The North Carolina 911 Board has completed a lengthy modernization process intended to improve emergency services statewide.
The N.C. 911 Board – which part of the N.C. Department of Information Technology – has upgraded all 125 public safety answering points (PSAPs) that receive funding from the N.C. 911 Board. The PSAPs are now part of the Next Generation 911 network (NG911).
The state’s upgraded 911 system now allows for the secure routing of digital information – including landline calls, cell phone calls and text messages – to the appropriate PSAP based on geographic location. It also provides high-speed data network connections that allow all PSAPs to serve as backups for others on the system in the event of a natural disaster or an overload of emergency calls. The system uses AT&T’s ESInet solution.
“We now have the redundancy and resiliency to ensure 911 calls are handled as quickly and efficiently as possible,” said Jim Weaver, NCDIT secretary and state CIO, who also chairs the N.C. 911 Board. “This is a tremendous achievement for the people of North Carolina and would not have been accomplished without close collaboration among the board, the state’s PSAPs and our vendor partners.”
The transition began nearly six years ago in November 2018 when Durham 911 became the first locality to move its PSAP to join AT&T ESInet. Closing out the transition was Anson County 911, which moved to NG911 at the end of February. State leaders noted that North Carolina is the only state in the country to implement a Network Monitoring and Assistance Center (NMAC) to continuously monitor the service and performance of the network statewide.
“NextGen 911 really is NowGen 911 for North Carolina,” said L.V. Pokey Harris, executive director of the N.C. 911 Board. “This network not only better supports callers, but also gives our telecommunicators and emergency responders the data-rich information they need to effectively do their jobs and ultimately save lives throughout our state.”
As part of the transition to NG911, the N.C. 911 Board has also worked with its partners within NCDIT to develop a statewide geodatabase. State leaders say this initiative enables the system to accurately pinpoint a caller’s location, which is critical for mobile calls.
