text to 911
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Now you can text 911... just not from everywhere
Text-to-911 became available in select markets today. As the name implies, the service allows you to text your emergency to first responders rather than call. There's just one issue: it doesn't work in most places. The list of supported cities is so small in fact, you should probably just assume the feature isn't up and running in your town. Today's launch stems from a policy the FCC adopted back in January to make text-to-911 available everywhere. All four major carriers signed on to launch the service by May 15th -- that's today -- everywhere a call center could support it. Turns out, they're pretty few and far between. Locations that are online today are using existing TTY systems (traditionally used by the hearing impaired) to accept texts, or new browser-based solutions. However, Iowa, Maine and Vermont are the only ones who've managed so far to get support statewide.
As of today many iPhone users can text 911 in an emergency
The four major cellular providers -- AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile -- volunteered to participate in an Federal Communications Commission program that lets people contact their local 911 emergency services via text message. The deadline for getting it all set up and working is today, so the service should be available as of now in places where a 911 call center is technically prepared to receive texts. The experts still recommend that you use voice 911 calls, because they can provide emergency centers with much more information. But people who are deaf, hard of hearing, have a speech disability or may find it otherwise dangerous or impossible to voice call 911 will greatly benefit. The service required upgrades to local 911 centers, but as of today it should work from any iPhone (or any text-capable cellular phone) on any of the four major carrier networks. A big caveat is that while the cellular companies have added the feature, your local public safety officials have to sign on to the service before it can be implemented. Some will opt out due to costs, but it looks like the service is coming up rapidly state by state and locality by locality. In most cases, the 911 center getting your text won't have location information, so that should be in the body of the text. Voice calls to 911 generally provide a call center with your approximate location. Also, users are cautioned that text delivery might incur small delays in delivery, and that voice calls will still be faster. If you have any doubt about the availability of text-to-911 service in your area, check with your cellular provider. Please don't test this, but cellular companies say they have implemented a bounce-back feature notifying senders of 911 text messages if they were not received for any reason. You can find more information in the FCC FAQ.
AT&T teams up with the state of Tennessee to start text-to-911 trials
Verizon's certainly at the forefront when it comes to involving text-based emergency services with mobile devices in the US, and thus it's natural for rival AT&T to have to keep up in this department -- much like with those Long Term Evolution rollouts. The good news is that AT&T has announced it's partnering with the Tennessee administration in hopes of taking advantage of the state's "next-generation" 911 IP infrastructure; one which has been in the works for a few years now. Naturally, the trials are limited to AT&T subscribers in The Volunteer State, and for those folks the text-to-911 process will be as self-explanatory as it sounds, with the Rethink Possible carrier taking care of all the backend work by sending such messages to emergency call services. While it's indeed only a small chunk of the country, it's definitely a step in the right direction -- that said, only time will tell how efficient this solution can be.
