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New FCC Rules Bring 'Bounce-Back' Messages and More to Text-to-911

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May 21, 2013

New FCC Rules Bring 'Bounce-Back' Messages and More to Text-to-911

By Steve Anderson, Contributing TMCnet Writer


The idea of sending a text message to 911 is a sound one -- it's a mostly silent approach, after all, which can have its own value in high-stress situations -- but it's not a technology that's available just anywhere. New rules that recently emerged from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)), however, are providing new guidance to providers in terms of handling those who try in areas where the technology isn't available, while also requiring development in the direction of allowing all users to have text-to-911 technology.


The new rules regarding the bounce-back messaging system boast a deadline of September 30, 2013, so development will have to proceed in pretty rapid fashion to be in place before the next few months pass. Under the terms of the new rules, the FCC requires those carriers that provide text messaging services to send the "bounce-back" message to any caller attempting to use text messaging to 911 in an area in which the service has not yet rolled out.

While the FCC didn't require a standard wording for the message in question, it did require that two specific points be made clear within the context of the message itself. One, the message must inform the user that text-to-911 service isn't available in that particular area, and two, the message must direct users to contact 911 by other means. Carriers are free to add other information, like what forms of contact are available in that particular area, and can word the messaging however the carriers feel best. This measure, according to the FCC, allows for "the necessary guidance and flexibility to create bounce-back messages that are understood by their particular consumer base."

The FCC also noted that, based on current information, customers already expect to be able to send text messages to 911 and have these messages treated like normal phone calls. For example, a recent report from Telecommunications Systems to the FCC made it clear that Verizon (News - Alert) subscribers had sent fully 23,000 text messages with a target of 911 in just the six month period after October 2012. What's more, better than half of those texts--specifically, 13,000--were sent in areas in which text-to-911 isn't supported.

Perhaps most telling is that the FCC even put together a cost-benefit analysis for those hesitant to install text-to-911 service. Under the FCC's estimates, text-to-911 was expected to bring in over 10 times the highest estimated costs, which were expected to not be over $4 million annually.

Granted, the FCC's numbers involved cardiac arrest patients as its defining model, which may make some doubt the numbers, but still, it's a telling statement. Add the FCC's numbers on to the fact that the user base clearly wants this service available and that makes for a pretty clear course of action for the various mobile carriers out there even without the FCC's insistence that text-to-911 be the next stop for carriers.

It's seldom a bad idea to have another option for summoning help in an emergency on hand, and text-to-911 looks to be the kind of idea that a lot of users can get behind. It remains to be seen if the carriers will keep up with customer expectations and the FCC's wishes, however.




Edited by Rich Steeves







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