Beginning Feb. 1, Frontier Communications, in partnership with INdigital and working with Greenbrier County 911 announced that public safety has taken a major step forward.

Through a strong, coordinated approach to public safety, the county joins local 911 centers across the nation in the use of text for 911.

The launch will allow the public to directly access to 911 through text messaging from their wireless handset. Greenbrier County 911 also has the ability to initiate a text from 911.

Text from 911 allows the Greenbrier County 911 dispatchers to reach the public for common issues such as hang-ups and accidental calls.

INdigital of Fort Wayne, IN, designed, built and operate the text platform, which provides service to 911 agencies throughout the country.

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have voluntarily committed that they will provide service.

As of Feb. 1, services are available from AT&T, Verizon and U.S. Cellular.

Officials ask that you only use the text to 911 in an emergency when you can’t get signal strength to make a call or if making a voice call would put you in danger.