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For US Customers, Text Access To 911 Slowly Rolls Out
SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "After it was long rumored and discussed about, the ability to text 911 in case of emergency is slowly rolling out in the United States to subscribers of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. For the time being, the service is available in areas of Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. According to the FCC, the service will gradually roll out to more areas and by the end of this year, virtually anyone with a cellphone and enough service will be able to make use of it. Which means that all carriers will support it." TechCrunch has a deeper article that explains why "you probably can't use it yet," and links to the FCC's own explanation of the service.
Maybe I've seen too many TV shows but if you have a pre-recorded text for 911, something like seven key strokes can send it silently whereas the standard voice call risks the attacker hearing you.
I wasn't impressed with the article. At a higher level there has to be some coding you can send that says "can't speak, puts my life in danger". I don'tr know what that would be, but it rises above the article's cheap promotion of voice calls.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
This is great idea, right up until they start receiving a zillion drunk texts or things like "EMERGENCY!!! I'M REALLY HIGH AND TACO BELL IS CLOSED! SEND HELP IMMEDIATELY!!!"
OMG! I ran over some1! LOLZ!
I stopped breathing! Where u at?!
Is the huge ass pop up really necessary? There's already a huge ass banner ad at the top. I used to be able to turn ads off because of my high karma. I'm not sure what happened to that.
Is help?
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
See my note above.
For example let's forget tinfoil hats and assume that for once the cops are on your side. You go visit them on a nice safe day and get a series of codes.
Then you folks work together to make a few pre-recorded 911 texts with those codes and stuff they will need as mentioned in the article. Responders are at work, it's not like chatting, they don't mind a Wall of Text. So with some sort of few keystroke system if you can send any of nine 911 text messages in 12 seconds, that's gotta be plenty for them to get started with. Yes on the rare case you send that as a joke you get a fine, but the life saving side will way outweigh it;
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
will it work with no plan? work with blocked txting?
I had to block txting as I was paying for incoming spam txts.
The only way, I "text" people.
I think you make a good point. These services tend not to flesh out as fast as they need to. But for example any of the dating apps are free (with ads) via Wifi (in your home) So if they really wanted to drill this out (see my note above, emergency codes help) you could for example text 911 on a dating site for free.
It comes down to how much they want to actually help people vs the political capital. It's not hard to monitor "911" on any of thirty dating apps if they spread the word to solve exactly the problem you mentioned.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I for one cannot wait for the damn you autocorrect 911 screenshots.
Okay, this is kinda an important topic and too many junk post are threatening to bury it so I will keep raising a couple of new avenues to discuss.
It's a weird collection of states. Pasted:
Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont and Virginia
Linear:
Colorado
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Maine
Maryland
Montana
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Hallo Sir Avenger.
I'll go even further with a new avenue. Let's say that there is no attacker, that it's a "contained" emergency like a self inflicted wound or an auto hit or whatever. *Both* text *and* voice could save lives. If you have stuff like
"Geroald MacKenzei with the ei and watch the unusual spellings 1433 Maple Avenue #7F Woodside, NY next to 5th and 6th Ave hits M and R trains just past the cross junction of Broadway and Roosevelt. Remember you need to have someone get you in the building." ...all as a pre-recorded 911 text you just smash it out during your call and the operator should have the tech to power-blast it to all 17 agents. So you don't need to waste time with the Op on stupid junk repeating it because Texts Can't Be Forgotten. (done right)
Our traditional notions of 911 are somewhere stuck half in 1977 and half with modern tech that 1882 TV cop shows is possible but somehow the carriers are treating it like a big deal to get a text message and send a squad car.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
One problem is that 911 isn't implemented in all the US states. Something like 98% of the US is covered by 911. And riding my bike into Canada, there are places where there are signs that say "911 not available past this point". Another point is there are many PSAPs still using very old technology. With a small population, they may not see the need (or have the funds) to buy into a large infrastructure. That's why there are going to be so many different methods of Texting. In larger areas you can send text, pictures, and video. But smaller areas will be limited to just text or nothing at all. Plus it depends on the service being used. New York rolled out a Text 2 911 service a couple of years back where you can't send pictures or video but there's another company providing a more robust, fully integrated video and picture upload capability (note that I work for this company but only as a sysadmin).
[John]
Shit better not happen!
Nice angle Dan. I needed you to start the angle because I don't have the skills for that post but I can ride with it.
Working with that use case, my older iPhone croaks right about at the 6% mark (when it's not glitching.) So for ex if you are right at 7% battery because you spent all day doing stuff, and didn't recharge, you might be able to smash out one or two texts but don't have time for the full call. Similar thing, folks like me have "value plans" for phones and with 60 cents left on the plan there's no way I'd get a call out but I might be able to manage two texts.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
You're close and this would be really easy to make. You just need a bit of a clever UI that stops most prank calls but is "unforgettable" in real emergencies. The actual tech of this is a snap.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out on the premises of 123 Cavendon Road... no, that's too formal.
[deletes text, starts again]
Fire - exclamation mark - fire - exclamation mark - help me - exclamation mark. 123 Cavendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. Yours truly, Maurice Moss.
I read the article (gasp! Shocking, I know) and recognise there are certainly important use cases for texting 911. But I work in EMS on a volunteer basis and I would think that in most cases voice calls would work far better, especially in medical situations. There can be a lot of helpful information that can be transferred in a more timely manner that way. Symptoms, time of onset, if situation changes during time of response, number of patients. Working in a rural area it can also be challenging to get an accurate location. In some situations, the 911 operators will also guide the caller in providing early care, such as CPR in a cardiac patient. So yeah, if one is physically able, and it's safe to do, take the time to talk to 911. They know what questions to ask and they will pass that information to the responding agencies so they know what to expect on arrival. Doing the same thing by text would only slow things down.
BLEEDING TO DEATH ROFLCOPTER
Does 911 actually use your plan minutes? Everywhere I have been emergency services we free and always available from any phone. At least as far as I know.
Calling 911 doesn't cost you a damn thing.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
OMG!! hve leg brkn leg. send hlp. k thx LOL
The clever UI to prevent prank calls is the fine you get when you make prank calls to 911.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
1882 TV cop shows
Ah, that old classic, Ye Olde Bylle.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Another use case is for deaf people. Currently 911 dispatch centers are required to provide a TDD number, but fewer and fewer deaf homes are bothering with TDD service so they must first reach an operator at a non-emergency relay service before they can contact the 911 center.
In time, the FCC should be able to relax the TDD service requirement and 911 centers can spend those funds on text messaging capabilities instead.
I could probably get help a lot faster via text than a phonecall, in theory. But I have a feeling that auto-correct would fail me at the most inopportune moment. I type "Help! I cut my arm and I'm bleeding bad - nobody is home with me!" iPhone sends: "Help! I catamaran and I'm Breaking Bad - nobody Ishmael with me!"
Yes it does... but it's usually bundled in with your phone service (often required by law, depending on ones jurisdiction).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
You can call 911 without phone service (e.g. remove the SIM call from a GSM phone and 911 will still work). This is, of course, effectively subsidized by those paying for phone service, but there's no actual billing to the user. There's places that take donations of old cell phones to give them to people so they can call 911.
Yes, you can... but 911 service is also generally bundled with whatever your phone package costs. The "free' 911 calls that people make without paying for any service are relatively few, and effectively subsidized by the people who are paying for phone service.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Didn't you mean for US citizens, or has the difference vanished nowadays? I smell cynicism on a large scale here ...
I volunteered as a 911 operator, for a sheriff's department (county population around 400,000) for over a dozen years. When cell phones started to take off in the 90's, it was quite COMMON to know that something was going on when the phones lit up pretty much at the same time. Also, with the stupidity of the average U.S. citizen, they would call for some of the dumbest things, that were never an emergency. I remember once, I already had fire & ambulance ON SCENE of a 2 car injury crash on an interstate highway. In other words WE WERE ALREADY THERE, and the phone rang and some idiot called to tell us about the wreck we had ALREADY arrived on, 10-20 minutes earlier. Now, give everyone the ability to text to 911, and they will have to send the bulk of dispatchers to school, to learn how to type "in text talk". With young adults & kids speaking "in text" most dispatchers will have to be trained again LOL.
As a professional who answers 911 calls, I give this approximately 15 minutes before someone drunkenly texts in a selfie of their wang.