Dash Carrier Services announces a new version of its 911 management system, DASH911. It is currently available to all 911 customers and is a full replacement for the previous system. The new system give users the best E911 coverage of any 911 provider. Included with the new system is advanced address processing logic that makes it simple to provision 911 addresses.

The improved E911 coverage is accomplished by leveraging the E911 footprints of multiple E911 providers. Along with E911, Dash Carrier Services will continue to provide Advanced 911 to all addresses in the United States and Canada.

Vonage hails the United States House of Representatives' passage of the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008. This new act grants long awaited rights and protection to VoIP service providers to interconnect to the traditional 911 network operated by incumbent telephone providers.

"Vonage is grateful for the many efforts in Congress to make this legislation a priority. It helps consumers, Public Safety and Vonage support the best possible emergency solution," said Jeffrey Citron, Chairman, Chief Strategist, and Interim CEO of Vonage. "With over 98% of our subscriber's lines with access to E911, Congress has provided additional tools, leadership and encouragement to get all parties to work together."

Emergency CallWorx will publicly demonstrate its products for the first time at the National Emergency Number Association Annual 9-1-1 Conference in Tampa, Florida from June 7-12, 2008. This event will be the first public appearance of Emergency CallWorx.

Emergency CallWorx was created to solve the multi-decade challenges associated with truly integrating the call-taking portion of E9-1-1 with the Computer Aided Dispatching process that many Public Safety Answering Point and Dispatch centers use today. The majority of agencies cannot produce a report that accurately tracks an emergency call from receipt to conclusion of a dispatched incident. While legacy vendors are scrambling to add Next Generation 9-1-1 and VoIP base functionality, Emergency CallWorx started with those building blocks, focusing on the valuable benefits that go beyond mere compliance. Emergency CallWorx applications enable more efficient call-taking and dispatch operations, comply with FCC mandates for wireless E9-1-1 calls, accommodate non-traditional communications and resolve aging legacy support issues most agencies face today.

TeleCommunication announces a multi-year contract agreement under which TCS will provide Hosted Mobile Positioning Center and Hosted Position Determining Entity services for E9-1-1 to MetroPCS customers in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia. The two companies have maintained a strategic partnership since 2001.

Key to this agreement is the proven E9-1-1 technology solutions that TCS offers. TCS has provided its integrated MPC and HPDE solution longer than any other E9-1-1 vendor in the industry. Further, TCS has the only E9-1-1 TL9000 certified Network Operations Center, emphasizing its commitment to customer satisfaction, continuous improvement and performance accountability. Today, TCS provides E9-1-1 service to more than 100 million subscribers in the United States for more than 35 wireless carriers and handles more than 110,000 life saving calls daily.

Pantel and IPextreme jointly announce the establishment of a strategic development initiative addressing the problem of automatic location of 911 emergency calls within an Internet protocol telephone network built on a ColdFire microprocessor platform. This initiative will enable emergency calls placed using VOIP telephone services to be properly located based on the geographic location of the call.

Currently, emergency calls placed using VOIP services are not automatically dispatched to the physical location of the call, but rather to the address listed on the caller’s account. The ELI is an innovative IP appliance that will enable the dispatch center to immediately identify the physical location of the call correctly, thus ensuring that first responders are directed to the proper location.

Positron Public Safety Systems announced that Broward Sheriff’s Office, Broward County, Florida, the nation’s largest fully accredited sheriff's department in the United States has chosen to upgrade to Next Generation E9-1-1 services via the purchase of PPSS’ Voice over Internet Protocol for Emergency Response solution set. Broward County serves a population of 1.8 m people in 31 municipalities. VIPER as well as Power 911, Power MIS and Positron Sentry will be deployed across Broward County’s 13 Public Safety Answering Points. Broward County’s 13 PSAP’s are planned to be a mixed architecture of host and remote sites.

Positron Public Safety Systems has won an award from San Mateo County, California Public Safety Communications to upgrade their center to full digital services; a baseline system that is Next Generation 9-1-1 ready. As per the award, Positron will deploy and service VIPER and its Power suite of products, providing VoIP-based E911 services to 23 public safety agencies dispatched by SMCPSC.

SMCPSC was impressed with Positron’s proven reliability in supporting their E9-1-1 system, having used multiple Positron products for more than a decade. While applying a rigorous competitive procurement process to determine the best solution, SMCPSC considered numerous factors such as Positron’s reputation, ability to meet wireless Phase II requirements, ease of training and from a user’s perspective, seamless migration from an analog to a digital platform.

Positron Public Safety Systems announced it’s been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Under the terms of the six year contract, Positron will deploy and service the Positron Voice over IP for Emergency Response solution to meet the E9-1-1 needs of H-GAC’s 23 Public Safety Answering Point’s covering an 8-county area.

An existing 10-year customer of Positron, H-GAC was impressed with Positron’s proven reliability in supporting their E9-1-1 system. When it was time for H-GAC to upgrade to emerging VoIP-based technology, they applied a rigorous competitive procurement process to determine the best solution. In order to make this determination, H-GAC measured such factors as Positron’s reputation, ability to support large installations, leading edge technology and attention to customer support. The new equipment includes the Positron VIPER, Power 911, Power MAP, Power MIS, ePrinter, Positron Sentry, Centralized GIS, and Regional MIS. Positron will be offering a turn-key solution for the entire H-GAC region and will make it possible to easily and efficiently add new agencies by establishing remote sites via the Positron VIPER solution set. The contract also includes all of the necessary support and maintenance that the PSAP’s will require.

TeleCommunication Systems announces the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent number 7,260,186, titled, "Solutions For Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 911 Location Services." The patent enables updating the mid-call location of a VoIP 9-1-1 caller using a Wi-Fi hot spot. The invention allows VoIP Wi-Fi E9-1-1 calls to be routed to the correct Public Safety Answering Point while automatically providing the location of the caller at the time the call was established. The invention helps mobile VoIP calls to meet the current FCC mandate requiring that wireless operators provide E9-1-1 service.

Intelliverse has added nomadic support to its standard E911 offering for all VoIP subscribers. Using Intelliverse, service providers can now offer customers an expanded geographical footprint when using the E911 service. Nomadic E911 will answer every 911 call and route it to the appropriate public safety answering point – regardless of the location they are calling from.

Intelliverse partnered with HBF Group to provide this service. Each address Intelliverse receives will be registered with the HBF Group. Using a real-time API integration, the solution determines where users are located by mapping the phone number to the emergency address on file while verifying and routing it to the appropriate emergency call center.

HBF/911 Services and Northern911 are partnering to provide a unique VoIP E9-1-1 service to the public safety community, at no charge. Called "PSAP Safety Net", this solution will provide a toll free number that the public safety answering points can utilize to transfer a misrouted VoIP emergency call directly to Northern911's Emergency Response Center, where their trained call takers will determine the proper routing and transfer the call to the correct PSAP for the caller's stated location. "PSAP Safety Net" provides a solution to a major VoIP 9-1-1 issue currently plaguing PSAPs. "The PSAP Safety Net" provides a safeguard against potential issues associated with a nomadic VoIP user (one who doesn't always have a "fixed" address associated with their VoIP phone).

HBF has been selected by Level 3 Communications to join their Technology Alliance Program. The Level 3 Technology Alliance Program brings together industry-leading VoIP and data vendors to offer end users solutions that have been tested for deployment using the Level 3 Network. HBF's i-911 VoIP Solution, an enhanced 9-1-1 system providing emergency call handling, bundles HBF's database services with the Level 3 E-911 Direct service to provide VoIP service providers with an end-to-end E9-1-1 solution that is FCC compliant for both static and nomadic end users.

The majority of the state's emergency call centers now receive 9-1-1 calls from customers whose telephone service relies upon VoIP technology. In a recently released report, the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications provided a status of statewide efforts to provide 9-1-1 service to VoIP telephone subscribers. The CSEC VoIP Deployment Report is available at http://www.911.state.tx.us.

VoIP is the term broadly used to describe telephone services that transmit voice communications over a digital data network using Internet protocol technology. Since VoIP telephony is increasingly being adopted by the public, it is critical that VoIP customers have access to emergency services through dialing 9-1-1.

Rosum issued comment on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s hearing on “VoIP and the Future of 9-1-1 Services,” to be held April 10. Rosum also responded to recent remarks by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on the need for more accurate location determination of E9-1-1 calls from mobile devices.

“There are multiple trends in consumer telephony today that highlight the need for reliable ‘in-building 9-1-1’ location capability,” said Skip Speaks, CEO of Rosum Corporation. Speaks noted four specific trends: the growth in wireless-only subscribers who use their wireless handset as a primary line, the growth in users of nomadic VoIP services and users of VoIP lines as a primary line, data showing the bulk of wireless 9-1-1 calls are made indoors, and the emergence of home base stations that need to be located indoors for activation and 9-1-1 purposes.

In recognition of professionals who respond to emergencies and help keep communities safe, AT&T Inc. announced $1 million in contributions to public safety organizations. AT&T provided $750,000 to the Public Safety Foundation of America, Inc. to help first-responders locate more 9-1-1 callers in times of emergency. Additionally, a $250,000 contribution to the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation recognizes the contributions of law enforcement officers and supports the families of officers killed in the line of duty.

"We remain very grateful to the dedicated professionals who work every day to keep our communities safe -- especially law enforcement officers, firefighters and other first-responders," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president-External and Legislative Affairs. "We are proud to play a part in helping these professionals and extending our commitment to public safety to include the beneficial programs administered by the Public Safety Foundation of America and the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation."