County works toward upgrading 911 system
Trisha Benton
Randolph Times
HARTINGTON — Cedar County’s 911 system will be getting a major upgrade later this fall.
The county is preparing for what’s known as Next Generation 911 - new technology that allows the public to share videos, images and text messages with 911 call centers. The new technology also enables 911 centers to communicate with each other. Cedar County will join five other entities to connect their 911 centers through fiber optics.
The Cedar County Commissioners signed an interlocal agreement to join Dakota, Madison, Stanton, Dixon and Knox in a fiber optic 911 network at its meeting last week. The entities were chosen to form the network because they have compatible equipment to make it happen, said Emergency Manager Kevin Garvin.
The current system is from 50 years ago and can seem archaic by today’s technology standards.
Currently if the 911 dispatcher is on the line with a caller, a second call coming through will keep ringing until it’s answered. The dispatcher will have to put the first caller on hold to answer the second line, not exactly ideal in emergency situations.
“Basically in the middle of an emergency and this has been an issue, ‘Can you hang on. We have to put you on hold.’ We put a caller on hold to answer another 911 call coming in,” Garvin said. “Our system can prioritize that now, can see where calls are coming from. If the calls are coming from the same location, the second one is more than likely related to the first.”
With the new upgrades, emergency calls that ring through unanswered by Cedar County can roll over to another county in the network.
“The current 911 systems were never built with cellphones in mind,” Garvin said. “The 911 as it exists, the technology is 50 years old, using old copper phone lines and old technology. Now it’s designed to use fiber optics and the advancement of computers.”
The new fiber optic network system will also include some redundancies to avoid lost connectivity.
Garvin counts himself lucky that he was on board in the late 1990s when the system was implemented - experience he can draw on now to make the needed upgrades.
“This is quite a task. It’s reminiscent of what went on back then - same process, lots of coordination,” he said.
The commissioners approved a contract for Lincoln-based OPTK to provide fiber optic network equipment and link the 911 centers together. OPTK is a consortium of local independent telephone companies that includes Hartelco in Hartington and Northeast Nebraska Telephone Co. in Jackson.
The project will cost about $48,000 with the majority of funds coming from the state 911 fund - accumulated from the various fees charged to cell phone and landline users.
Garvin hopes to have the fiber optic network up and functional by this fall.
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