AT&T is helping Raleigh-Wake County, N.C., to further modernize its public safety technology and move to a NextGen 9-1-1 network. Raleigh-Wake plans to roll out AT&T ESInet™ to better support the safety and security of its people and communities.

AT&T ESInet is a new solution that provides IP-based call routing services to 9-1-1 agencies. It will help Raleigh-Wake improve 9-1-1 reliability, enhance emergency responsiveness and improve disaster recovery.

"Raleigh-Wake continues to grow quickly, and we need to be prepared to meet the public safety needs of our increasing population. We see this as an investment in the safety and future of our county," said Dominick Nutter, director of the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center. "Upgrading our technology with AT&T ESInet was an obvious choice. It'll increase our ability to handle unexpected call volumes, expand how people interact with 9-1-1 and enable us to quickly and correctly route calls and text messages to the right 9-1-1 agency the first time."

With AT&T ESInet, Raleigh-Wake will have more sophisticated capabilities to route calls based on the caller's geographic location. Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) will also be able to manage and route advanced communications like text to 9-1-1. In the future, Raleigh-Wake's PSAPs will be able to support pictures and videos sent via text. This is crucial in today's mobile environment where more than 70% of the calls made to 9-1-1 come from a mobile device.

"We've long supported Raleigh-Wake's public safety needs. And we applaud their decision to future-proof their 9-1-1 infrastructure," said Jim Bugel, vice president of AT&T Public Safety Solutions. "AT&T ESInet will provide Raleigh-Wake's emergency services with an advanced network to better meet the needs of their citizens, first responders and 9-1-1 call takers today and tomorrow." 

Since AT&T ESInet is a highly secure and resilient nationwide service, it will give Raleigh-Wake access to geographically diverse and redundant call processing locations. This will let the county collaborate with other ESInet-enabled 9-1-1 agencies across the state and country.

As a result, Raleigh-Wake will be able to:

• Maintain service should a natural or man-made disaster occur
• Save precious time when calls and texts are routed correctly
• Automatically route calls to neighboring PSAPs when call volumes spike

Additional benefits include access to:

• A defense-in-depth, private network with multiple layers of security – like firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention – to help protect the county's 9-1-1 infrastructure from cyber threats
• Industry standard components that will give Raleigh-Wake backward compatibility with legacy 9-1-1 systems and services

By making it easier for Raleigh-Wake to manage 9-1-1 calls, it will help their public safety resources go further in being able to focus on what matters most: protecting their people and saving lives.

Source: AT&T media announcement