Comments on: FCC Proposes Text-to-911 Service by 2014 http://www.911dispatch.com/2012/12/13/fcc-proposes-text-to-911-service-by-2014/ news and information about public safety communications since 1982 Fri, 23 Jan 2015 04:19:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 By: Steve http://www.911dispatch.com/2012/12/13/fcc-proposes-text-to-911-service-by-2014/comment-page-1/#comment-78323 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:46:14 +0000 http://www.911dispatch.com/?p=7292#comment-78323 As a public safety communications center director since since the pre-911 era through the present, I have taken many calls from emergency callers with hearing and speach disabilities through TTY’s (also knonw at TDD’s) which use baudot code. Until the availability of texting cell phones almost all households of hearing and speach impaired people had a TTY, and every dispatch center was also capable of receiving text messages from these devices. Since the availability of texting cell phones these people have abandoned the TTY’s as you could only communicate with another TTY, and went to cell phones and could now communicate with anyone else with texting capability, which 911 dispatch centers could not have texting cellphone capability, given their present infrastructure.

I have been saying for years that the FCC should require all cells phones have a 911 texting function that would automatically defalt to baudot code when using the text to 911 feature. The then task would be accomplished without waiting for the technological infrastructure of the entire country’s 911 call deliver system to be gutted and replaced with a system capable of using present texting technology.

As susal the tail is being allowed to wag the dog.

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