U.S. Cellular is partnering with LifeLine Response, a personal safety mobile application, in order to make the service more directly available to its customers.
U.S. Cellular will offer LifeLine as an add-on service in more than 1,000 store locations. The carrier will be marketing a package called the Protector Series and, among security functions for data, LifeLine will be put in as a personal security offering.
LifeLine Response is available for both Android and iOS and it charges a $17 annual fee for its services. LifeLine CEO Peter Cahill said that U.S. Cellular eventually plans to offer LifeLine Response as part of regular monthly services. Cahill said that once U.S. Cellular employees are up to speed on the application and are able to offer it to customers, LifeLine could start coming pre-loaded on U.S. Cellular devices.
But what does LifeLine Advance do that dialing 9-1-1 doesn’t?
“In the moments of an assault, it’s virtually impossible to dial 9-1-1,” Cahill said.
The application is deployed when the user holds their finger on it. Once they remove their finger, a timer is started, giving the user time to enter the disarm code in case of a false alarm or accidental deployment. In addition to sounding an alarm and alerting anyone within range of the device that authorities have been notified, LifeLine sends an identifying details and GPS location to emergency responders and alerts to a user’s emergency contacts.
In addition to the new partnership with U.S. Cellular, LifeLine Response has enterprise agreements in place with universities, hospitals and corporations around the country.
