Just this past week the text message turned 20 years old, with the first message saying “Merry Christmas”. With billions of text messages sent and read every single day, you can say texting has become popular.
The four major wireless carriers – Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile – have all signed up to allow a new emergency text-to-911 service. Customers of other wireless carriers will most likely see the feature on their carrier, such as StrightTalk and Virgin Mobile in the following months. The national emergency service is looking at a release date of May 2014. The FCC, the drive force for the service, released reports that by 2014 90% of all wireless customers will be allowed to access the service and that does include people with hearing or speech disabilities.
As many of us may know text messages tend to fail to be sent. The carriers have implemented a return text message stating if your 911 message was not received or is not available in your area. The FCC says that this service is only if you cannot make a call to 911; it is always best to speak to a live person.
The agency is also pushing for a “next generation” of 911 services from wireless carriers. The ability to communicate via photos, videos and other cell phone add-ons. Over the summer, of 2012, Verizon was the first to bring the service to the US for public use. Let’s just hope they don’t go as far as tweeting 911 calls.