On April sixteen, 2007, Virginia Polytechnic Institute was web-site to among the most horrific incidents ever to happen on a school campus—a shooting in which the perpetrator killed over 30 people and wounded many others. Americans make over 237 million 911 calls every year—that's well over half a million per day. Needless to say, Virginia Tech students and witnesses called 911 on that awful day. But during the catastrophe, they also repeatedly tried to send texts to 911. Unfortunately, local emergency communications centers weren't equipped to receive them. "If these messages had gone through," the Federal Communications Commission noted on Monday,
microsoft office 2007 Enterprise keygen, "first responders may have arrived on the scene faster with firsthand intelligence about the life-threatening situation that was unfolding." Today the agency is scheduled to propose new rules to gradually make the present 911 system accessible to text messages, pictures, and videos. "Next Generation 9-1-1" (NG911) is the code term for this transition. NG911 would also let various kinds of monitoring systems automatically call emergency services. "Examples of such devices include environmental sensors capable of detecting chemicals, highway cameras, security cameras, alarms,
windows 7 enterprise serial key, personal medical devices, telematics, and consumer electronics in automobiles,
office Home And Student 2010," the agency notes. And this capability would enhance the safety of people with disabilities, who often rely on texting as their main or only means of communications with others. Getting to texts The FCC's action builds on the Commission's move in September to mandate greater caller location accuracy from wireless carriers. The new rules require caller position identification to be on target within smaller defined geographic areas. They also require better compliance a larger percentage from the time. Transitioning 911 call centers to texting won't be easy. A few already accept texts, most notably the emergency response network of Black Hawk County,
office Standard 2007 activation key, Iowa, which became the first in the country to expand its services last year. But most lack the equipment necessary to receive photos, videos, or texts. Many don't even have access to broadband. And operators will need to be trained to receive and process these new kind of messages. The Commission's National Broadband Plan says that the biggest challenge to NG911 deployment is lack of money. Two years ago, the Department of Transportation estimated that the total price tag of rolling out a national NG911 system would be over $80 billion. So a big chunk of this project will depend on help from Congress. In the meantime,
office Pro 2007 activation key, the NBP also called on the FCC to begin a proceeding "exploring all issues for developing a multiple-platform, redundant next generation alert system," which presumably would integrate texts, pictures, and video into emergency response standards.