Emergency SMS Service for Hill Walkers
How the Emergency SMS Service Works
The Emergency SMS service lets deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people in the UK send an SMS text message to the UK 999 service where it will be passed to the police, ambulance, fire rescue, or coastguard. It is also available for Mountaineers/Hill Walkers when the signal strength is not sufficient for a voice call, but is sufficient for a text message.
You will need to register your mobile phone before using the Emergency SMS service. This is best done before you need help. Simply by sending a text message to 999 you can call for help and the emergency services will be able to reply to you.
Registering your Mobile Phone
To register for Emergency SMS:
The Emergency SMS service lets deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people in the UK send an SMS text message to the UK 999 service where it will be passed to the police, ambulance, fire rescue, or coastguard. It is also available for Mountaineers/Hill Walkers when the signal strength is not sufficient for a voice call, but is sufficient for a text message.
You will need to register your mobile phone before using the Emergency SMS service. This is best done before you need help. Simply by sending a text message to 999 you can call for help and the emergency services will be able to reply to you.
Registering your Mobile Phone
To register for Emergency SMS:
- Send the word 'register' in an SMS message to 999.
- You will then receive SMS messages about the service.
- When you have read these SMS messages, reply by sending 'yes' in an SMS message to 999.
- You will receive a SMS message telling you that your mobile phone is registered or if there is a problem with your registration.