Mass Text Messaging EMS Personnel

[FireMedic65]

Then that phone you bought in about 1995 is probably very out of date

I mean some people don't have a texting plan and it would cost them money to receive them.

[brentoli]

Talk to your telecommunications provider, alot of private companies offer good paging deals and who knows, your comms room might just have the feature built into their system already, just sitting there unused

Some CADs do have that ability. We actually have what the OP is asking for. Our counties CAD sends and email to a distribution list, which then sends a text or email to everyone on the departments phone or pager. It is used as secondary alerting. On the average, it takes about 20 seconds from when I enter a unit to a call for the page to be received on my phone. Usually I forget to put my phone on silent, and it starts making obnoxious noises while I am keyed up doing the dispatch.

[krumel]

The problem with ordinary Textmessaging on a cell phone is that especially when using it across different networks the time it might take to recieve a message may vary very strong.

Especially in times when the cellphone networks collapses (etc. new years eve, big disasters) a SMS might take a lot longer than it takes normally.

The emergency plans of some network providers do even stop text messaging when their network is overcrowed.

Technically its possible to get an "priority" service for sending textmessages from or to a certain number but this will only be useful if the sender and the reciever are using both the same network (and the network provider doesn't do any "gateway sharing").

From the moment the message leaves the cellphone network of the sender by using the gateway to another network, the "priority" function won't be working any longer.

[brentoli]

The problem with ordinary Textmessaging on a cell phone is that especially when using it across different networks the time it might take to recieve a message may vary very strong.

Especially in times when the cellphone networks collapses (etc. new years eve, big disasters) a SMS might take a lot longer than it takes normally.

The emergency plans of some network providers do even stop text messaging when their network is overcrowed.

Technically its possible to get an "priority" service for sending textmessages from or to a certain number but this will only be useful if the sender and the reciever are using both the same network (and the network provider doesn't do any "gateway sharing").

From the moment the message leaves the cellphone network of the sender by using the gateway to another network, the "priority" function won't be working any longer.

Thats why you don't use text messages or alpha-numeric pagers for primary alerting.

[CBEMT]

This may be bigger than what you're looking for, but it's what we use: http://www.mir3.com/

[ds15]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I agree that pagers would be the best solution to this problem, but for a number of reasons that is not financially practical for this group. I will continue to look into the mass texting/emailing to cell phones route. Thanks again for the advice.

[brentoli]

If I don't get to it, remind me, and I will fill you in on how our system works viaPM.

[cynical_as_hell]

My company used mass text messegeing like what you are describing. I don't know how they have it set up but I do know that when there is a message sent out all the employees have it on their phones in less than 5 minutes. We use it for a variety of reasons, like needing more personnel for stations, transfers, emergency recalls. The nice thing about it is that only the supervisors are allowed to request a message to be sent out so we as employees know that it's not a scam. Again, I dont know any details for your questions, I just know that we use it and it works great.

[Richard B the EMT]

I am unable to recall the name of the service, but there is something referred to as a "Reverse 9-1-1 Caller" system.

In the event of a situation, the thing calls previously programmed in phone numbers, and delivers a taped message. In my neighborhood, for example, if the Office of Emergency Management orders the coastal evacuation due to the incoming hurricane, it is akin to 9-1-1 calling me about the emergency, at my home number.

This system, as I understand it, can also call individuals from a service/agency/department/squad, sub-groups, or the entire personnel list, for an emergency recall to work. A sample message I heard, when I called for general information from the company a decade ago, went to the effect of...

This is a taped message from Triple A Ambulance Service. Would the individual who works for this company, if on the line, press 1 for an urgent message, or call the dispatcher's office at the earliest opportunity for the urgent message?

Repeating, this is a taped message...

The ad was either in JEMS, or Emergency Medical Services magazine, and, as I said, this was easily a decade ago.

[AdamJ1555]

The cheapest solution is an email distribution list with everyone's SMS email address in it. The cell providers don't always like to give out the email address for SMS messages, but they are available. Here's a link with a long list of them:

http://www.supcast.com/providers.txt

Be safe!