There have been reports of long delays in receiving text messages. How quickly are the messages sent by the Center reaching users?
Delays generally occur within the wireless carriers network. The text message is transmitted to the carrier by the Center within seconds. Our testing so far has shown messages take 10-30 seconds to be received on average; however, we have experienced at least one delay of +20-minutes (obviously unacceptable for emergency dispatches). We believe the text-paging system has been reliable, but it is not a cure-all or intended as a replacement for traditional tone-alert paging. We should note, however, it is also possible for a delay to occur within the Countys network or for County equipment to fail. Obviously, though, we have far greater control over such situations, and intend to work toward making our system as efficient and “bulletproof” as humanly possible. If you do experience a situation in which a text-page dispatch appears to have been delayed, please contact the Center at your earliest convenience so we can attempt to determine why the delay occurred and what can be done to fix i
