9-1-1 meets VoIP
Although VoIP phone services have not yet eclipsed traditional telephone service, they continue to grow at a dizzying pace - and VoIP 9-1-1 calls are not only on the rise, but will soon move beyond voice to include text, video and more. The question of how to handle this impending onslaught of VoIP 9-1-1 calls has become a springboard for a larger debate about IP's future role in public safety.
The picture today: capturing VoIP calls in the 9-1-1 center
PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points, for 9-1-1 services) have long recognized the importance of capturing and preserving their 9-1-1 communications - for investigations, for quality assurance, for evidence in court cases, and to mitigate risk of liability. That includes calls from wireline phones, wireless customers, and now of course, calls placed using VoIP, which are estimated to reach 3.5 million by the end of this year.
That begs a question - how will these millions of IP-based interactions be captured?
You may be surprised to learn that the answer will not differ - at least for the foreseeable future -much from the way they're being recorded today. Here's why. While consumers are widely adopting VoIP phone service, the infrastructure of today's public safety 9-1-1 systems (and most PSAPs) are predominantly based on traditional circuit switched technology. That means that before a VoIP 9-1-1 call gets to the PSAP, it has to be converted to a time-division multiplexing (TDM) format to traverse a wireline network, and that's exactly how it arrives in the PSAP - as TDM. From a recording standpoint, this means that VoIP 9-1-1 calls are captured in much the same way as their wireline 9-1-1 counterparts are recorded today.
Capturing calls in the IP-enabled 9-1-1 center
But before you think that the impact of IP on recording 9-1-1 calls is "much ado about nothing," consider another trend - the slow but inevitable migration of 9-1-1 systems and 9-1-1 centers from traditional circuit-switched telephony to IP.
Commercial enterprises have long recognized IP-based telephony's benefits for lowering costs, making administration and management much easier, and enabling flexible support of an increasingly mobile and distributed workforce.
PSAPs are taking smaller steps in their deployment of IP telephony. Still, it is clear that IP holds great promise for PSAPs and will have a role to play in the future public safety landscape.
Ready, Set, Go: Key Considerations for Your PSAP in Selecting an IP Recording Solution
Whether your PSAP is on the cutting edge of IP, just testing the waters, or sitting on the sidelines - when it comes to selecting a recording solution, there are things you can do today to prepare for the inevitable arrival of IP telephony in your 9-1-1 center.
- Choose a solution that offers a smooth migration path...
First, choose a solution that provides a smooth migration path from capturing traditional telephony interactions to pure IP interactions. Make sure whatever solution you select will seamlessly support the capture, search, retrieval and reconstruction of all types of calls whether they arrive in your center through a circuit switched network or through IP. Make sure that you can access all of these interactions through a single user interface. This will ensure continuity and transparency, reduce training time for system users, ensure comprehensive reconstruction of incidents, and protect your investment as you migrate from a circuit switched environment to a hybrid environment, and eventually perhaps to pure IP telephony.
- Choose a company with IP experience and the references to back it up...
IP recording implementations can be complicated, with many pitfalls that an inexperienced provider might not fully appreciate or understand. Recording in an IP domain is fundamentally different from recording in a traditional telephony environment. The recording system is no longer just an end point in a telephony system, but rather, a true network appliance, an active "participant" on the network. This requires a detailed understanding of the PSAP's IP network - its topology, rules and standards.
While IP telephony is new to public safety and has not emerged fully as a core technology, it has been widely used in business environments for years. PSAPs should look for a company with a history of successful deployments of patented VoIP recording solutions that interface with both leading IP telephony and IP radio systems.
- Choose a recording solution provider with a vision for the future
Most important, choose a company with a vision for the future. The convergence of voice and data over an IP network will open up new modes of communication between citizens and 9-1-1 centers. The 9-1-1 call of the future might not be a 9-1-1 voice call at all - it could be a text message, or voice accompanied by a still picture or a video image. With the advanced routing capabilities of the IP network, the text, voice, and video information could be seamlessly routed to a secondary PSAP or other remote site for handling, perhaps even transmitted directly to a first responder in the field.
In evaluating technology for capturing and analyzing interactions, you should choose a company that has a clear vision of how your PSAP can capture and leverage the many sources of information on your IP network - from voice, to text, to video and beyond. Forward thinking recording companies are already building next-generation solutions that will enable your 9-1-1 center to capture, consolidate, reconstruct and share all types of multi-media information, with the ultimate goal of helping you improve public service and safety, productivity, timeliness, insight, and emergency response.
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