By Dioni L. Wise, News & Record (Greensboro, NC)

GREENSBORO – The nation’s emergency call centers have been working with decades-old technology.

But new technology could soon allow 911 operators to receive pictures, videos and text messages in addition to calls.

Callers wouldn’t just tell operators what’s going on, they would be able to show them.

Emergency call centers across the state are testing how the current telephone-based, voice-only system could be replaced by a system that permits the exchange of voice, text and visuals over the Internet.

Welcome, Next Generation 911.

Craig Whittington, special projects coordinator of Guilford Metro 911, said emergency communication centers are based on designs from 1968, the same system used to make long-distance calls.

“It would be the same as if the city of Greensboro ran a firetruck that was built in 1968,” Whittington said. “How safe do you really think that is?”

N.C. 911 Board Executive Director Richard Taylor dates the current system back even further to the 1950s. The Next Generation system would move voice and data between 911 centers, he said.

“These projects are being able to move our 911 system from an analog world to a digital world, going from Fred Flintstone to George Jetson,” Taylor said.

The state board, which manages a fund financed by the statewide service charge on wireless phones, gave a grant to Haywood, Stanly and Brunswick counties to test whether voice and data can be moved over the Internet from the mountains to the coast, he said.

This technology would allow the other two counties to pick up Brunswick County’s calls if, for example, a hurricane causes Brunswick’s 911 center to become inoperable.

Also, Next Generation technology would better serve people with speech and hearing impairments through texting.

Texting could also allow people in hiding to contact law enforcement silently such as a woman in a domestic violence situation.

The call center in Black Hawk County, Iowa, was the first in the U.S. to use the emergency texting software from Intrado, a company that provides emergency communications technology and support, with T-mobile customers.

One caller hid in a closet from her estranged boyfriend and sent a text to an operator who sent police to her home, where the man was arrested.

In August, the Durham Emergency Communications Center became the second 911 center to use the text-to-911 program. Only Verizon Wireless customers in Durham can send messages during the six-month trial.

As of Sept. 14, the center had not received a single text, said director Jim Soukup.

But he said that’s what he expected. Customers should send text messages only when calling 911 isn’t an option.

There are a few caveats to this emergency texting trial. Primarily, texting is not always instantaneous, he said. Also, Verizon customers must be in range of cell towers in Durham County area or 911 won’t receive the message.

Guilford Metro 911 and other centers in the state are awaiting the results of Durham’s trial.

“It’s not only important for Durham, it’s important for the nation to get this going,” Soukup said.

From October 2008 to October 2010, Guilford Metro 911 conducted a trial with Intrado that helped prove it could route and deliver calls over its secure, Internet-based network, Whittington said. That trial in Guilford helped develop the text-to-911 technology being used in Durham, he said.

At the end of the two-year test, Guilford Metro 911 director Wesley Reid said he and his staff wanted to wait for the technology and industry standards to catch up with one another.

They got a step closer in June when the National Emergency Number Association approved a vision of what Next Generation 911 should be and detailed the key elements needed to implement it.

Reid said he was happy that Durham and Black Hawk County, Iowa, took the leap of faith first and will work out the bugs in the texting trial.

“This time they can go first and then we’ll be a slight step behind,” Reid said. “You’ve gotta really be certain before you’re willing to say, ‘I’m going to clip the cord to this old technology, which is tried and true’… to go to something that’s going to be more Internet-based.”

Reid and his staff are positioning the center to be ready when they decide to make the next step.

They submitted seven grant requests for a combined $4.1 million for various upgrades, Whittington said. The money would help upgrade the phone system and radio equipment, replace old consoles and expand the backup 911 center, he said.

Guilford Metro 911 also is included in a grant application with Person, Frankin and Caswell counties. The funds would help them to convert to Intrado’s Next Generation network. A clause allows Guilford to back out of the deal if officials find another solution to modernizing its 911 system, Whittington said.

Taylor said all 911 centers in North Carolina could upgrade to the newer technology in three to five years.

It’s not a simple matter of flipping a switch, but the technology’s there, he said.

Whittington said Guilford should move on.

“It’s time we upgrade that firetruck,” he said. “We’ve got to. We got no choice.”

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