The ICE Age is Here


ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. And it’s now becoming the recognized standard as the phonebook entry to call in cases of emergency.

Rescuers often have a tough time figuring out who to call when something bad happens to somebody. With a standard phonebook entry, however, life gets easier, and ICE is the emerging entry of choice. After the recent London Underground bombings, ICE awareness has increased tremendously.

ICE-ing your phone is as simple as storing “ICE” as a phonebook entry, with the phone number of whoever it is that you want to be reached in case something bad ever happens to you. The advantage of this approach is that you can give the number of anyone you trust. Which is good because not everyone wants his or her mom (or even spouse) contacted in an emergency.

Next stop: increasing ICE awareness locally. But we can all start by first putting an ICE entry into our own phones.

Just cross your fingers and hope that when an emergency does happen, nobody steals your phone…

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August 1st, 2005
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
descasa
Posted on:
8/1/2005 at 11:43 pm

Your cell phone on ICE
I’ve gotten email about entering an ICE — In Case of Emergency
– number into your cell phone’s phone or address book. The idea is to
enter ICE into your phone book, so that emergency workers know whom…

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Jones Kingsu
Posted on:
8/2/2005 at 9:19 pm

right… sure… it’s gonna work…

(I’m being sarcastic.)

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
gary
Posted on:
8/3/2005 at 10:15 am

you can maybe just put “WIFE” “HUSBAND” or “MOTHER” in lieu as well..

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Art Ilano
Posted on:
8/3/2005 at 1:18 pm

Gary: you can maybe just put “WIFE” “HUSBAND” or “MOTHER”…

True, but I guess the objective was to simplify the emergency effort by just looking for a specific (and trusted) entry all the time (rather than scrolling the entire address book looking for a friendly title). After all, what if you weren’t on speaking terms with your wife?

Police: Hello ma’m? I’m afraid your husband has been in an emergency and…
Wife: Serves him right. Harumph! [click !]

:D

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
gary
Posted on:
8/3/2005 at 1:47 pm

ah well then, the right thing to do would be to list WIFE2, WIFE3, and permutations thereof (WEEKENDWIFE, TROPHYWIFE, ALTERNATEWIFE..)

the local police’d understand ;D

!!JK!! :)

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
jangelo
Posted on:
8/3/2005 at 4:21 pm

Good concept. But what I’d like to see with Philippine networks is support for the GSM-standard 112 emergency number. At this time, networks still don’t support the 112 toll-free number.

In case of emergency, you’d like to be able to call some 911-type dispatch center that can provide help. I.C.E. is helpful after-the-fact, but this is one concept you’d rather not use at all in your lifetime, isn’t it?

Oh … in some mobiles, keying in two separate entries with the same number would cause conflicts–i.e. you won’t see the name in the add.book. That’s unless you’d like to select “ICE” everytime you’d like to SMS or call the wife.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
miranoriel
Posted on:
8/5/2005 at 9:37 am

Solution, though rudimentary, to the problem of having two entries with the same number: don’t do it. One way to ICE your phone — for Nokia handsets, at least — is to set up a contact group, instead of manually creating an ICE entry for each person you want notified. My phone carries an ICE group — with the numbers of my ex-husband AND my partner in the group.

Now how to avoid them running into each other when something actually happens to me… :)