Calling 911 for emergency services was established in the 1960s.
Over the years, updates have been made but up until recently counties in Wisconsin still use an analog system.
There’s currently a statewide effort to transition counties to the digital NextGen 911 system.
“This is a huge advancement for our public safety sector. So that's why we're very excited to bring a very analog industry into the digital age,” said Tyler Verhasselt, the Lincoln County Emergency Management Director.
Some counties have already made the transition, and many are in the process.
NextGen 911 has a lot of advantages.
Location data will be accurate down to 10 meters compared to the 100 meters it is right now.
Counties can opt in for texting or even facetiming 911. Lincoln County plans to use the text option.
It’s meant to improve emergency response between counties.
Verhasselt says it will also make the system itself more resilient by creating redundancies in the system.
“For example, our dispatch center is in Merrill. There was one line running down to Marathon County in Wausau, where our analog hub is,” said Verhasselt. “If there was an interruption to that line, then we would lose our emergency communication. With the digital system, if one line is interrupted, we are not going to lose service.”
There are no expected delays or disruptions during the transition to NextGen 911.
Work will begin next month and is expected to take about a year.
There are a lot of initial costs to counties to make the transition from analog to digital.
As WXPR reported last week, Lincoln County recently received a more than $416,000 grant to upgrade its emergency communications system.
The grant is expected to cover majority of the costs.
“We're going to do a lot of live testing with our partners, who is AT&T First Net, as well as the Department of Military Affairs Office of Emergency Communication,” said Verhasselt. “Then once we pass all those phase lines and all those live testing, then we'll go live, hopefully by quarter four of next year.”
Verhasselt says once the new system is up and running, they plan to educate people to ensure they know the capabilities of NextGen 911.
