Emergency Response in Transition

PROFIT: 9-1-1 service was launched in the U.S. in 1968. Where are we today?

HIXSON: E9-1-1, or Enhanced 9-1-1, involves selective routing that routes a call, based on actual location or address, to the appropriate PSAP [Public Safety Answering Point] for a given geography or jurisdiction. We've been doing that since the 1980s. We're now in the process of planning what will be a quantum leap from E9-1-1 to NG9-1-1—Next Generation 9-1-1. NG9-1-1 will be an IP [internet protocol] network-based replacement system that uses software applications to replace many of the physical components in today's E9-1-1 system.

PROFIT: Why is a software-based system an improvement over E9-1-1?

HIXSON: Today's E9-1-1 systems mostly use analog or digital trunking and switching. The function among different E9-1-1 systems is the same, but the types of circuits and switches vary quite a bit, and the future of those current technologies is not rosy. In terms of consistency of operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting, it's getting more difficult to manage and maintain them. We believe NG9-1-1 will be less costly in the long run, in part because of shared technology—shared networks as well as shared applications and distributed applications to do things that are today done standalone. Say you have six counties sharing a computer-aided dispatch system as a networked process and you're splitting the cost six ways.

PROFIT: What's the timeline for Next Generation 9-1-1?

HIXSON: The earliest you'll see it fully functional is 2009. It could be longer, and that's just to get it started. There will be early adopters who build variations—a couple users have done partial NG9-1-1 types of systems, but not the whole thing. Interest is growing in requirements and standards for NG9-1-1. The functional aspects are based on IP technology, but NG9-1-1 is not internet based. We're accepting calls over the internet, but we're not going to start running wire line and wireless calls over the internet to a PSAP, for a number of reasons, not least of which is security. So we start with IP technology, and then other applications—database management, for example—will be used in relation to how you control call routing, who has access to what data, security, things like that.

PROFIT: If the technology exists, why the delay in implementation?

HIXSON: A big issue right now is identifying and forecasting changes in telecommunications and public safety services that affect how we design, test, and implement the system. We're designing a system that has to work in the future, including for future types of communication technologies, and that raises many questions. If we don't solve jurisdictional, funding, policy, and regulatory issues—what I refer to as enabling factors and what many people would call roadblocks—mass implementation of full NG9-1-1 won't start by 2009.