FCC Commits to Supporting SMS/MMS 911 Messages
Aug 10, 2011, 4:31 PM by Eric M. Zeman
The Federal Communications Commission today agreed to enable the nation's 911 emergency response system to accept text and picture/video messages in addition to phone calls. The FCC will explore the technical issues related to supporting SMS/MMS and make a more formal announcement in September. The FCC wants to make sure the nation's mobile and wired broadband networs will be able to handle the added capacity needs with the flood of data sure to be generated by the influx of SMS/MMS messages. The FCC believes that if it acts today, the 911 system wil be prepared to accept SMS/MMS messages within 5 to 10 years. Several municipalities in the U.S. have already begun accepting text, picture and video messages at their 911 centers. The FCC hopes to begin accepting text messages much sooner.
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