Hawaiian telco taps Intrado to provide next-gen 911 services

Hawaiian Telcom, the largest full-service communications provider in Hawaii, last week announced that it has selected Intrado to provide next-generation 911 services to all the public-safety answering points (PSAPs) in the state.

"We are really providing them with a similar solution as we have with Vermont or Washington, where it is a complete, statewide, fully integrated end-to-end solution, where Intrado manages every aspect for Hawaiian Telcom," said Mark Scott, vice president and general manager for Intrado. "On behalf of Hawaiian Telcom, we are providing the complete end-to-end service for them."

Emergency calls will be handled through Intrado's A-911 routing, and enhanced services will be provided as the PSAPs request them, Scott said. Although the initial services decisions have not been made, Scott said PSAPs have expressed "an awful lot of interest" in text-to-911 functionality, and they also have indicated that location-based and hazardous-material applications are important to them.

Hawaiian PSAPs are expected to have the capability to utilize this next-generation functionality by the end of 2014, Scott said. Intrado will be providing these services as a hosted offering, and the company is exploring myriad options to ensure that sufficient connectivity redundancy exists to maintain the 911 system in the face of a natural disaster, he said.

Clayton Tom, chairman of the state of Hawaii's Enhanced 911 Board, expressed support for the migration to the next-generation architecture

"Next-gen 911 provides the state of Hawaii with the foundation to provide many enhancements for our public-safety emergency-response teams, thereby assisting with advanced life saving communications capabilities for the public," Tom said in a statement. "We've been eager to implement improvements for our 911 system, and we're excited about the future for our state with the collaboration between Intrado and Hawaiian Telcom."