Examples of mobile broadcasts being used I recently found this page of settings in on my phone under Cyanogenmod, I had never even heard of this system before.


mobile broadcast settings (click to enlarge)

Are there any examples of this system being used in the past?
Yes.  They're called Wireless Emergency Alerts, part of the Emergency Alerts System.

There was a thing in California earlier this year over the first use of the system giving utterly irreverent information (sending the alert to people hundreds of miles from the event), presumably due to poor implementation.