Nødnett Starts New text-based Emergency Messages Trial Project
Directorate for Emergency Communication (DNK) has been commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to implement a pilot project for text-based emergency messages for the deaf and hearing impaired.
DNK, that is leading the project, said that the text messages will be received in the same system as the voice-based messages.
For the trial, the Police Directorate, Directorate of Health and Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency are planning to join the group.
The solution was demonstrated for Minister of Justice and Public Security, Anders Anundsen in August this year and the trial will be launched during 2016. According to DNK, the solution should be just as safe and robust as the voice-based emergency services.
For the emergency services, it was important to get messages into the same system as voice-based emergency messages. Also, the operational procedures must be feasible for emergency services so that messages are handled just like any other emergency messages when they arrive.
There is consensus among the emergency services to get started quickly, and to get a seamless integration with nødmeldesentralene. SMS is supported by all mobile phones, and the 2G network is cellular with the best coverage.
The pilot project will run for two years and will provide some good experience on how the solution is actually used and how effective the operational procedures will be. This should provide proper a basis for evaluating on how such a service should be organized in the future.
