It’s nothing new that smartphone apps and mobile device management strategies have been highly influencing the public safety and emergency communications space. While such techniques as text-to-911 and other innovative and interactive ways to connect to best-of-breed E911 technologies are encouraged, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) believes that developers of these E911 apps need to better understand the “E911” aspect. In light of this, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association have joined forces to draft and present educational materials that will provide them with a better comprehension of E911 system capabilities and limitations.

According to an APCO statement as reported by Emergency Management, many new E911 apps display more creativity than they take into consideration the vital importance of enhanced 911 (E911) technical architecture – not to mention the operations of public safety answering points.

While E911 has been continuously used in a majority of U.S. 911 call centers, it can sometimes lack the top technologies needed to keep it fully optimized. Now, 911 call centers and technologies must bend beneath the strong winds of next-generation E911 as new solutions constantly blow through the industry. NG-E911 can include high-quality support of voice, text, video and additional data. As next-generation E911 and mobile E911 continues to evolve across most of the country, the following is a list of critical points that E911 app developers – and anyone else interested in E911 solutions, for that matter – should be aware of:

1)      People expect that their location will be automatically delivered to the call center any time they call or contact 911. Data that is resident within smartphone-type applications, such as the caller’s name, location or call-back number, cannot currently be delivered with a 911 call.

2)      An app that notifies the caller’s family or friends of an emergency situation should not be viewed as a solution for contacting 911.

3)      Only voice and a single eight or 10 digit reference code can be carried with an E911 call. This code is designed to carry the caller's telephone number or a reference number that assists in determining how to route a 911 call to the appropriate 911 center. Developers should note that the 911 center that a call is routed to may not be the 911 center physically closest to the caller.

Keeping up with all of these constantly new and emerging E911 technologies to meet the requirements of both the customer and modern enterprise is vital. RedSky (News - Alert) Technologies, a renowned provider of best-of-breed E911 offerings, keeps this in mind when developing and providing its E911 enterprise-class solutions, which are built specifically for reliability and redundancy. With state-of-the-art software development languages and frameworks, RedSky ensures that your business’ E911 solutions are fully optimized by running in the most secure enterprise, government and virtual environments. Even more, RedSky E911 solutions can be purchased as a service and deployed in the cloud.

Think of it this way – ensuring that your enterprise-level E911 is secure maintains citizen safety, and that’s what’s most important at the end of the day.

To learn more about RedSky’s offerings, visit www.redskye911.com.