911 Operators To Use Text Messaging

The state’s 911 operators will soon be able to receive emergency reports by text message. The Tennessee Emergency Communications Board voted unanimously Thursday to approve a pilot project led by AT&T. It sounds like a relatively simple advance in technology, but telecom companies have spent years trying to find a good way to send text messages to 911, and they still don’t have one. Tennessee will become the largest test case in the country. Smaller-scale systems have been implemented in Vermont and North Carolina where very few people used the service.