New technology is coming to El Paso and Teller counties. The countiesí 911 system is implementing programs that will allow everyone to text 911 when confronted with an emergency.Ben Bills, public information officer with the El Paso-Teller County 911 Authority, said he isnít certain of the release date for the new system. The equipment is in place, and letters have been sent to the four major cellular phone carriers ó Sprint, T Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T ó to turn on the service. ìOnce we get the service turned on, weíll be able to do some testing and then be able to roll it out,î he said.El Paso and Teller are among the first counties in Colorado to utilize the program. Pitkin County was the first. Bruce Romero, emergency communications director in Pitkin County, said they went live in October 2013 and currently have two providers ó Verizon and T Mobile.Romero said he believes usage is low because people donít want to text 911 in an emergency unless they have no choice. He cited situations where texting 911 could be necessary: ìThings like an intruder in the house … where speaking may give away your location and texting might be a better option.î Romero also said there is plenty of back country in Pitkin County, so texting might be beneficial in areas with low cell phone reception. ìThere might be enough signal to get a text out, but not enough to get a phone call out,î he said.ìIíd like to see other 911 centers implement it. A lot of centers are worried they are going to be overwhelmed, but everywhere this has been implemented in the U.S., thatís just not the case.î Bills said other counties similar in size to El Paso and Teller average about six texts a month. ìAny time you change technology, you have growing pains somewhere along the line,î he said.Bills said text messages do not carry address information like voice calls, so the person texting would have to provide additional information , which could be a drawback, he said. Also, 911 texts are not priorities on the cell phone networks. Romero said Telecommunications Systems is the company providing the platform that Pitkin County uses to deliver the text messages to the 911 center. El Paso and Teller counties will also use TCS.Greg Lathrop, 911 area manager with TCS, said their involvement is twofold. ìFirst, our company provides the service to the carriers,î Lathrop said. ìTheyíve chosen us for their vendor for routing 911 calls. On behalf of the companies, we route their text messages to the correct 911 center. Second, we provide the interface to answer the text messages.î He said they use a website, similar to instant messenger. The call center has an online chat session for the person texting 911.ì911 just hasnít been ready for that (texting) yet,î Lathrop said, adding that now that it is available, there is no cost to the 911 centers. ìThe technology is available, so why shouldnít we offer it?î
