Jurisdictions show ‘steady increase’ in text-to-911 service adoptions
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Jurisdictions show ‘steady increase’ in text-to-911 service adoptions
But the TTY-based approach to text-to-911 service has its shortcomings. The inability for the TTY to transfer a text message is a limitation, Jacques said, and she also has concerns about how emergency medical dispatching (EMD) and text messages in a foreign language would be handled over the text-to-911 service through TTY.
Once Maine finishes implementing its NG-911 system in August, officials plan to begin moving toward an IP/i3 connection. The state also plans to continue working with other carriers to deploy the service and with the public to increase awareness, Jacques said.
The FCC is pushing for nationwide availability of text-to-911 service by the end of this year. The four primary wireless carriers – AT&T, Spring, T-Mobile and Verizon – started offering the service in May as part of a voluntary agreement. The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interopability Council (CSRIC) recently approved best practices for requesting interim text-to-911 service.
Remarkable. Would it be
Remarkable. Would it be possible to request that Urgent Communications hold a town hall with technical professionals and dispatch center supervisors to discuss the huge challenges that are associated with making this technology work as reliably as E9-1-1 is today? In order to meet this popular wave of communications mode, and to be expected by the public to treat it the same, a great deal of sacrifice in service quality and reliability is being made on behalf of the public to accomdate this mode. It is a genuine shame that public safety is not getting the ability to stand up on this issue. It is very clear that the years invested in quality service management of E9-1-1 is going right down the tubes by enabling this unreliable and unmanageable route and treating it as equal. In the end, the public will be impacted. Why not just issue iPhones to all the dispatchers to answers calls for help at the same time? Its about the same level of control that has been given up by accepting the “feed” that is being provided now.