Cellphones, Providers, and Plans → Two company responses to Wireless Emergency Alerts question.

I asked T-Mobile and Tracfone whether any of their phones support Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). Here's some information on WEA, which says "WEA capabilities were available beginning in April 2012, but many mobile devices, especially older ones, are not WEA-capable. When you buy a new mobile device, it probably will be able to receive WEA messages."

The good, T-Mobile's response: "Hi! Most of our devices are equipped to give Wireless Emergency Alerts. Is there a phone you were looking at in particular?"

The bad, Tracfone's response: "We don't guarantee our phones support that feature."

Unfortunately I'll be switching from T-Mobile to something else and Tracfone is now off my list. I actually care about WEA and I haven't found a wireless carrier that mentions which phones support it. I think I'll go into an AT&T store to browse their phones and ask about WEA support when I see one I want. I wonder if the clerk will know.

You're probably best off searching the phones' specs online, it should be pretty obvious. I think just about any Android phone since 4.x will have it.

My choice of phones is limited because I want to buy one for under $150 and get a pay-as-you-go plan. My current T-Mobile plan is $10 every three months and I usually don't make or take any calls or texts for the entire three months. I'm willing to pay $10 every month just to get away from T-Mobile, but no more. I normally don't need data but I want to be able to add it temporarily without a contract. And I want a camera with at least 3 Megapixels.

Which part of WEA is important to you?

If it's weather, I use Weather USA text alerts on Tracfone. Works fine, and you can customize which weather events you receive. Plus it's free.

buy a used newer model android on craigslist and pop in the sim card you have for the plan that you want.

I'm in NYC and the "Presidential Alerts during a national emergency" might be useful.Yes, I think I'll be doing that.

How?

I've never read how each level works, I have all levels disabled on my phone. The presidential one can not be disabled unfortunately.

What one thinks is a national emergency is very subjective and how telling people helps others, I don't know.

If there was an attack somewhere in the US that prompted national emergency alert I may rush home to protect myself from a possible toxic substance or explosion. Maybe I'd stop at a hardware store for duct tape and a respirator. And maybe stock up on bottled water, canned food and batteries just in case there's a power outage. As long as I need a new phone anyway because of my T-Mobile plan not working out, I might as well get one with WEA.

This phone is cheaper at bestbuy, but it's basically an app that alerts you. If you have a smartphone you might be able to just add an app. This phone isn't a very powerful phone either, so while this is a basic phone for a good price you might want one with more ram, a bigger battery, or other features. On that T-Mobile branded phone the emergency alerts app cannot be disabled without rooting it.
»www.bestbuy.com/site/alc ··· p=1&lp=1

I found a good deal at the Microsoft Store but first I signed up to receive special offers so I'll wait a little while for a coupon code or something. Not sure how long I'll wait.

Ah I see, the old 'everyone panic' message.

Yep, I wish I could disable that message on my phone, they serve no purpose.

except when something happens and you didn't get it as you've disabled it, you'll sue the phone company, the telco and or blame the gov't for not doing their job with weather issues and or with help assistance later on.

What happened in Tupelo, MS this weekend was a perfect example of how these alerts can be used. Folks were able to run for cover when they got alerts from smartphones and everywhere else.

We are lucky here we have almost all the technological advances we could use for disaster events, some other countries are left to ride it out and count bodies later.

Got every alert without needing WEA. I'm sure weather apps gave the same.

As for presidential alerts or Amber Alerts - I have zero interest in those. Probably because here, at least, Amber Alerts come across from places like California, and I'm at the other end of the country. If Oak Ridge goes up in a giant mushroom cloud, I'll know before he does.

just hope that none of your friends or relatives are the ones in danger that triggered that amber alert. even if they live at the other end of the country.

I disabled the WEA that could be disabled after the local flunky in charge of pushing the amber and silver alert button kept pushing it a 0 dark thirty. Sorry, I am not getting up and go looking for the lost one, and it was also hundreds of miles away. They will get better results if they don't do that in the middle of the night and just send to the actual area.

Have you heard the sound that app makes yet? Try it at 3am before you decide you like it.

Edit
I do have a weather alert app, it does a great job at flood and tornado alerts.

At 8 min. 5 sec. into this video the Windows Phone 8.1 reviewer mentions "quiet hours" so it doesn't "ring, beep, and buzz" in the middle of the night, but I don't know if that applies to WEA.