FCC Updating 911 for the Texting Generation, SRSLY

In a bid to bring the life-saving emergency service 911 into the 21st century, the FCC is looking at letting citizens report crimes through text messages and even stream video from their mobile phones to emergency centers.

National standard in 1968

Established as a national standard in 1968, 911 handles more than 230 million calls a year — 70 percent of which now come from mobile phones.

The last real overhaul of 911 by the FCC came in 2001, when mobile carriers were required to allow 911 to identify the location of callers either through GPS or cell-tower data. In the middle of the decade, some internet telephony companies were also required to implement 911 calling that would route emergency calls to the appropriate local center — a non-trivial task given the mobility of laptops and equipment using voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP).