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CA 911 Technology

Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) in California

​The California 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Branch remains focused on enabling Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) to provide the fastest, most reliable, and cost-effective access to emergency services for any 9-1-1 caller in California from any communications device.. While the existing 9-1-1 system has been a success story for more than 40 years, it has been stretched beyond its limit. The current 9-1-1 system is unable to efficiently integrate with today’s newer technologies and lacks the reliability and monitoring capabilities needed to support today’s increased disaster environment. Due to the aging technology of today’s 9-1-1 system, the number of outages continues to increase and the existing 9-1-1 system is becoming less and less reliable.

There is an urgent need to transform California’s legacy 9-1-1 system into a Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) system. Modernizing California’s outdated 9-1-1 funding formula is crucial to protecting our 9-1-1 system. The CA Legislature approved SB 96 / AB 96 which provides the updated State Emergency Telephone Number Account (SETNA) funding model that will provide the revenue needed to implement NG9-1-1.

NG9-1-1 will provide multi-layered redundancy and a common technology platform for alerts and warnings. The advantages of NG9-1-1 include:

  • Allow agencies to re-route 9-1-1 calls to each other during disasters
  • Increase resiliency by hardening the system to withstand natural and human-caused disasters
  • Provide a statewide common technology delivery system for Alerts and Warnings
  • Ensure emergency calls are quickly and accurately delivered – in 3 seconds or less
  • Support text to 9-1-1 delivery into the PSAP
  • Deliver increased location accuracy for wireless calls
  • Allow agencies to utilize state of the art mapping in order to better locate callers
  • Integrate with First Responder Network Authority’s nationwide wireless broadband network initiative
  • Reduce 9-1-1 system downtime. 9-1-1 outages are an ongoing problem with the aging infrastructure currently being used in California

Since the CA 9-1-1 Branch first published the proposed California NG9-1-1 Roadmap in 2010, significant progress has been made to implement NG9-1-1 in California. The CA 9-1-1 Branch successfully implemented several NG9-1-1 pilot projects; the most significant of these are in Northeast California with 36 PSAPs and the Pasadena RING project in LA County with 8 PSAPs. The CA 9-1-1 Branch also met representatives from nearly every PSAP in the state, the originating service providers, and the vendor community to develop the NG9-1-1 implementation plan. While this plan is under constant refinement, a copy of the 2017 version of the CA 9-1-1 Transition Plan can be found at the link below:

For any questions or comments specific to the NG9-1-1 Project please contact Ryan Sunahara at (916) 894-5028 or Ryan.Sunahara@caloes.ca.gov.

 

Enhanced Technologies (VoIP, MLTS, etc.)

Deployment Diagrams

Internet Protocol (IP)/Video Relay Services (VRS) E9-1-1

Multi Line Telephone System (MLTS) E9-1-1

 

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) E9-1-1

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is becoming an alternative to traditional phone service and the goal of the CA E9-1-1 VoIP Deployment is to get the registered location information of a VoIP user to the most appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) via statewide standards using the 9-1-1 network.

The California 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Branch is the primary contact to coordinate the deployment in accordance to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate 05-116A1 issued 5/20/2005. Specifically, VoIP i2 specifies that VoIP Service Providers (VSPs) shall route their calls into the 9-1-1 network and send the registered user location information to a designated PSAP.

Most VSPs will work with a database provider known as a Voice Positioning Center (VPC) and have access to the 9-1-1 network via an Emergency Services Gateway (ESGW). VPCs are used to store and update registered user location information and then provide the information to the PSAPs when a 9-1-1 call is made. ESGWs are those entities, typically Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs), that provide the connection interface into the 9-1-1 network.

Our mission, together with the local exchange carriers, PSAPs, VSPs, VPCs, and ESGWs, on this deployment is to implement the best “comparable E9-1-1” service for the VoIP user that calls 9-1-1 in California and keep the network reliable and dependable.

For questions specific to the VoIP deployment, email Donna Pena at donna.pena@CalOES.ca.gov or contact her at (916) 894-5032.

CA VOIP E9-1-1 DEPLOYMENT INFORMATION (FOR VSPS, VPCS, ESGWS)

CA VOIP E9-1-1 PSAP & COUNTY COORDINATOR INFORMATION

For questions related to 9-1-1 call statistics please Email Michael Elder at Michael.Elder@CalOES.ca.gov or call him at (916) 894- 5037.