<P> On February 16, 1968, Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite placed the first - ever 9 - 1 - 1 call from Haleyville City Hall, to Congressman Tom Bevill, at the city's police station . Bevill was accompanied by Gallagher and Alabama Public Service Commission director Eugene "Bull" Connor . The phone used to answer the first 9 - 1 - 1 call, a bright red model, is now in a museum in Haleyville, while a duplicate phone is still in use at the police station . </P> <P> AT&T made its first implementation in Huntington, Indiana, the hometown of J. Edward Roush, who sponsored the federal legislation to establish the nationwide system, on March 1, 1968 . However, the spread of 9 - 1 - 1 implementation took many years . For example, although the City of Chicago, Illinois, had access to 9 - 1 - 1 service as early as 1976, the Illinois Commerce Commission did not authorize telephone service provider Illinois Bell to offer 9 - 1 - 1 to the Chicago suburbs until 1981 . Implementation was not immediate even then; by 1984, only eight Chicago suburbs in Cook County had 9 - 1 - 1 service . As late as 1989, at least 28 Chicago suburbs still lacked 9 - 1 - 1 service; some of those towns had previously elected to decline 9 - 1 - 1 service due to costs and--according to emergency response personnel--failure to recognize the benefits of the 9 - 1 - 1 system . By 1979, 26% of the U.S. population could dial the number . This increased to 50% by 1987 and 93% by 2000 . As of December 2017, 98.9% of the U.S. population has access . </P> <P> Conversion to 9 - 1 - 1 in Canada began in 1972, and as of 2018 virtually all areas, except for some rural areas, such as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, are using 9 - 1 - 1 . As of 2008, each year Canadians make twelve million calls to 9 - 1 - 1 . </P> <P> On September 15, 2010, AT&T announced that the State of Tennessee had approved a service to support a text to 9 - 1 - 1 trial statewide, where AT&T would be able to allow its users to send text messages to 9 - 1 - 1 PSAPs . </P>

When did the 911 system start in california