Slashdot Mirror
Verizon To Begin Offering "Text To 911" Service
An anonymous reader writes "In a move that will likely elicit a 'why didn't they implement that sooner?' response, Verizon in the next 12 months will begin implementing a 'text to 911' feature that, as the name implies, will enable users contact 911 operators via text message to report an emergency. The feature will be particularly helpful for the hearing and/or speech impaired, and for folks who find themselves in dangerous situations where making a voice 911 call isn't advisable. Beginning in early 2013, Verizon will start rolling out the feature in various metropolitan areas before progressing to a nationwide rollout soon thereafter. In many respects, this move has been a long time coming, and something the FCC has been championing for a few years."
Why didn't they implement that sooner?
Now, instead of getting multiple phone calls about a traffic accident, the dispatcher can much more quickly ignore the duplicates.
This is an ideal way of sending information when you want to report that you saw something that may need their attention, but you personally don't need a response.
They really need to support sending photos.
Its a good thing SMS is guaranteed realtime with guaranteed delivery. I've never had a text show up hours after it was sent while I'm now standing next to the person who sent it. Yep, its a beautiful service, one I'm happy to put my life in the care of.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
help sum dood is trying 2 rob teh bankz rotf
"What is your OMG?"
I dno. Les aks'm
This is an ideal way of sending information when you want to report that you saw something that may need their attention, but you personally don't need a response.
Presuming you can get sufficient detail in the message to make it useful. 911 Operators typically ask questions for a reason. I can just see a whole bunch of text like "I saw an accident on I-80" with no further detail in the messages. Then the operator may need to call to find out the details.
Why hasn't someone created 911 video chat for mobile phones yet. Such a feature could be life saving. Rather than someone having to explain how bad the wounds are and what is happening, they can show the dispatcher and EMTs. The dispatcher can give better advice to the victim or victim's friend and even have quick videos on how to complete the action. Meanwhile, the EMTs can use the video feed to better figure out the best course of action before they get on site. If nothing else, a face is probably more reassuring than just a voice when you have an emergency.
As suggested by a Facebook friend, Jordan Elliot:
"OMG! thrs lik sum GUY ty 2 brake into my house! DAFUQ!?!? LOL PLS HLP!!!"
Dog is my co-pilot.
Will they be able to make the phone only talk/text to the 911 operator till they release the "line"?
Or perhaps turn on the audio, i.e. you text "I can't talk there is a burglar in my house", and they can turn on the phone/video and listen?
I suppose they could also make it take your picture to cut down on prank calls, otherwise how do they stop people saying "someone texted it in when I put the phone down" (yes they can cover the camera, but you know they will think of the feature)
Or turn on the video so you can show the 911 operator what is happening... which would be a cool feature for voice 911 calls as well.
I for one welcome our new smart phone overlords.
-jon
How about a feature that lets you send pictures, videos, and live-camera feed to 911?
Of course you'll need both the phone and the 911 call center to have this ability.
In the interim, how about making a smartphone app that does all of this:
* call your local 911 by voice and/or send a text
* determine if the 911 call center has the ability to receive images or files, and if so, allow the phone user to send them
* determine if the 911 call center has the ability to receive live camera feeds, and if so, allow the phone user to turn the camera on
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
User: theres a hijacker on the plane
Cop: Don't you mean "there's"?
User: thats what your worried about? cant you send help?
Cop: I'm sorry, sir. I can't help you.
"OMG WTF im on fyre omg omg halp! were's my bffs da popo!" I feel terrible for the EMS operators...
As a firefighter/aemt, we already get multiple, redundant calls with no information because the caller is "driving by the scene and thought you should know." So now we'll get a text message with no way for the operator to try and pull more information from the caller.
"omg im dying plz help"
So we dispatch two ALS ambulance crews, an engine company and local first responders to find some idiot who broke his toe.
0_o
Fire - exclamation mark - fire - exclamation mark - help me - exclamation mark. Looking forward to hearing from you. Yours truly, ...
This would be ideal for certain situations where you need to contact the police but where it would be ill-advised to draw attention to yourself by making a phone call.
folks who find themselves in dangerous situations
I wonder if those folks will remember to put their phone on silent before sending a text message to 911, in the heat of the moment. Otherwise the reply message might attract some unwanted attention.
I have blocked txting as I do not want to pay for incoming span txts
now this 100% free or will you pay $0.10-$0.25 per txt each way?
You need to contact 911 and you are worried about $0.25 txt charges?
Perhaps you aren't clear on the concept of a "true emergency".
-jon
On one hand, it is probably a good idea to include a channel for emergency contact for the deaf/mute population, and for those in situations where audible speech is ill-advised, such as a hostage scenario...
THAT SAID, it is far more likely the system is going to be inundated with spam from, for lack of a more accurate descriptor, fucking imbeciles (who think taking 15 minutes to compose a 4 sentence message is somehow more efficient than taking 15 seconds to just call the person), which will cause it to appear useless and thus inevitably be abandoned.
I'm guessing this is one situation in which writing a pre-emptive obituary isn't an over-reaction.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I'm just wondering if my bill will go up. I already get the mandatory price for E911 so is this new feature going to be included in that E911 cost or will they charge me another fee or raise the existing E911 fee?
Don't get me wrong I think it's a good idea I just want to know what it is going to cost me.
Paul: Father... father, the sleeper has awakened! - Dune
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out in the basement level of the... No, too formal...
In rural areas there is often as much "fringe" coverage where SMS works but a voice call can't complete as there is "service area". The best you can do now is to text a bunch of your friends with, "crashed in ditch on river rd, ovrtrned, brkn neck, pls call 911," and hope somebody notices.
This kind of 911 service could effectively double mobile 911 coverage in those places. That's quite sufficient a reason to put up with the whiny problems posted above.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
User: theres a hijacker on the plane
Cop: Don't you mean "there's"?
Your scenario is absurd. There's no way a cop would be literate enough to recognize grammatical mistakes.
Voice 911 services typically work even if the phone isn't provisioned for billing(I'm sure there are some models that are so sim-locked that they just won't boot or similar; but US GSM handsets with the SIM pulled can usually still make 911 calls if there is a network available, as can CDMA phones that have had whatever the equivalent de-provisioning done to them), so I would assume that 911 texts would also work without charge, and would cut through any text blocking.
No, it likely won't. The reason it works for voice calls is that the standards are established for "non-service initialized phones." There is no equivalent for SMS, and it is doubtful whether there will be any incentive to make this happen for a technology that already is on its way out.
Location accuracy isn't good enough just to make a voice call and hope for the best without further communication. A case like this was recently documented by the Seattle authorities, where the location was off by four blocks, and the disabled victim was only saved by the fact that the parents were able to call 9-1-1 and give the precise location.
Most deaf and hard of hearing people do not use TTYs anymore. Many now use video and captioned telephone relay services, but 9-1-1 calls through relay services suck, to put it mildly. Call routing doesn't work well for these situations, and there are many documented cases of introducing 5-10 minute delays before the call is finally connected to the emergency responders. Compare that to sub-10 second response times for the majority of voice calls.
support Twitter too?
Timmy: *Cough* Siri, go get help
Siri: Ruff
Dispatcher: What is it girl? Is Timmy hurt?
We actually had this some ago in sweden once, but it failed to catch on for the general population and was discontinued. Technology is not always the answer for everything, though it'll be interesting to see how this will fare this time around.
It's a regulatory agency. Just order it, you doofi.
18 years as a 911 operations admin and 30+ years programming.
Unless Verizon has rebuilt the entire system [read broke existing standards] this will, not if, but when, FAIL.
1) no ID information - calling has a phone number
2) no LOCATION X/Y Lat Lon information - that is the latest FCC of Phase2 911, 100meter-90% and 30meters-60% of time
3) no TCP/IP - can this read sequence packets of out you?
4) no guarantee of delivery NOW - does a lot of good to get text 2 hours later
5) no *off network* stability - this will be gateways on and off the carriers network which have issues
6) NO FUNDING - this is Next Gen 911 [NG911] and it is EXPENSIVE and has no regulation [FCC/Public Utility Commission] on internet like phones do so the providers are pushing this
many, many more issues that indicate a LAW SUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN
[on blackboard of Law 101 - It's not whether you win or lose, but how long you drag it out on billable hours]
Me: Hey baby - I want to play put it where it doesn't belong.
911: Please state the nature of your emegency.
Me: I need to shoot my load reallly bad
911: Police are being dispatched to your location.
You actually PAY for SMSing? I don't think any service provider here in my country actually charges for SMSs, they did a while back but not any more.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
emergencySMS. Requires registration. Marketed to the deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired, but Mountaineers are recommended to sign up too
Thank you for contacting 911. Standard text message charges may apply from your wireless provider, depending on your text message plan. If you have an unlimited text messaging plan, then there would be no additional charge. 911 is not responsible for any fees charged by your wireless provider. If you wish to continue to send notifications to 911, please reply with CONTINUE. At any time you may discontinue 911 text services by sending STOP to 911.
Cellular voice/data -- existed for a couple decades. Barely-regulated private kleptocracy; every provider sucks in an individual, unique way.
I humbly disagree. While carriers may have some unique versions of their own "suck", there are plenty of methods of suck which they share around (hidden fees, unreasonable limits, and terrible contracts come to mind).
Not as uncommon as you might think. I'd rather not have to talk loud enough for the cellphone operator to hear me whilst hiding in the closet from armed intruders.
Within the EU, there's a requirement that all phones - including public payphones and mobiles - be able to dial 112 for free. Usefully, 112 is also in the GSM standard, so calling 112 will work even in the USA, connecting to 911. Not sure if dialing 911 in Europe would work.
i c suspect in hoodie omg here he comes SMG!
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
While its good to have this as an option as in this case more options are good, calling 911 and leaving the phone off the hook ( prompting a police visit ) is far faster than having to sit there and actually text 'help me'.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
OMG 911 PLZ HELP...ive fallen n i cant get up!
thanks bro...this looks totally legit
ur ideas r interesting....imma follow u on twitter
911: I put on my robe and wizard hat!
...who have forgotten how to make phone calls because they only use their cell phones for txting.
J