ICE is updated - ready to change your contacts again?

The “In Case of Emergency” (ICE) method of storing specific contacts as emergency contact numbers is going to be updated, following new standardization from the ITU. The changes involving writing 01, 02, 03 (and so on) against certain relative designations (such as father, wife, husband), written in the users’ native language, to help emergency workers identify contacts in order of priority – so you may have “01father” or “02wife” for example.

The initial PR around ICE was that you would replace the name of your emergency contact with the word “ICE” – however this was seen as prohibitive as some people might not recognise the convention. Therefore a numerative solution has been chosen, with digits as the prefix.

The new standard, which is a clause to ITU-T Recommendation E.123, internationalizes the ICE concept and recommends the use of Arabic numerals (0 to 9) to denote emergency contact numbers in a handset’s directory. It exploits the fact that even though written scripts differ around the world these digits are universally recognized, making it usable by anyone regardless of language or script.

ITU-T Recommendation E.123, or the notation for national and international telephone numbers, defines a standard way of writing telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and web addresses. ICE4SAFETY has modified its symbol by incorporating the reference E.123.

So what do the IntoMobile readers make of this? Although I understand the concept, I can’t help but think it complicates things a little. In the UK, when the ICE concept was popularized, a lot of people I knew made the change – but now there needs to be an additional educational process (for both professionals and individuals alike) that lets them grasp this new change. I thought “ICE” was simple – the new ICE is just that little bit less clear – which isn’t what you want in an emergency, surely? Comments welcome……….

[Via: Cellular News]

About The Author

Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

Mark Balduzzi

Hello Ben and Readers,
ICE4SAFETY has been making the concept of preparedness useful on a number of different levels – one of which is through the use of communication devices such as cell phones.

One of the biggest issues has been the lack of an easily recognized symbol and a confusing array of distracting advertising symbols meant to sell products – not enhance safety, which is why the original symbol was designed.

This was no “on a whim” passing fancy as some of the usual purveyors of less efficacious items seem to be pushing.

If you peruse the ICE website and Google Blog you will see various organizations have adopted the symbol as the representative tool to use. There are also various other applications that transend simply using ICE in commnication devices. Not everyone carries cell phones – plus they can fail.

Everyone can avail themselves of the useful concept icluding the E.123 Standard approach in their daily lives – anywhere. E.123 is keeping it simple (KISS) using Arabic Numerals.

ICE also was designed by people who are intimately involved in emergency service work as an EMT, Police Supervisor and full time safety professionals….not a drugstore marketing rep or a beer salesman.

ICE will soon become an APP for you techie afficionados. ICE4SAFETY continues to adapt to the EMS environment and provide the tools as a continuing PUBLIC SERVICE…..

Thanks for your time.
John

I always added an exclamation point (! ) to "In Case of Emergency ICE" So, "! In Case of Emergency ICE" is at the top of my address book. If they search before looking, ICE is still there.