Good news for 911 call centers

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: STEVE TAYLOR AND LARRY HETTICK ON
CONVERGENCE
09/26/05
Today's focus: Good news for 911 call centers

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Call-handling intermediaries route 911 calls for VoIP users
* Links related to Convergence
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Good news for 911 call centers

By Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

A few weeks ago we introduced a series of columns featuring
guest commentary on E-911 by our colleague Jim Cavanagh of the
Consultant Registry. Over the past few years, Jim has become one
of the foremost authorities on E-911. This week, we'll pick up
on that series, with his comments on the state-of-the-art from
the call center perspective.

Jim <mailto:jpc@consultant-registry.com> writes:

"When the first 911 call was made on Feb. 16, 1968, in
Halleyville, Ala., both ends of the call were controlled by a
single phone company. The Telecom Act of 1996 was the first real
opportunity for the public safety community to have to deal with
multiple sources of 911 calls and, even so, it was more of a
scare than a reality as the number of competitive local exchange
carriers fell far short of estimates.

"The coming of VoIP, served up in the U.S. by almost 500
different providers, represents not only the next phase in the
evolution of telephone service but also a monumental challenge
to the already stretched resources of the 911 call centers known
as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP). The good news is that
PSAPs will not have to deal with all VoIP providers directly,
nor will VoIP providers need to establish relationships with and
connect to the approximately 6,250 PSAPs that exist in the U.S.,
but rather will work through one of maybe half a dozen
aggregators such as TCS, MCI, Intrado or Level 3 that are
stepping into the fray to help bring order to chaos.

"The 911 call-handling intermediaries are providing services as
basic as simply matching the calling party number with their
'home' PSAP to call centers where calls are actually answered as
a 'front end' service to the real 911 PSAP prior to routing. One
benefit of the call center approach is that routing may then be
done either to the 'home' PSAP or to the PSAP nearest a mobile
VoIP user. Some in the 911 community would argue that an
intermediary call center robs valuable seconds from the 911
responders, but this is viewed by many as only an interim
solution.

"The bottom line for the 911 community, however, is that 911
emergency calling, what was once an afterthought in providing
VoIP service, is now getting the full attention it deserves and
that sane, sensible solutions that put a minimum drain on
resources are being put into place."

We'll continue this discussion in the next newsletter.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. The rise of the IT architect
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence7008>

2. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence6913>

3. Users discuss big VoIP rollout risks and rewards
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence7534>

4. New Firefox 1.0.7 release fixes critical security bugs
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence7535>

5. DemoFall preview
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence7365>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates
and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed
information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter,
connect to Webtorials <http://www.webtorials.com/>, the premier
site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and
market research. Taylor can be reached at
<mailto:taylor@webtorials.com>

Larry Hettick is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of
experience in voice and data. He is Vice President for Telecom
Services and Infrastructure at Current Analysis, the leading
competitive response solutions company. He can be reached at
<mailto:lhettick@currentanalysis.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Nokia
Empower Your Mobile Enterprise

Nokia believes that business mobility will fundamentally change
the way work gets done-and for the better. To allow the entire
organization to get the most from this paradigm shift in
productivity, Nokia Enterprise Solutions focuses on delivering
increased efficiency through enhanced mobility. Learn more by
downloading this white paper today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115779
_______________________________________________________________
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

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