A gap year student and two friends were rescued from drowning in rough seas off South Africa after texting his backpack hostel to alert lifeboat crews.
The trio were stuck for two hours until Mr George-Carey finally managed to send a text message saying: “trapped on a rock, surrounded by water, SOS, send coastguard”. Thankfully George understood that SMS travels on a different part of the network to voice and therefore does not rely on signal strength to succeed. “I had tried phoning the hostel but there was only one signal bar left and they couldn’t hear me. In the end, I texted someone.” stated a relieved George. Ray Farnham, station commander of the National Sea Rescue Institute, said: “A few more minutes and they would have been swept off the rock.” This is why many businesses rely on SMS for disaster planning communications