SMS cannot be trusted for emergency communications
4G Americas warns of risks of using text or instant messages for 911 calls
Published: 13 October, 2010
READ MORE: North America | Messaging | Security
The wireless trade association, 4G Americas, has warned of the risks of relying on SMS or instant messaging to contact emergency services, an issue it says is increasingly urgent for safety and cellular groups.
In a white paper called 'Texting to 911: examining the design and limitations of SMS', the body says there is a "perception that SMS is reliable; however SMS was never designed as a reliable means for life saving critical communications". It has similar reservations about instant messaging, MMS and other varieties of 'texting' such as Twitter.
"While we understand the desire to use SMS to contact 911, SMS has significant limitations and shortcomings that do not make SMS suitable for emergency communications, especially under life threatening conditions," said Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas, in a statement. "Today, voice 911 communication is the best and most reliable method of reporting an emergency and summoning help quickly. The industry is working on developing a reliable, non-voice solution to contact emergency services that is not based on SMS."
This solution is called NOVES and is being developed by various north American safety organizations plus wireless groups like 3GPP. This could be applied to other countries too.
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Posted by mobilefacts on Wednesday 23rd October, 2010
by MobileFacts on Wednesday 13rd October, 2010
No technology is failure proof; we all know this by now. On a pure characteristic basis: 1) Small data package, 2) Reach, 3) Push, 4) Ubiquity SMS is still by far the most appropriate technology for mass micro communications.
Challenge the commentator to demonstrate in any live or lab environment that they can handle more voice calls than SMS messages in ANY emergency environment. Currently both voice and SMS run over the same SS7 channel only thing is SMS is more likely to get delivered than the voice call being able to connect...we have all experienced this first hand during Christmas eve and peak times.
The comments is bias in misleading...
Posted by llew on Friday 15th October, 2010
Why fix it when it aint broke?
There is no other communication channel that is more effective at enabling near-real time communication in disaster notification or management situations. There is no documented instance that I am aware of where SMS has failed in this application, but plenty where it has been resoundingly successful.
Posted by robertsanchezgtm on Friday 22nd October, 2010
Very interesting study by 4G Americas, but I think your headline may be a bit misleading Caroline. In terms of providing information to a 9-1-1 operator in an emergency, direct phone calls are certainly the way to go, but texting during an emergency can be a great way to efficiently share information. Whether its between family members or between public safety officials and the community, SMS provides an effective channel to communicate. My company Globaltel Media has customized our SMS messaging service for these types of emergency situations. From alerting fellow public safety officials (within a specific agency) of an in-process situation to providing community alerts on a massive scale, the potential for SMS benefiting emergency personnel and community members alike is exponential. Thanks again for the article.