Pantel and IPextreme jointly announce the establishment of a strategic development initiative addressing the problem of automatic location of 911 emergency calls within an Internet protocol telephone network built on a ColdFire microprocessor platform. This initiative will enable emergency calls placed using VOIP telephone services to be properly located based on the geographic location of the call.

Currently, emergency calls placed using VOIP services are not automatically dispatched to the physical location of the call, but rather to the address listed on the caller’s account. The ELI is an innovative IP appliance that will enable the dispatch center to immediately identify the physical location of the call correctly, thus ensuring that first responders are directed to the proper location.

Positron Public Safety Systems announced that Broward Sheriff’s Office, Broward County, Florida, the nation’s largest fully accredited sheriff's department in the United States has chosen to upgrade to Next Generation E9-1-1 services via the purchase of PPSS’ Voice over Internet Protocol for Emergency Response solution set. Broward County serves a population of 1.8 m people in 31 municipalities. VIPER as well as Power 911, Power MIS and Positron Sentry will be deployed across Broward County’s 13 Public Safety Answering Points. Broward County’s 13 PSAP’s are planned to be a mixed architecture of host and remote sites.

Positron Public Safety Systems has won an award from San Mateo County, California Public Safety Communications to upgrade their center to full digital services; a baseline system that is Next Generation 9-1-1 ready. As per the award, Positron will deploy and service VIPER and its Power suite of products, providing VoIP-based E911 services to 23 public safety agencies dispatched by SMCPSC.

SMCPSC was impressed with Positron’s proven reliability in supporting their E9-1-1 system, having used multiple Positron products for more than a decade. While applying a rigorous competitive procurement process to determine the best solution, SMCPSC considered numerous factors such as Positron’s reputation, ability to meet wireless Phase II requirements, ease of training and from a user’s perspective, seamless migration from an analog to a digital platform.

Positron Public Safety Systems announced it’s been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Under the terms of the six year contract, Positron will deploy and service the Positron Voice over IP for Emergency Response solution to meet the E9-1-1 needs of H-GAC’s 23 Public Safety Answering Point’s covering an 8-county area.

An existing 10-year customer of Positron, H-GAC was impressed with Positron’s proven reliability in supporting their E9-1-1 system. When it was time for H-GAC to upgrade to emerging VoIP-based technology, they applied a rigorous competitive procurement process to determine the best solution. In order to make this determination, H-GAC measured such factors as Positron’s reputation, ability to support large installations, leading edge technology and attention to customer support. The new equipment includes the Positron VIPER, Power 911, Power MAP, Power MIS, ePrinter, Positron Sentry, Centralized GIS, and Regional MIS. Positron will be offering a turn-key solution for the entire H-GAC region and will make it possible to easily and efficiently add new agencies by establishing remote sites via the Positron VIPER solution set. The contract also includes all of the necessary support and maintenance that the PSAP’s will require.

TeleCommunication Systems announces the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent number 7,260,186, titled, "Solutions For Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 911 Location Services." The patent enables updating the mid-call location of a VoIP 9-1-1 caller using a Wi-Fi hot spot. The invention allows VoIP Wi-Fi E9-1-1 calls to be routed to the correct Public Safety Answering Point while automatically providing the location of the caller at the time the call was established. The invention helps mobile VoIP calls to meet the current FCC mandate requiring that wireless operators provide E9-1-1 service.

Intelliverse has added nomadic support to its standard E911 offering for all VoIP subscribers. Using Intelliverse, service providers can now offer customers an expanded geographical footprint when using the E911 service. Nomadic E911 will answer every 911 call and route it to the appropriate public safety answering point – regardless of the location they are calling from.

Intelliverse partnered with HBF Group to provide this service. Each address Intelliverse receives will be registered with the HBF Group. Using a real-time API integration, the solution determines where users are located by mapping the phone number to the emergency address on file while verifying and routing it to the appropriate emergency call center.

HBF/911 Services and Northern911 are partnering to provide a unique VoIP E9-1-1 service to the public safety community, at no charge. Called "PSAP Safety Net", this solution will provide a toll free number that the public safety answering points can utilize to transfer a misrouted VoIP emergency call directly to Northern911's Emergency Response Center, where their trained call takers will determine the proper routing and transfer the call to the correct PSAP for the caller's stated location. "PSAP Safety Net" provides a solution to a major VoIP 9-1-1 issue currently plaguing PSAPs. "The PSAP Safety Net" provides a safeguard against potential issues associated with a nomadic VoIP user (one who doesn't always have a "fixed" address associated with their VoIP phone).

HBF has been selected by Level 3 Communications to join their Technology Alliance Program. The Level 3 Technology Alliance Program brings together industry-leading VoIP and data vendors to offer end users solutions that have been tested for deployment using the Level 3 Network. HBF's i-911 VoIP Solution, an enhanced 9-1-1 system providing emergency call handling, bundles HBF's database services with the Level 3 E-911 Direct service to provide VoIP service providers with an end-to-end E9-1-1 solution that is FCC compliant for both static and nomadic end users.

The majority of the state's emergency call centers now receive 9-1-1 calls from customers whose telephone service relies upon VoIP technology. In a recently released report, the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications provided a status of statewide efforts to provide 9-1-1 service to VoIP telephone subscribers. The CSEC VoIP Deployment Report is available at http://www.911.state.tx.us.

VoIP is the term broadly used to describe telephone services that transmit voice communications over a digital data network using Internet protocol technology. Since VoIP telephony is increasingly being adopted by the public, it is critical that VoIP customers have access to emergency services through dialing 9-1-1.

Rosum issued comment on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s hearing on “VoIP and the Future of 9-1-1 Services,” to be held April 10. Rosum also responded to recent remarks by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on the need for more accurate location determination of E9-1-1 calls from mobile devices.

“There are multiple trends in consumer telephony today that highlight the need for reliable ‘in-building 9-1-1’ location capability,” said Skip Speaks, CEO of Rosum Corporation. Speaks noted four specific trends: the growth in wireless-only subscribers who use their wireless handset as a primary line, the growth in users of nomadic VoIP services and users of VoIP lines as a primary line, data showing the bulk of wireless 9-1-1 calls are made indoors, and the emergence of home base stations that need to be located indoors for activation and 9-1-1 purposes.