FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP) on Thursday won a $32 million, five-year contract to build Maine's next-generation 911 system.
Under the terms of the contract, FairPoint will provide both the system and support to serve the state's 26 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). Each community is matched with their own PSAP, which has the responsibility of answering 911 calls.
According to FairPoint, Maine is one of the first U.S. states to deploy a Next Generation 911 (NG 911) system compliant with the National Emergency Number Association standards that were released last June.
Karen Romano, FairPoint's vice president of government, education and research, said the new E-911 system can support an array of traditional wireline voice and wireless data methods.
"The new Maine E-911 system will use leading edge technology to handle current legacy and next-generation communication technologies such as voice, instant messaging, video and text messaging," she said in a release announcing the contract.
What's different about NG 911 systems overall is can allow dynamic and robust call handling configurations to adapt to disasters and emergency events that create a high 911 call volume.
FairPoint is not the only service provider making strides with next-gen E-911 systems.
AT&T (NYSE: T) and Hawaiian Telcom (Nasdaq: HCOM) are also upping their next-gen E-911 efforts. AT&T in August introduced a personalized 911 service that enables any person to create their own online profile, while Hawaiian Telcom selected Intrado to upgrade its network infrastructure to provide next-generation 911 products and services to public safety answering points (PSAPs).
For more:
- see the release
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