Future 911 method 'may accept textual content and video messages'

The US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is considering updating the 911 emergency call product to accept photograph, text and video clip messages. terrence43 auto insurance

Roughly 70% of 911 calls are by now currently being made from cellular telephones, explained FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.

However the 911 product doesn't at present "support the communication resources of tomorrow", he extra.

The FCC explained the Virginia Tech massacre was an incident when 911 multimedia technological know-how could have been employed.

Thirty-two people today were left dead after a pupil opened fire around the Virginia Tech university campus in 2007.

"Some students and witnesses tried to text 911 in the course of that emergency and as we know, these messages in no way went by way of and were in no way obtained by neighborhood 911 dispatchers," Mr Genachowski explained.

But these multimedia messages may soon be answered on account of broadband-enabled Up coming Generation 911, Mr Genachowski explained, in a very speech on the Arlington County Emergency Middle in Virginia.

"Even though cellular phones are the system of option for most 911 callers, and we largely use our phones to text, right this moment, you can't text 911. It is time to deliver 911 to the digital age."
Complex product

A product that would allow people today to report crimes devoid of currently being heard could also be utilized in circumstances ranging from kidnappings to robberies.

Mr Genachowski extra that texting can be a particularly valuable kind of communication for people today who are deaf and others which has a vary of disabilities.

But changes to your complicated 911 product are unable to happen overnight, nor devoid of a vote from the FCC.

The very last huge transform to your emergency product by the FCC occurred in 2001, when the group necessary cellular cellphone carriers to allow them to pinpoint a caller's geographic area both by way of GPS and by triangulating a caller's area by way of cellphone towers.

Established in 1968, the 911 emergency product handles greater than 230m calls per 12 months.