We get our instructions for deployment via email, SMS and voice. It's not assumed that everyone has the same personal device and it's not prudent to rely on only one form of communication, so we have redundancies built in.
While on searches we are normally issued Motorola walkie talkies. However, command center still sends out emails and SMS messages. And of course, phone calls.
In Haiti we actually got sat phones for team captains because there was NO communication the first couple of days.
We don't get toned via our BB's but we do have a snap page system that sends texts for big incidents and another one specific to our dept for updates on equipment etc
