An Important Message About Emergency Texting

No doubt, texting is popular. But in an emergency situation, always call the emergency number to be sure that your message gets through to the dispatcher and that the rescue team can find you by using your cell phone's location-based sevice.

Let me state this succinctly: if you are in an emergency, do NOT try to contact police, fire, or ambulance services using text messages or instant messaging. There is no guarantee those messages are going to reach public safety dispatch centers in a timely manner, and your location will NOT be communicated with the message.

Communicating this warning was the point of a recent 4G Americas’ press release and white paper titled Texting to 9-1-1: Examining the Design and Limitations of SMS. (Andrew Solutions is a board member of 4G Americas, FYI.) The white paper presents a view of the capabilities, limitations, threats, and vulnerabilities of using text communications for 9-1-1 notification in the U.S.

Be safe! Call 911. Don't Text!

Many communities and public safety organizations have been researching this issue. The concern is that some disabled citizens might be unable to speak to emergency dispatchers on the phone. Texting is being looked at to see if it could be a supportable, viable alternative.

Despite the enormous popularity and usage of texting, it has always been supported by operators only with vacant network capacity. Voice calls take up available capacity first. That means that in areas where network capacity is full, text messages are delayed until capacity is freed up by a decrease in mobile calls. That is why sometimes text messages do not appear immediately on your phone when someone sends you one, but a few hours or even a day later. In an emergency, time is of the essence, so text messages are an unreliable means of trying to contact emergency services.

Equally important is the fact that no location information is tied to a text message, unlike with mobile phone calls. When a wireless call comes into a public safety center, the dispatcher receives location information automatically. (Location information is what Andrew’s GeoLENs® Location Solution enables in wireless networks, FYI.) But no location information is tied to text messages, so nothing gets delivered automatically to the dispatcher. That means in the best scenario, a texter would need to provide that info—and do it accurately. In emergencies or with network delays, however, that is not always possible.

The lesson here: if you’re in an emergency, continue to call the emergency services number, such as 9-1-1. Do not rely on text.