Ohio University officials said they were satisfied with improved results of the latest test of the emergency text messaging system last week.

The message was sent to the 4,306 subscribers and 129 messages, or three percent, did not reach the cell phone, said David Hopka, assistant vice president for Safety and Risk Management.

“We’d like to get 100 percent effectiveness, but realistically that is not going to be the case,” Hopka said.  

At 2:17 p.m., OU sent the message to the 514 employees on the list and they received it in less than one minute. OU then sent the message to the 3,792 students who received it in less than two minutes.

While reviewing the results, the Office of Information Technology noticed that the number of text messages was not adding up to the number of subscribers.  They discovered who the 256 students were and sent the message at 3:59 p.m., and they received it in less than one minute.

Of the 129 messages that did not reach cell phones, 36 were rejected because the cell phone did not have text messaging service, 85 were not received because of an incorrect cell phone number or service provider, and eight were unaccounted for.  

“That’s a small percentage, so we’re pretty satisfied,” Hopka said.

After the first test Fall Quarter, OIT updated the registration Web site so that it will send a text message to people after they have signed up to verify that they submitted the correct information.  These updates improved the success rate, but students who registered before the updated Web site could still have incorrect information, Hopka said.  

During the first test, the message was sent to 2,769 students and 175 messages, or six percent, were unsuccessful.  

The text message service does not cost anything to OU, and they will continue to periodically test the system to make sure that it is able to send the messages quickly and successfully, Hopka said.  

“It will get better as we go along,” Hopka said.  “We will continue to promote student and staff subscribing to the system.”