Finalist for Best Public Use of Mobile Award
Mediaburst announces that it was nominated one of three finalists for Mobile Industry Review’s 2008 Best Public Use of Mobile award alongside Vodafone/UN and Orange Rockcore.
The judges considered Cleveland Police’s use of dynamic text services for the deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people as one of the most innovative public uses of mobile phones.
Until the mobile came along, and SMS with it, deaf and speech-impaired people had great difficulty in contacting emergency services. They had to rely upon family and friends to report life issues or social misbehaviours on their behalf. Today, the deaf community is one of the most prolific users of SMS.
All that the deaf community in Cleveland Police’s boroughs need now do to report an incident is to text the word POLICE to 87202 giving their address and explanation of the problem. The message is automatically converted into email and forwarded to Cleveland’s communication centre where incidents are recorded and actioned.
The eventual winner of the award was Vodafone/UN.
“Clearly, we’re delighted to be nominated for this prestigious award and we congratulate Vodafone and the United Nations on becoming eventual winners,” says Gary Bury, Mediaburst’s managing director. “Cleveland Police’s initiative has proved an outstanding success and police forces across the country are now looking to adopt SMS for their deaf communities.”