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.

Comments

Specific use cases

[TaoPhoenix]

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.

Re:Specific use cases

[Barbarian]

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.

Not only that, most phones emit a very load beep when making an emergency call.

Re:Specific use cases

[Dan East]

For me this is a very good thing due to the technical aspects, not whether or not you can speak. A text message is just one single packet of data (140 bytes, which can encode 160 7 bit characters). At the lowest voice bitrate, a single second of audio is like sending over 50 text messages - PER SECOND. It takes a much better (as in consistent) connection to initiate and maintain a voice call compared to sending a text message. It also requires a lot more power. As someone who does a lot of hiking and dual sport motorcycle riding in the Appalachian mountains, I know first hand that often the only usable mode of cellular communication is SMS (and don't even dream about data with a bad connection - that's worse than voice even). Of course I also carry my amateur radio as a last ditch fallback if there was an emergency.

Another big advantage of SMS is your phone will keep retrying to send the message. With voice 911 you have to manually try over and over again until you can get a connection.

If you look at the death of CNet editor James Kim, and the miraculous survival of his wife and two very young children, you'll find they were saved because just a few packets of cellular data made it from their phone to a cell tower, and a diligent cell tech found that in a log file (which narrowed down the search and his wife and children were found as they were on foot trying to hike out). It's my opinion that they are alive today due to a rare and unpredictable phenomenon known as Tropospheric Ducting, which can temporarily reflect radio waves back down to earth (thus greater than line of sight) when there are layers of atmosphere at different temperatures in the exact right configuration (kind of like how you can see light shimmer over a road surface on a hot day - that is because of the temperature gradient of the air directly above the road compared to the air above it - same thing can happen with radio waves at a larger scale).

Anyway, there are many times that SMS messages can get through when a voice connection cannot. I will stop on my motorcycle and send a text, then maybe 30 minutes later it will finally go through as I temporarily get service on a mountain ridge, or my cell phone is simply rotated to a more optimum angle relative to the cell tower.

Re:Specific use cases

[CastrTroy]

Maybe there should be an app on the phone that dials 911 but puts the phone on mute so that no sounds are emitted from the phone, perhaps with the screen off as well. Perhaps it should play a pre-recorded message to the operator so they know what's going on, and the operator can then hear any noise that's happening in the vicinity. You could even activate it with a panic button that you have on your keychain or in another covenient spot so you don't have to get to your phone in order to activate it.

Re:Specific use cases

[Anonymous Coward]

The woman hiding in a closet or under a bed hiding from an intruder is a good example. The one I recall, she texted her friend who called 911 but they didn't make it in time unfortunately.

[John]

When seconds count, the police are minutes away.

Re:Specific use cases

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not a soundbyte; it's the truth. His point is that the police don't actually protect anyone.

Better in thought than in practice

[mbadolato]

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!!!"

Re:Better in thought than in practice

[ShanghaiBill]

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!!!"

Obvious solution: The hefty fines ($200 per call in California) for making non-emergency voice calls to 911, could also apply to non-emergency text messages.

Re:Better in thought than in practice

[Waffle Iron]

and being that they will have proof from the phone owner they can start ticketing and arresting people the next day

Except in Colorado, where that's now a legitimate emergency situation.

Re:Topic getting buried!?

[Bigbutt]

Well Illinois was the first site we set up to use/test Text 2 911 and since we're based in Colorado, maybe that's why it's there (unlikely though, Boulder County uses our competitor's Reverse 911 system). But in general it's going to be up to the various phone companies and PSAPs as to who buys into the service.

[John]

Re:point of texting 911

[TaoPhoenix]

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.

Re:technical aspects

[TaoPhoenix]

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.

Use cases

[Camaro]

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.