Since 1968 the standard for emergency calls has been 911. Over 230 million calls are handled each year and 70% of those come from cellular phones. With these technical advancements so wide spread 911 has had to make some changes to stay effective.
In 2001 the FCC made it mandatory for mobile carriers to provide 911 with information as to the location in which the call was placed through use of GPS locators or cell tower pings. The service was also implemented on internet telephone companies. This allowed calls from the computer to be directed to the appropriate call center for faster response.
Still the service is trying to keep up with the technological times and it is updating again this time to be able to receive text messages. In the UK people who have registered with the emergency SMS service can send text based messages to the emergency call center. It’s beneficial for people with disabilities who are unable to make a voice call. In the US they see an even wider range of benefits for handling text messages of all sorts to emergency personnel.
By texting emergencies, people could report crimes in situations where they need to be silent. The FCC notes how beneficial this would be and cites the massacre at Virginia Tech as an example where lives may have been saved had 911 been able to accept text messages.
"The technological limitations of 9-1-1 can have tragic, real-world consequences," the FCC noted in a press release, "During the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting, students and witnesses desperately tried to send texts to 9-1-1 that local dispatchers never received. If these messages had gone through, first responders may have arrived on the scene faster with firsthand intelligence about the life-threatening situation that was unfolding."
By working to adjust the system to accept multimedia text messages as well the hope is that responders can provide better, faster reactions. If the police have an image of the suspect before arriving on the scene they are more likely to catch the culprit. If paramedics can see a patient’s condition in a video before they get there then they can be better prepared to diagnose and deal with medical emergencies.
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By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a writer and blogger for Beyond.com. She researches and writes about job search tactics, training, and topics.
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