Back to Contents

November / December 2011
Volume 23, Number 6

The very first American 9-1-1 call was placed on Feb. 16, 1968 in Haleyville, Ala. It was made by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite and answered by Congressman Tom Bevill. It wasn’t until 1983, 15 years later, that Texas made 9-1-1 the official primary emergency telephone number and statutorily created the emergency communication districts necessary to provide local 9-1-1 service. In 1987, the Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC) was created to administer state 9-1-1 service in those areas where service was not provided by a local administration.

Since its inception, the 9-1-1 system and emerging technology have been intertwined. In the early years, 9-1-1 planning waited for technological advances to solve implementation problems. Today, advances in personal communication and social media are pushing the development of new 9-1-1 technology to take advantage of these new communication capabilities.

The theoretical backbone behind any 9-1-1 system is that during an emergency a phone call can be placed to a central receiving center, or public safety answering point (PSAP), where a calltaker screens the call to determine the emergency’s nature and location.

Based on that information, police, fire or emergency medical personnel are dispatched from the nearest point to the emergency location. For 9-1-1 to work, the dispatcher must know where the call is originating from and where the nearest first responders are positioned. 9-1-1 has helped spur the development of geographical information systems (GIS), computer systems, data and peripherals used for mapping to assist PSAPs in determining the locations of callers and responders and applying it to a computer aided dispatch system (CAD).

Enhanced 9-1-1, or E9-1-1 has developed technologically where the landline service providers that maintain a local master street address guide (or MSAG, which describes the exact spelling of streets, street number ranges, and other address elements based on the distribution of a specific telephone number) cooperatively exchange databases with the 9-1-1 administrator to develop an automatic location identifier (ALI). In a wireline E9-1-1 system, the ALI and the automatic number identifier (ANI) appear on the dispatcher’s screen, along with the location of the nearest available emergency responders and other relevant information such as fire hydrants, hazardous materials and/or other data maintained by 9-1-1 system provider and become elements of the CAD.

Wireless E9-1-1 is somewhat more complicated since the billing, or issuing address, often isn’t the originating location of the call. Instead of a street address, the address that appears on the calltaker’s screen is presented in x/y coordinates, or latitude and longitude.

To simplify the process, the latest cell phones have geographic positioning systems (GPS) built in, and users have the option of sending their location automatically to a PSAP in an emergency.

In lieu of that, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has established rules and protocols for determining a caller’s x/y location. To be “Phase 1” compliant, a wireless network provider had to identify the phone number and cell phone tower used by callers, within six minutes of a request by a PSAP. For “Phase 2” compliance, 95 percent of a network operator’s in-service phones must have been E9-1-1 compliant, or location capable, by Dec. 31, 2005. By Sept. 11, 2012, wireless networks must provide the x/y of callers within 300 meters within six minutes of a request by a PSAP. Location information is not only transmitted to the call center for the purpose of sending first responders to the call location, it is used by the wireless network operator to determine to which PSAP to route the call by indentifying the nearest towers used by the caller.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, or telephone services provided through computer and internet connectivity, present their own unique barriers to true location identification.

Since the legacy 9-1-1 systems are landline based, creating unique geographical addresses at the originating location, essentially a computer, and transmitting that geographic location to the PSAP is problematic. Currently, solutions are being developed through the cooperation of the Voice on the Network Coalition and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).

Next Generation 9-1-1 or NG9-1-1 systems would allow consumers to send texts, photos and videos to PSAPs, as well as regular calls. An extension of the NG9-1-1 network is the ability to forward these communication media to first responders in the field. Theoretically, if a person is witnessing a crime in process they could send video to the PSAP and from the PSAP to a responding law enforcement officer. Next generation systems will require an Emergency Service IP Network (ESInet) to be developed to knit the voice, text and video networks with the legacy systems, emergency services and new PSAP.

Near Term Solutions are model plans that can be deployed with legacy PSAP systems that take advantage of current personal communication device capability. Because the transition to a true NG9-1-1 is an expensive proposition, NENA, the FCC and several states are investigating ways of moving to the “next generation” in stages with enhancements to current systems. As advances in cell phones, smart phones and VoIP systems continue so does the implementation of advancements in calltaker, PSAP and dispatch technology.