Text, send photos, and your location to 9-1-1!

Sept. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Someone has broken into your home and you’re hiding in your closet. Perhaps you’re hard of hearing or speech impaired. You’re locked in a car trunk after being abducted. You see a crime being committed and you inconspicuously take a picture of their vehicle. For these scenarios, and others, having the ability to send a text message, photo, and your location to 9-1-1 may well be life critical.  

Getting the word out is important since the majority of U.S. citizens do not realize that most every 9-1-1 center currently does not have the ability to support text messaging. This became very apparent when trapped students tried to text 9-1-1 during the Virginia Tech campus shootings of 2007.  Unfortunately these messages went nowhere!  The FCC has since announced their direction to incorporate texting and other digital media services under a plan called Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1).  A recent statistic published stated that 73% of adult wireless phone users regularly use the texting feature per the Pew Internet and American Life Project, while about 70% of the 240 million 9-1-1 calls received each year come from wireless phones, according to the Arlington-based National Emergency Number Association, and continues to increase.

Inline with the FCC’s NG9-1-1 direction to support texting and photos from mobile users, Ten43 Technologies introduced a new end-to-end service to support this plan. The mobile component of this service, Advanced 911 is available free at the iTunes App Store. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/advanced-911/id455783722?mt=8

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Ten43 Technologies was founded in 2010 when our Founder, Simon Illingworth, recognized through his background in public safety that 9-1-1 text messaging and the transfer of photos could be accomplished with purpose built mobile applications. He realized that there should be a mobile app to handle all of a person's 9-1-1 needs, and that they shouldn't be limited to voice calls for help. From here he set to work and launched the Advanced 911 service in September 2011. We believe our success comes from a combination of working extraordinarily hard, being meticulous about design, focusing on user experience and making sure that every one of our products is an indispensable tool for public safety. We take exceptional pride in our products and we think it shows.