The real-time capability is currently available at the Emergency Communications Center in Hood County, Texas
T-Mobile US has partnered with cloud platform provider Sinch to launch NextGen 911 Real-Time Text (RTT), a new service that allows customers to text for emergency assistance. RTT, which the carrier first implemented in its devices in 2016, refers to the capability to send and read a text at same time, without the need to hit send.
The latest capability, currently available at the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) in Hood County, Texas, enables users to communicate with 911 through simultaneous conversational text and voice. The carrier pointed out that such an option is particularly beneficial for the nearly 48 million Americans who are Deaf or hard of hearing, as well as those who have speech-related disabilities or are non-native English speakers.
“RTT 911 provides an enhanced service to our community including Deaf, hearing or speech impaired individuals as well as those who want to use RTT,” confirmed Christy Williams, director of 911, North Central Texas Emergency Communications.
The real-time nature of the text communication is also expected to ensure a faster response time from emergency workers, as Chandy Ghosh, general manager and chief operating officer of emergency services at Sinch, explained: “Real-time texting is an important advancement because it allows the requestor and receiver to type at the same time and saves precious seconds, which are critical to successfully managing emergency calls and protecting the community.”
Further, in 2020, T-Mobile launched Location-Based Routing and Next Generation 911 (NG911) connectivity over IP. The advancements, according to the carrier, made the NextGen 911 RTT for 911 possible for callers in Hood County, Texas. By helping pinpoint the location of callers, the location-based routing and NG911 over IP have the potential to speed up emergency response times by helping pinpoint the location of callers.
While Hood County is currently the only location that has activated the latest NG911 capabilities, the foundation for them is available in 24 States, and T-Mobile and Sinch plan to expand RTT nationwide as public safety answering points (PSAPs) are ready to deploy the new technology.
