Norwegian Government strengthens countrywide preparedness

Everbridge's Public Warning solution now reaches subscribers across all three mobile networks in Norway using location-based mobile messaging. The implementation of Everbridge’s Public Warning solution with the third of Norway’s three mobile networks was completed in just nine days and has been instrumental to countrywide communications during COVID-19. Last week, the Norwegian Directorate for Health sent a record 5.4 million messages to every mobile phone in Norway related to COVID-19.  The Directorate for Health also sent a message to all non-Norwegian phones roaming inside the country recently in English, French, German, Spanish, Polish and Russian, providing critical instructions for foreign nationals. Everbridge Public Warning can automatically detect the nationality of a person’s mobile device, without the need for any personally identifiable information (PII), and then send messages in the appropriate language to improve the effectiveness of communication to visitors and international travelers. 

Representing Everbridge’s latest country-wide deployment, Norway relies on its Directorate for Health to send critical messages to mobile phones before, during and after an emergency. With Everbridge, The Directorate for Health is able to reach Norway’s over five million residents and the country’s even larger number of approximately eight million annual visitors.

 

The criticality of population alerting has never been more relevant than during the current outbreak of COVID-19.  Applying the benefits of a single, comprehensive platform enables Everbridge to help protect the most vulnerable by providing special needs registries that work in concert with location-based targeting; to mobilize first responders, healthcare providers and volunteers; and to ‘turn back the clock’ in order to communicate with people that may have travelled through a coronavirus-infected zone previously – either domestically or internationally – while strictly protecting individual privacy.

 

“The mobile phone is the best tool for reaching the population and for providing important information about how to act during major incidents. This is a significant step forward that all mobile networks in Norway are now connected to Everbridge Public Warning, which is an important part of strengthening Norwegian crisis preparedness for the coronavirus and other threats to public safety,” said Javier Colado, Head of International at Everbridge.

 

The cities of Oslo and Bergen are also leveraging Everbridge to send critical updates on COVID-19 to all phones roaming within city borders with messages related to notification on city limits, ports and airports. Municipalities across the country are using the Everbridge system to provide critical updates, general information, and a call for volunteers.