Full Notification

Status of Implementation of Voluntary Text-to-911

In December of 2012, The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) which is an international leader committed to providing complete public safety communications joined the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and the nation’s four largest wireless carriers in announcing a voluntary commitment to offer text-to-911 services by May 15, 2014. As part of this voluntary commitment, and beginning on July 1, 2013, the four carriers involved in the agreement – AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless – agreed to provide quarterly progress reports to APCO, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and NENA summarizing the status of the deployment of a national text-to-9-1-1 service capability.

The reports were due one day after the carriers were required to implement a “bounce-back” (auto reply) message to alert subscribers attempting to text an emergency message to 9-1-1 to instead dial 9-1-1 in areas where text-to-9-1-1 is unavailable. All four carriers indicated in their filings that this deadline had been met.