What’s the news? The Arkansas 911 Board has selected AT&T to implement its Next Generation 9-1-1 (NextGen 9-1-1) AT&T ESInet™ service to improve emergency communications across the state. This new contract will help 9-1-1 telecommunicators, dispatchers and first responders make decisions that will help keep over 3 million people in Arkansas safe.
The state’s 114 public safety answering points (PSAPs) handle more than 1.6 million 9-1-1 calls each year and transforming existing 9-1-1 services to more resilient, highly secure and flexible NextGen 9-1-1 solutions is critical.
Why is this important? AT&T is at the forefront of providing industry-leading public safety solutions that transform emergency reporting and response. AT&T has provided 9-1-1 services to the State of Arkansas for over 50 years that include legacy 9-1-1 services, automatic location identification (ALI) database, next generation call handling, cloud-based mapping and advanced analytics. AT&T remains committed to providing reliable technology to improve situational awareness, response times and public safety outcomes. The Arkansas 911 Board has adopted AT&T ESInet™ to improve their operations, including:
- Improved location-based services. Using location-based geospatial routing, when a person contacts 9-1-1, their location can be identified quickly and routed to the appropriate PSAP for improved response times.
- Ability to handle unexpected call volumes. National Emergency Number Association (NENA) i3 standards to enable interoperability among agencies to handle call overflow and disaster recovery scenarios.
- Highly secure solutions. Multilayered secure network with Multiprotocol Label Switching VPN encryption to protect voice and data privacy and to help prevent cyber attacks.
- Enhanced backup capabilities. Through policy-based routing, AT&T ESInet™ can provide PSAPs the ability to set up rules to route 9-1-1 calls and texts to alternate agencies, establish special event routing and prepare for disaster scenarios.
- Enablement of data sharing. Calls can be transferred between PSAPs and will include location information and other critical data along with the call allowing telecommunicators to act faster by having pertinent information on hand when the call arrives.
AT&T is proud to be leading the way in the U.S. market with NextGen 9-1-1 solutions that are critical to keeping communities safe and helping save lives. For the third consecutive year, AT&T has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan with the Market Leadership Award for U.S. NextGen 9-1-1 Services.
To learn more about the Arkansas 911 Board, visit 911board.arkansas.gov. To learn more about AT&T’s NextGen 9-1-1 solutions, visit www.att.com/ng911.
What are people saying?
C.J. Engel, Executive Director, Arkansas 911 Board
“Over the past 15 years, the legacy 9-1-1 infrastructure in Arkansas has been pushed to its limits as communications technology has advanced around it. With the implementation of ESInet & NextGen Core Services, the reliability and resiliency of 9-1-1 will be greatly improved with more capabilities than ever before. We are excited about this collaboration with AT&T in moving Arkansas towards NextGen 9-1-1 to better serve our PSAPs and the citizens of Arkansas.”
Stacy Schwartz, Vice President, Public Safety, FirstNet & Education, AT&T
“We are proud that the Arkansas 911 Board is working with AT&T to upgrade their infrastructure with NextGen 9-1-1 solutions. It is critical that the public safety community is equipped with the technologies that will create better efficiencies to help keep their residents safe.”
Ronald Dedman, President, AT&T Arkansas
“For over 50 years, AT&T has been providing 9-1-1 services in Arkansas and we look forward to continue working with the Arkansas 911 Board to enhance and expand their public safety solutions so they can focus on protecting their communities and saving lives."