertainment and telecommunication services in Belgium, Telenet Group is always looking for the perfect experience in the digital world for its customers. Under the brand name Telenet, the company focuses on offering digital television, high-speed Internet and fixed and mobile telephony services to residential customers in Flanders and Brussels.

Under the brand name BASE, it supplies mobile telephony in Belgium. The Telenet Business department serves the business market in Belgium and Luxembourg with connectivity, hosting and security solutions. More than 3,000 employees have one aim in mind: making living and working easier and more pleasant.