The Solacom Blog

Tony Parrott shares real-world stories from two very ambitious PSAPs who decided to become NG9-1-1 frontrunners.

We recently spoke with the leadership at two PSAPs who upgraded to our Solacom Guardian solutions a few years ago to learn what their move to NG9-1-1 has meant to their operations.

As they described the benefits of the solutions’ speed, flexibility, and interoperability, the 9-1-1 center directors in Athens/Limestone County and Dane County shared a number of real-world examples. We’d like to share some of those examples with you.

The British Territory in the Caribbean adopts an integrated, geo-redundant emergency call management system. Tony Parrott explains how the new system addresses current needs and provides a foundation for future services.

Earlier this year, the Department of Public Safety Communications in the Cayman Islands moved to a Solacom Guardian 9-1-1 Solution to manage all the emergency calls it receives each year. The new NG9-1-1 solution brings advanced, IP-based emergency call handling capabilities to the three islands that make up the British Territory. It’s a full-featured system that, when fully deployed, will enable call takers to process calls faster, receive text-to-911 messages, and locate wireless callers with pinpoint-accurate mapping capabilities. And it’s all part of the Department’s plans to prepare for an NG9-1-1 multimedia future.

The transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) in Manitoba is one step closer to reality with the successful completion of an IP-based 9-1-1 test call. Nancy MacDonald explains what this means for emergency call management in the province.

An important milestone on the road to Next Generation 9-1-1 for the province of Manitoba was reached last week. On November 27, Manitoba Provincial 911, the public safety answering point (PSAP) in Brandon, conducted the first emergency test call in Manitoba on a Bell Canada NG9-1-1 Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet). As part of the test, the Solacom Guardian 9-1-1 Call Handling solution processed the call successfully, displayed caller location on a call taker’s display screen, and transferred the call to a third party using the public telephone network.

Nancy MacDonald looks at Australia’s nationwide upgrade to Solacom Guardian emergency call handling and what it means for Australians in distress.

A couple of weeks ago, Australian telecom provider, Telstra, opened a new contact center for emergency call handling and management in Adelaide. It was an important moment for Australians and for all of us at Solacom. Starting in 2020, Telstra will roll out next-generation emergency calling services for the entire population of Australia. And our Solacom Guardian call handling solutions are at the heart of the nationwide upgrade.

Six PSAPs in Kentucky just went live with text-to-911 services and more PSAPs will follow. Suzanne Larsen looks at why it’s so easy for Kentucky PSAPs to make the move.

When officials in Lexington, Kentucky, announced in mid-June that public safety answering points (PSAPs) in four counties — Fayette, Jessamine, Garrard, and Lincoln — could now exchange text messages with 9-1-1 callers, Lexington Mayor, Linda Gorton, called the move “a huge step forward in public safety.” Since that time, Marion County and Edmonson County also now support text-to-911 calls, and additional counties are expected to follow. All of these moves are possible thanks to some cooperative decision-making that started a decade ago.

When Gwinnett County, Georgia, upgraded to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) call handling, E911 Center operations immediately improved. Tony Parrott explores the new efficiencies.

Until recently, the team at the Gwinnett County Police Department’s E911 Center in Georgia was using an end-of-life legacy system to manage the one million 9-1-1 calls the Center receives each year. Today, the team is processing calls faster and more efficiently with our Guardian 9-1-1 Call Handling solution. Shortly after the upgrade was complete, we talked to the Gwinnett County team to learn more about the improvements they’ve been able to make.

Tony Parrott explains how Solacom helped Maricopa Region 911 bring lightning-fast NG9-1-1 call routing and delivery to more than four million people in Arizona.

As home to more than half the population of Arizona, including the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County is the fourth-most populous county in the country. That means the team at Maricopa Region 911 has one of the most challenging mandates in the country. It also means everyone involved in upgrading the Maricopa Region 911 network routers knew that a network interruption or failure during the transition could have catastrophic results.

Gilles Ferland explains how the right combination of expert cybersecurity services helps PSAPs prevent, detect, and quickly recover from cyberattacks.

While all public safety answering points (PSAPs) are experts in public safety, most are not experts in cybersecurity. They simply don’t have the IT staff or the budgets needed to keep pace with rapidly evolving cyberthreats. To ensure adequate protection as they move to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) systems, PSAPs will need help from cybersecurity experts who specialize in public safety infrastructure. Here’s why.

Just when you’ve got it all figured out, it’s time to start thinking about the next evolutions in texting technologies. Daniel Biagé looks into the not-too-distant future of texting.

Texting is like every other technology — it’s continuously evolving and becoming more sophisticated. That means supporting text-to-911 is only the beginning for public safety answering points (PSAPs). Just as people expect PSAPs to support text-to-911 today, they’ll expect them to support more advanced texting capabilities as they become available. And, before we know it, supporting texting capabilities beyond text-to-911 will become mandatory.

To meet the demands of NG9-1-1 call handling and management, PSAPs must adopt the right deployment strategy. Daniel Biagé takes a closer look at what that means.

Historically, most public safety answering points (PSAPs) have relied on a diverse collection of solutions that get the job done, but weren’t designed to work together as a cohesive whole. But, sticking with this approach as they evolve to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) systems would be a big mistake. Call volumes will be too high, call types will be too varied, and there will be way too much data to process.