Allegheny County Text to 9-1-1 Now Available to AT&T Customers

Written and submitted by Allegheny County officials:

The Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services announced today that AT&T customers in Allegheny County can now utilize Text to 9-1-1 for emergency help when unable to make a voice call.

AT&T is the fourth provider to offer Text to 911 services to its customers. Verizon Wireless began offering the service in May, with T-Mobile adding the service in June, and Sprint adding the service in July.

The Text to 9-1-1 service is available to any customer of the four cellular companies, provided that the caller is within range of an Allegheny County cell tower. Text to 9-1-1 will allow access for the hearing/speech impaired and is also a safe means of contact to 9-1-1 for those who are in a situation where it is unsafe to speak on the phone. Individuals using Text to 9-1-1 should keep the following in mind:

· Customers should use the texting option only when calling 9-1-1 is not an option.

· Using a phone to call 9-1-1 is still the most efficient way to reach emergency help. Texting is not always instantaneous, which is critical during a life-threatening emergency. It will probably take slightly longer to dispatch emergency services in a text to 9-1-1 situation in Allegheny County because of the time involved. Someone must enter the text, and the message must go over the network and must be processed by the 9-1-1 telecommunicator’s TTY equipment. The telecommunicator must then read the text and then text back through the TTY equipment.

· Providing location information and nature of the emergency in the first text message is imperative, since the Center will receive only an approximate location of the cell phone and cannot speak with the person sending the text. Text abbreviations or slang should never be used so that the intent of the dialogue can be as clear as possible.

· Customers must be in range of cell towers in the Allegheny County area. If customers are outside or near the edge of the county, the message may not reach the County’s Communications Center.

· Texts sent to 9-1-1 have the same 160-character limit as other text messages.

· Customers must have mobile phones that are capable of sending text messages.

· The texting function should only be used for emergency situations that require an immediate response from police, fire, or emergency medical services. Non-emergency issues should still be communicated to the AlleghenyCounty Department of Emergency Services through its non-emergency line at 412-473-3056.

· SMS911 should only be used to communicate between emergency help and the texter with no pictures, video, other attachments or other recipients appended to the message.

To date, the Center has received 162 Text to 9-1-1 messages.