State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

North Carolina Sets Aggressive Pace to Phase Out 911 Tech from the 1960s

Government Technology: In the pre-mobile device days of 911, systems could identify the address of a caller and that was enough. There was a physical location tied to every call made from a landline telephone. But today, calls come from everywhere through mobile phones, adding a level of complexity that has left many 911 centers at a loss.

What’s more is that a phone's mobility no longer makes it easy to pinpoint a specific caller’s location using systems that date back to the 1960s — not ideal in situations where lives are on the line. Fold in the clunky and often unreliable transfer technology among various regional centers, and you've got a concerning problem.

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