Decommissioning of Emergency SMS ‘70999’

Decommissioning of Emergency SMS ‘70999’

Announcement – Decommissioning of Emergency SMS ‘70999’

Emergency SMS Helpline service ‘70999’ (SPF) will stop on 1 Oct 2020.

Please use the number ‘71999’ (SPF) and ‘70995’ (SCDF) instead. No registration is needed, these numbers are to be used only in emergencies. 

What are these Emergency SMS Helpline services for? 

Members of the Deaf Hard of Hearing and Speech Impaired community (DHS) may not be able to make voice calls.

Emergency SMS Helpline services allow the DHS community to use a mobile phone to send an SMS to Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) during emergencies. 

History & Background 

	70995	71999	70999
Year Established	2008	2008	2016
Contact	SCDF	SPF	SPF
Registration	No	No	Yes
Service	In use	In use	Decommissioned from 1 Oct 2020

The Emergency SMS Helpline services – SMS ‘70999’ and SMS ‘70995’ – started in 2008. Subsequently, in 2016, the ‘71999’ SMS service was launched as part of the SG Secure initiative. 

‘71999’ and ‘70999’ SMS services serve the same function. The difference was that users of the ‘71999’ SMS service are not required to pre-register. To prevent confusion, the ‘70999’ SMS service will be decommissioned on 1 Oct 2020. 

This will not have any impact on individuals from the DHS community who SMS the Police for help.

For more information 

SMS 71999: www.police.gov.sg/SMS-71999

SMS 70995: www.scdf.gov.sg/home/about-us/information/sms-70995-emergency-service 

Original Text

The Emergency SMS Helpline services – SMS ‘70999’ and SMS ‘70995’ – were established in 2008 to enable the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Speech Impaired (DHS) community to communicate with SPF and SCDF in an emergency.  Members of the community could sign up for the Emergency SMS Helpline services by registering their information in a database.

In 2016, the ‘71999’ SMS service was launched as part of the SG Secure initiative. The ‘71999’ SMS service serves the same function as the ‘70999’ service by enabling the DHS community to communicate with SPF via SMS in an emergency. Users of the ‘71999’ SMS service are not required to pre-register. With the new ‘71999’ SMS services, it would be confusing and duplicative to maintain the old ‘70999’ SMS service and the database.  The ‘70999’ SMS service will be decommissioned. We have received support from social service agencies serving the DHS community, as well as SPF and SCDF. The decommissioning of the ‘70999’ SMS service will not have any impact on individuals from the DHS community who SMS the Police for help.

Please note that the ‘70995’ service provided by SCDF will continue to be in use. Pre-registration is not necessary.

We seek your assistance to update your clients on the decommissioning of ‘70999’ which will take place with effect from 1 Oct 2020. They may instead SMS to ‘71999’ in an emergency. Please also update your agency website on the ‘71999’ number where relevant.

For queries on the Emergency SMS numbers, you may contact:

• SPF (on the decommissioning of ‘70999’ or on ‘71999’) – Ms Goh Pei Sze, Goh_Pei_Sze@spf.gov.sg
• SCDF (on ‘70995’)  – Mr Faizal Mamasan, Faizal_Mamasan@htx.gov.sg

Individuals may also visit www.police.gov.sg/SMS-71999 on SMS 71999, or www.scdf.gov.sg/home/about-us/information/sms-70995-emergency-service on SMS 70995, for more information.