PSC Approves Contract For Next Generation 911 Services
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PSC Approves Contract for Next Generation 911 Services
Lincoln, January 5, 2021– By a vote of four-to-one, the Nebraska
Public Service Commission (PSC) today, January 5, approved
entering into a contract with Lumen (formerly CenturyLink) to
provide Next Generation 911 (NG911) services.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved in this process for their support,”
said District 3, Commissioner Tim Schram. “This is a collaborative
effort and we are excited to continue the process to bring improved
911 services to all Nebraskans.”
Voting against the contract approval was District 2, Commissioner
Crystal Rhoades. Rhoades said, “Lumen has a proven track record
of 911 failures nationally and in Nebraska. I don’t believe awarding
them the contract is prudent given they are
currently under investigation for those failures.”
The contract calls for the establishment of a statewide Emergency
Services Internet Protocol Network (ESInet) that will allow callers
seeking emergency services to contact 911 not only by making a
voice call, but also allowing the utilization of multi-media data
such as text messages, pictures and video. As part of the contract,
Lumen is partnering with Intrado to provide NG911 Core Services
which involves the locating and routing of calls to 911 geospatially.
In a geospatial environment a caller’s location is identified using
Geographic Information System (GIS) data based on a caller’s
longitude & latitude.
The initial five-year contract with Lumen (CenturyLink) is to provide
NG911 services at a cost of nearly $815,000 the first year, and $1.8
million each of the remaining four years. At the end of the initial
contract period, the Commission will have the option to extend the
contract for up to 10-years.
“This is the next big step in our process,” said David Sankey, state
911 director. “Once the contract is signed, we’ll sit down with
representatives of Lumen to set priorities and a timeline to begin
the process of connecting regions of Public Safety Answering Points
(PSAPs) to the statewide ESInet.”
The PSC currently provides funding assistance to 68 PSAPs. The
PSAPs are in the process of forming regions with seven
PSAP regions expected to be connected to the statewide ESInet at
the completion of the project.
The goal, Sankey said, is to have all PSAP regions connected to the
ESInet by the end of 2022.
The contract once finalized by the state, can be found on the
Nebraska Department of Administrative Services/State Purchasing
webpage @
< https://das.nebraska.gov/materiel/purchasing/6264/6264.html > .###
Contact:
Deb Collins- Media & Communications Mgr.
(402) 471-0226
deb.collins@nebraska.gov
