Next Generation 9-1-1

Toronto police say the 911 emergency line was unable to receive calls at one point, with people being told to use the non-emergency numbers for all calls.

Bell says an issue with the Next Generation 911 network was detected just after 3 a.m. and backup systems were brought online.

The company is now investigating the root cause of the issue.

CTV News is a division of Bell Media, which is owned by Bell Canada.

Oh, wow.

We are now NextGen 911, which gives us the ability to – pinpoint callers locations more accurately.

Fortunately for this one, they knew because they were neighbors.

Hey, we're right by thumbs up.

Fortunately, we began treating standards more like operational infrastructure rather than technical paperwork.

We recognized that NG911 is not one product, one network, or one vendor.

It is an ecosystem.

We learned that GIS is foundational.

But it's so much different now with the technology and everything.

So what I want to ask you, especially because of the state of North Carolina, and I mean, we've known each other for years as well, and things that we've just kind of talked about in the sense of technology, next generation 911 and technology.

How is that here in this state? Please enlighten me, the audience, everything.

So very humbling.

You've heard us mention here today our managed service contract vendor partners.

It's a whole ecosystem of the telecommunicators, the PSAPs, the directors, the leadership, the legislators to be able to do that.

So we've been very fortunate to share this story across the country about Next Generation 911, particularly with what happened in 2024.

We're approaching our two year anniversary.

We touched on this previously.

NG911 has been coming for years now, right? It's promised text, video, data, integration into emergency response.

It has been stalled by federal funding gaps, legacy infrastructure, and political will.

If NG911 fully arrives in the next decade, does it make your platforms more powerful or does it make them obsolete?

Yep.

Great question.

I think if NG911 fully arrives, it's because of platforms like ours, right? When, again, you look at what the scope of NG911 is, right, and what it started as versus what it actually is thought of today, it's made up of solutions that are being used today, maybe standalone, maybe still in legacy networks, most of the time in legacy networks, right? So it actually is can achieve what it originally set out to achieve by virtue of some of the companies like ours, right? When NG911 first was introduced, I actually had hair back then, right? And the vision was pretty simple, right? It was to upgrade the infrastructure of the country from analog to digital, to be able to deliver images and text messages, to be able to get precise location data.

But most importantly, it was also about interoperability, right? And we often forget that part of it, right? The interoperability as the standards were defined back then, right? It was, well, I want to be able to have a backup center take my calls if I'm, you know, unable to, right? It's so much more than that now because of these types of solutions.

He went on to lead 911 centers in Springfield, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

He's now a futurist and a thought leader in the 911 space, focused on AI, NG911, and emerging technology.

If you've attended a public safety conference, you might have heard him speak or saw him work in the expo floor.

He's the creator and host of the Your 911 Future podcast.

Like, in the past few years, it's sped up tremendously in my eyes.

So...

You've got NG911, you've got the AI real-time translation, connected vehicle data, a bunch of different complex items.

So is there anything right now that you feel like is the most exciting to you or that you find yourself reading more and more about?