Since Hurricane Sandy hit New York City lots of things have changed, but the major change that was observed is the introduction of reporting emergencies to 911 through wireless communication. As a result, the residents of the city now have the facility of big iPad like screens through which they can report emergencies, if the phone lines are down due to storm or any other reason.
This wonderful move by the authorities of the New York City inspired several people in other parts of the world as well, as recently working on the similar lines, London Fire Brigade is considering to use social media (Twitter) to report emergencies in order to take the load off from British Telecom that take 30 million emergency calls each year.
Now it seems that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is also looking to adapt this modern approach. CRTC has started taking feedback from Canadians on the adequacy and performance of 911 services in the country along with suggestions on how they can make it better.
The basic purpose of getting this feedback was that telecommunication networks are evolving and adapting new technologies quite fast, so authorities wanted to make sure “that the system continues to meet Canadians’ needs,” says National Commissioner, Tim Denton they need.
Therefore, CRTC hinted in their latest press release that reporting emergencies to 911 via email or text messaging might become possible in the future. In addition to this, CRTC also made it known that using Twitter for reporting emergencies is also in the cards, as this micro-blogging website has many users in Canada and it has been considered a vital source of news for long time now.
Explaining the details about new technology, Executive Director of the Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group, Lance Valcour said that “Currently, if you want 911 services, you have to phone. But also in the future it will be video to 911, photographs to 911, potentially social media to 911.”
The CRTC has already tested the feasibility of sending text messages to 911 earlier this year in three major cities Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and now it will look into other aspects. Due to this reason the current feedback that CRTC has asked for is opened for everyone whether they use a mobile phone or not because all they need to do is to submit a form that is available on the website of this authority and these submissions will be accepted till February 1, 2013.
By conducting all these activities, CRTC is looking to ensure that 911 services will become more accessible for the people living in this country and especially those, who rely more on wireless networks for communication because according to the company its users are “the pulse of the planet.”
Source: TechVibes
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