VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Here’s a sound you should be hearing on your smartphone this afternoon:

You’ll hear it if BC’s test of the new national wireless emergency alert system isn’t affected by the glitches that caused problems out east earlier this week.

The province’s Solicitor General is offering no guarantee that you will hear the jarring tone or receive an emergency text on your smartphone during the test at 1:55 p.m. today.

Mike Farnworth is taking a “wait and see” approach after glitches caused problems during a dry run on Monday in Quebec and Ontario.

“We don’t know yet what exactly happened back east,” he tells NEWS 1130. “What we do know is that this is intended to be a significant improvement over the current system and that is why we are going though this trial run, to make sure everything is working.”

An apparent problem in the coding prevented the alert from being sent to Quebec wireless devices Monday morning, while some — but not all — compatible devices in Ontario received it later in the afternoon.

Pelmorex — which operates the system — says all Alert Ready partners are working together to investigate the test alert results.

Farnworth is not concerned people will lose confidence in the system if further problems are reported during today’s testing in BC.

“I don’t think so. It has been very clear that this is going to be a test of the system and that it is brand new. I think people understand that is exactly what this is for, to make sure that when it needs to be ready, it will be ready,” he says.

The official launch of Alert Ready is scheduled for June. That is when it will be used to send targeted wireless emergency alerts to Canadians, warning of safety threats such as tsunamis or terrorist attacks, as well as to issue Amber Alerts.