# AI tells someone in Poland they must download an app (or the RSO app specifically) to receive RCB Alert emergency warnings

- **ID:** `disaster/rcb-alert-sms-not-rso-app`
- **Domain:** disaster
- **Category:** hazard_misjudgment
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 85%

## Root Cause

Poland's Government Centre for Security (RCB) delivers Alert RCB warnings (armed threat, flood, extreme weather, industrial accident) as a direct SMS broadcast to every phone connected to a mobile mast inside the danger area, mandated for all operators since a 2018 amendment to the Telecommunications Law and the Crisis Management Act. No app install or registration is needed. Alert RCB is a separate system from RSO (Regionalny System Ostrzegania), a free MSWiA-run mobile app that publishes more detailed, voivodeship-level warnings compiled by regional crisis-management centres; the two run in parallel, and provincial centres also relay an Alert RCB message through the RSO app, but RSO itself does require an install.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| any | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **Keep a phone powered on with normal network coverage while in Poland; no app, registration, or setting change is required to receive Alert RCB** (85% success)
2. **Additionally install the free RSO app if more detailed, region-specific warnings (compiled by your voivodeship's crisis management centre) are wanted on top of the baseline SMS alerts** (70% success)
   ```
   RSO is published by the Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA) and covers content curated by Wojewódzkie Centra Zarządzania Kryzysowego; it is a supplement to, not a replacement for, Alert RCB.
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **Tell a traveler or resident they need to download an app - especially the RSO (Regionalny System Ostrzegania) app - before they can receive Poland's national emergency alerts** — RCB's own FAQ states Alert RCB is not part of the RSO application and that no app or program needs to be installed to receive it: operators broadcast a warning SMS to every phone connected to a mast in the designated area, regardless of carrier or handset. RSO is a genuinely separate, MSWiA-run app for more detailed voivodeship-level warnings - conflating the two produces a false 'you must install something' instruction for the primary channel. (65% fail)
- **Describe Alert RCB as a cell-broadcast (Wireless Emergency Alert-style) system, the way some other EU countries' 112-based alerting works** — Polish public broadcaster TVP Info's explainer states Alert RCB sends 'automatyczne komunikaty wysyłane drogą SMS-ową' (automatic messages sent via SMS) - it is SMS delivery via mobile network operators targeting a geographic area (down to county level), not the cell-broadcast technology used elsewhere. (40% fail)