Whether it’s a fire, a bank robbery, or a stroke, the idea is that you’ll be able to pick up your cell phone and fire off a quick SMS to 911. Emergency dispatchers will send help your way and, thanks to the beauty of text, there is potentially less ambiguity regarding location.

That’s one advantage, but there’s one other big one: Users won’t be overheard while reporting an emergency. Imagine that you are in a hostage situation and you want to call for help. Calling 911 can get you in trouble with your captors, but secretly texting 911 can be much more stealthy on your part. That is, if we ever ran into that situation.

I’m thinking that the FCC is going to be a minor speedbump in getting such a system implemented compared to the funding concerns that would go along with getting it all set up properly… especially the personnel to respond to the influx of emergencies that would be reported. Making it more anonymous may get more reports, but I would imagine the texter would receive an immediate call back in order to provide more information.

Recently, PowerPhone Inc. received a US patent for their “Integrated Call Handler and E-Mail Systems and Methods.” This will allow “Incident Linked Multimedia” (ILM), meaning photos and video will be able to be transmitted to 911 too. [Mobile Burn]

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Last September, the Vancouver-area mother signed up her two teenage daughters and one teenage son to a three-year Student My10 plan. Under the terms of this plan, the children would be able to have unlimited calls and texts to and from 10 selected numbers. All received text messages from other numbers would also be included in the plan.

However, those terms changed in July of this year. All of a sudden, Rogers started charging 15 cents per incoming message if the subscriber did not have a “texting” plan. Considering that von Sacken’s 16-year-old daughter sends and receives about 200 text messages a day, those charges can add up very quickly.

You would think that von Sacken would be protected by her contract, right? If Rogers decided to change the terms of her agreement, von Sacken should have the right to ditch her service, right? Not according to Rogers.

According to Rogers, the written contract is separate from the Terms of Service document. As such, Rogers says it has the right to change its services and fees, because these are in the ToS and not in the contract.

As you can probably guess, von Sacken isn’t the only one displeased with Rogers. In fact, the Better Business Bureau in Burnaby, BC “has received 581 consumer complaints about Rogers Communications in the last three years. It has given Rogers an ‘F’ rating for failing to resolve many of those complaints to the customer’s satisfaction.”

Will the arrival of competitors like Wind Mobile help to change the Canadian cell phone industry for the better? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Source: CBC

The post Rogers Wireless Comes Under Fire, Charges for “Free” Text Messages appeared first on Mobile Magazine.