Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Joins RapidSOS Advisory Board

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Apr 27, 2017, 10:15 ET

NEW YORK, April 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RapidSOS today announced that Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is joining the RapidSOS Advisory Board. RapidSOS' Advisory Board brings extensive expertise across the telecommunications, technology, and public safety sectors. Wheeler joins the Advisory Board with over 30-years of experience in the telecommunications, high-technology, and venture capital industries.

"Tom brings essential knowledge around the convergence of technology and telecommunications in safety, security, and emergency response," said Michael Martin, RapidSOS CEO. "Tom's expertise will be instrumental as we provide a rich data link from millions of connected devices directly to 911 and first responder systems."

During his career as Chairman of the FCC, Wheeler worked to strengthen public safety and cybersecurity, prioritizing improvements around the effectiveness of 911 and updating wireless 911 rules to combat the challenges around locating mobile 911 calls, particularly indoors. Wheeler consistently reiterated the importance of improvements to 911, maintaining that the federal government, the private sector, and state and local public safety agencies must collaborate to bring new technology to public safety.

"RapidSOS' Emergency Platform connects users to emergency services faster and with more data – transforming the information flow into our nation's public safety and first responder networks," said Tom Wheeler. "After spending much of my career at the intersection of telecom, technology, and public safety, I am excited to work with RapidSOS to solve one of the biggest tech challenges today and ensure that all Americans have access to emergency services when they need it most."

Chairman Wheeler joins two other former FCC Chairmen, senior executives from telecom and the defense industry, past presidents of the major public safety organizations, and thought leaders across health and medicine from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in building RapidSOS' Emergency Platform, linking smartphones, connected cars, wearable, and home IoT devices directly to 911 and first responders with rich data.

About RapidSOS
RapidSOS is an advanced emergency technology company. RapidSOS is developing technology to predict and preempt emergencies before they occur, dynamically warn people in harm's way, and link data from any connected device directly to first responders in an emergency. The result is faster, more effective emergency response leading to a projected 2-10% reduction in mortality, 6.9% reduction in healthcare treatment costs, and 20% reduction in property damage^{^[1]}. Formed in 2012 and backed by some of the world's top technologists, RapidSOS was named "2016 Start-Up of the Year" by the Consumer Technology Association, a Top Innovation of 2015 by MIT News, and Top 3 Innovative World Technologies by SXSW. Learn more at www.RapidSOS.com.

^{^[1]} Based on actuarial analysis for life threatening emergencies conducting with leading academic researchers from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Contact:
RapidSOS
Regina Jaslow
[email protected]
(347) 879-0024

SOURCE RapidSOS