Residents in Raleigh and Wake County Can Soon Text 911

The Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communication Center’s 911 system just got a major upgrade. Residents calling the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center for help will now be routed to a telecommunicator on the city’s new NextGen 911 system provided by AT&T*. After modernizing its aging 911 infrastructure with AT&T ESInet™, Raleigh recently completed the first call on the new system.

AT&T ESInet is an IP-based call routing service that will help public safety answering points (PSAPs) keep up with the current and future needs of its callers. Using AT&T ESInet’s modern network architecture and the National Emergency Number Association’s i3 standards, PSAPs will be able to provide a more reliable and improved 911 experience.

The Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center made the decision to upgrade its 911 services with AT&T ESInet last year. And it is the first PSAP in the country to successfully move to the AT&T ESInet i3 service. 

“This is a critical upgrade to maintain the current and future safety of our county,” said Dominick Nutter, director of the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center. “When residents call 911 for help, they should be confident that we’ll be there for them. AT&T ESInet brings that confidence. It helps us route emergency calls correctly, gives us resiliency to stay connected during disasters and will allow us to better collaborate with other AT&T ESInet-connected PSAPs.”

Raleigh’s Emergency Communication Center receives more than a million 911 calls each year. These will now be managed via AT&T ESInet to better support influxes in call volume.

Texting 911

AT&T ESInet is also giving Raleigh and Wake County residents modernized ways to communicate with 911. Text to 911 is expected later this year. This will let the public send texts to the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center, giving residents more ways to interact with 911 when voice isn’t an option.

“We’re leaning forward with this new service because we want to do the best we can for the community and our residents to ensure they get the best possible 911 service,” Nutter said.

Always call 911 if you can; text if you must. Text information is not equal to current location technology. As with all text messages, 911 messages can take longer to receive, can get out of order, or may not be received.

“At AT&T, we believe the most important connection is one that can save lives. So, we’re proud to work with the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center as they lead the County into the future of 911,” said Brian Troup, vice president, AT&T Public Sector.

AT&T ESInet is one of the latest evolving emergency communications tools available to Raleigh-Wake County. In November 2017, North Carolina opted into FirstNet – the nationwide communications platform that is purpose-built for and dedicated to America’s first responders. Using both AT&T ESInet and FirstNet means Raleigh-Wake’s public safety community can create an efficient flow of communications from the caller to the 911 call taker to the first responder.

To learn more about AT&T ESInet, go here.