On 1/5/21 7:29 PM, Chris Adams wrote:
I don't know if an unsubscribed cell phone gets the emergency alerts (I know you are supposed to be able to call 911 from any cell phone, even if not carrying paid service). If so, that'd be another cheap way to get alerts.
They pretty much universally should as long as they still have a SIM in them (or are eSIM/ESN-only devices) to give them some idea of their preferred network to which to register. Even if not, they're supposed to register with the "best network available" for emergency calling and alerting only, though I'm not sure how robust that is. I have definitely received SMS-broadcast emergency alerts on an "inactive" phone that was on and not in airplane mode for various reasons, so it does seem to work. It was a CDMA2000 ESN-only device, though, so still had provisioning info. I usually keep such devices in airplane mode, if they're still in use, though, and obviously then the cell radio is inactive so no alerts.