The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International and The Consultant Registry, with the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, conducted a test to show how background sounds, which are important to 911 call-takers, are transmitted over a Voice over Internet Protocol system. Since VoIP does not handle 911 calls the same way as traditional telephony, the groups are concerned about potential issues concerning calls for assistance. Test results will be presented at APCO International’s Winter Summit in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 1. The test was conducted in an office and included sounds such as normal human speech, gunfire and residential fire alarms in the background. Three calls were placed to the Monroe County, Ga., public-safety answering point via traditional, wireless and VoIP phones.
Iridium Satellite L.L.C. chose Intrado Inc.’s 911 Call Center Solution to provide emergency service to its subscribers when they dial 911. The solution allows Iridium to process emergency calls without having to staff and manage a 911 call center, said Intrado. A 2004 Federal Communications Commission decision called for mobile-satellite service providers that offer real-time two-way switched voice service interconnected with the public switched telephone network to establish call centers to handle subscribers’ emergency calls. Such carriers have until Feb. 11 to meet those requirements, which include connecting 911 calls to the call center, ascertaining a caller’s phone number and locating and transferring or forwarding a call to the appropriate public-safety answering point.
The Open Mobile Terminal Platform group announced it bulked up its membership to 40 companies with the addition of Qualcomm Inc., PalmSource Inc. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. “2005 promises to be a particularly exciting year for the OMTP group,” said Mats Nilsson, OMTP’s managing director. “We are now positioned-thanks to our new and existing members and participants-as a real center of influence in the mobile community, and we expect the benefits of our work to begin having an impact on the mobile consumer over the coming months.”
