Authored by Mark J. Fletcher, ENP, VP of Safety Solutions at 911inform
Mark (Fletch) Fletcher, ENP has contributed to various roles in the Public Safety / Telecommunications industry. Working with the Office of the CTO at Nortel and Avaya, Fletch holds 14 US Patents focusing on collecting and delivering NG911 additional data to PSAPs, as well as multimedia call handling functionality for emergency call takers. He’s been recognized with various awards for customer advocacy, work on public safety standards, and by Congress. Co-writer of Kari’s Law alongside Kari’s father, Hank Hunt. Fletch is also a member of various committees for public safety such as NENA, EENA, APCO International, and many more. Catch Fletch on his blog or podcast series where he addresses issues with 9-1-1 and the top stars making a change in public safety.
The existing enhanced 9-1-1 network (E911) is a legacy analog architecture that has seen minimal innovation since its inception in 1968. E911 solutions rely on individual telephone numbers residing at a specific location. Today, advancements in modern communications technology and the rapid expansion of the Internet have created the need for a more advanced emergency response system.Â
The primary challenge with voice over IP (VoIP) phones is that users can change locations with very little notice or indications back to the network. For example, if a person brought their work phone home and called 9-1-1 during an emergency, telecommunicators would route off the telephone number of the device, which would still indicate the person’s work address, despite their location changing. In the past, there was no fix for this challenge, and the routing database typically took 24 to 48 hours to update. While E911 solutions could track a device location, the application was handicapped by the inability of the network to provide the appropriate updates in a reasonable amount of time.
RapidSOS changed the game by creating a highway for rich data to travel to 9-1-1. The emergency response data platform is a clearinghouse through which emergency data is securely shared from connected devices, platforms, and sensors via emergency API integration, delivering additional data to Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs).
With an IP connection available to deliver multimedia/multimodal information to public safety, telecommunicators have a pathway to acquire detailed, discreet, and actionable information for an emergency situation. The RapidSOS Platform transmits additional data directly from connected devices to 9-1-1 via RapidSOS Portal or existing CAD integrations. Once this data is in the public safety networks, it is easily extended to responding devices for display on mobile data terminal (MDT) emergency dispatch software, and delivered to tablets and smartphones of field responders. By offering an alternative data pathway between those who need emergency services and those providing it, this new technology significantly collapsed the timeline of NG911 deployments.
We partnered with RapidSOS due to the company’s forward-thinking approach in bridging life-saving data with 9-1-1 and their unique ability to build an architecture that delivers critical information over legacy and NG911 interfaces. 911inform is proud to be RapidSOS Ready.
To learn more about our partnership, read our press release here.
Become a partner today and integrate your software with RapidSOS.