Recently, the city of Baltimore experienced a 911 outage that left the city without 911 services for almost two hours. A formal investigation of the situation still has not provided any explanation on what caused the outage, however, it has been determined that 911 calls were being improperly routed by the carrier (Verizon) to an […]
Read MoreSeveral years ago, I was involved in an overseas project to implement emergency services similar to our 911 service in the United States. While working on that project, I was surprised to learn that the emergency services in the United States are considered to be the “gold” standard in the international community. It seems that […]
Read MoreAs I discuss the benefits and strategy of Next Generation 911 (NG911) with my customers, I often reflect on how similar the NG911 strategy is to the contact center strategy of years ago. To show you what I mean, let’s first examine the primary goals of the Next Generation 911 standard: Support multimedia contacts and […]
Read MoreAs Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) begin their journey transitioning to Next Generation 911 (NG911), they will need to change their mode of operation to adapt to evolving demands of their communities. But after so many years in the call center industry, I find myself pondering a nagging question: Why has the emergency services field […]
Read MoreFor most Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), the migration to Next Generation 911 (NG911) is a daunting journey with no clear path. This is understandable because, unlike most technical upgrades where one vendor provides you with their “best practices” to upgrade to their latest offering, NG911 encompasses many different technologies from different vendors. So, while most of […]
Read More