You can now contact emergency dispatchers in New York City and San Francisco by texting 911. The service is intended primarily for the deaf, hard of hearing, and survivors of domestic violence. It also for times when a medical emergency arises that renders the person incapable of speaking For the rest of us, a voice […]
The FCC has officially adopted new rules for the accuracy of location data reported to dispatchers when someone dials 911 on a cell phone in the US. For the first time, vertical position data will be required, so first responders can locate people needing help in multi-story buildings. The rules will be phased in starting April […]
A US teenager has been jailed for 15 months for involvement in a prank call leading to an innocent man’s death. Casey Viner, 19, from Ohio, conspired with fellow gamer Tyler Barriss to make a so-called swatting call to police. Swatting call is a hoax phone call designed to make special weapons and tactics (SWAT) […]
Google is adding a new feature to some Android phones that can speak to an emergency operator on your behalf when you call 911. During an emergency call, three new buttons — “Medical”, “Fire”, and “Police” — will be available in case you’re unable to speak. They will initiate a voice message to the emergency operator that […]
A nationwide outage for CenturyLink customers, including those trying to reach 911, continues into its second day. Customers of the phone, internet and TV service provider have been hit by the outage, including in Idaho, New Mexico and Minnesota. The company’s site lists residential services in 35 states. The outage hit 911 service across the […]
Google and T-Mobile are working together to ensure that T-Mobile customers’ location is more accurately pinpointed when calling 911 emergency services. About 80% of the annual 240 million 911 calls in the U.S. are made via cell phones. Where landlines can point to an exact address for emergency services, cell phones often provide only a […]
Apple today said iPhones will soon provide 911 emergency services with more exact locations of callers. Since 2015, Apple has relied on HELO (Hybridized Emergency Location), which uses cellular, GPS, and wifi access points to estimate 911 callers’ locations. This system is not always perfect. Starting with the release of iOS 12 in the fall, Apple […]
OnePlus has created a patch for a bug that impacted the OnePlus 5 handset’s ability to call 911. Some OnePlus 5 owners reported that calling 911 forced their handset to reboot, thus ending the in-progress 911 call. This has obvious safety implications. OnePlus worked directly with those impacted by the issue to develop a software fix […]
Lenovo issued a notice this week warning that the Moto G5 Plus may not be able to connect 911 calls via VoLTE on Verizon’s wireless network. The company has identified the bug and expects to issue a software patch in the next week or so. Until then, Lenovo suggests owners of the Moto G5 Plus […]
Apple this week distributed iOS 10.3 and with it a plug for a serious vulnerability that impacted 911 call centers. Last fall, an Arizona man created code that forced iPhones to call 911 over and over. The code, which appeared as a link, spread via Twitter and it was later shared as a prank. The […]
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