by AllThingsECC.com | May 23, 2022 | Comm Center News
The Chester County Department of Emergency Services’ 911 Center is experiencing an unprecedented loss of emergency dispatchers that has left a significant gap in the county’s public safety system and has forced the county to scramble to fill slots left vacant over the past several months. Since January, a total of 13 telecommunicators — the 911 staff members who take emergency and non-emergency calls from the public and then dispatch police, fire or ambulance personnel to address the situation — most with senior-level status, have left the county’s employ. In the same time period, only seven new employees have been hired…
by ECC Editor | May 20, 2022 | Comm Center News
SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — NextGen NOW is accelerated in California with the certification of NGA’s NEXiSConnect™. After several months of rigorous testing, Next Generation Advanced (NGA) is pleased to announce that its multimedia Call Handling System, NEXiSConnect, has successfully completed the i3 and multi-ESInet conformance testing program in California. In addition, NEXiSConnect has passed conformance testing to provide all of the capabilities required by the Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) today, integrated Text to 9-1-1, Instant Recall Recording (IRR), TTY, etc. This marks another first for the 9-1-1 industry where Call Processing Equipment/Call Handling System (CPE/CHS) must complete a comprehensive testing program in order to offer their solution to PSAPs. NGA is now ready to deliver the first California-ready cloud-based Call Handling System to those California PSAPs hamstrung with old legacy technology and wanting to take full advantage of all Next Generation 911 has to offer… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | May 20, 2022 | Comm Center News
Alexandria, VA – The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Emergency Communications Center Awards and Technology Leadership Awards. The winners will be recognized during the Opening General Session at APCO 2022, APCO’s Annual Conference & Expo, taking place August 7-10 in Anaheim, CA.
The award recipients demonstrated the highest levels of professional conduct and outstanding performance in the line of duty. The award winner of each category is…
by AllThingsECC.com | May 20, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
Article after article has been written to make a case that broadband in the United States should be available to all regardless of where they are located or their ability to pay for the service. While “broadband for all” has been a goal for the wireless/fixed communications industry a long time now, progress has been slow.
Now Congress has allocated $65B toward closing the “digital divide” and the FCC and others continue to fund various aspects of deploying broadband systems. If I were to grade the United States on two properties of broadband deployments, I would give us an “A” for the number of broadband technology options for fixed and wireless communications deployments and a “D” for actually extending broadband to rural America and to those who cannot afford it…
by ECC Editor | May 20, 2022 | Comm Center News
When consumers place a wireless 9-1-1 call, they expect the nearest 9-1-1 call center will answer so there’s minimal delay in getting help. But the Federal Communications Commission — the FCC — has long worried about legacy approaches to wireless 911 call routing that use cell towers to provide only a general rather than a specific location.
That’s why 9-1-1 dispatchers always ask callers for their addresses. But the question can be challenging to answer… READ MORE
by ECC Editor | May 20, 2022 | Comm Center News
‘We are never seen, but we are always there.”
This is the basic description of a person who works as a dispatcher, answering the frantic calls of people in need, says Tommy Tucker, director of Chesterfield County’s Emergency Communications Services.
The job of a dispatcher is separated from the physical scene of a crime or accident, but it is viscerally connected to the voice of a person in the midst of trauma. And that trauma travels through the chain of communication, from the victim or witness to the ears and central nervous system of a county employee tasked with sending the message to first responders… READ MORE
