RapidDeploy announces plans for RapidONE cloud-based 911 call-handling solution

RapidDeploy today announced its plans for RapidONE, a cloud-based call-handling solution that is designed allow 911 call-takers to in locations outside a public-safety answering point (PSAP) while integrating all information related to an emergency call on a single screen.

RapidDeploy CEO Steve Raucher said RapidONE will be embedded in the company’s Radius platform, allowing that product to support 911 call-taking as well as its traditional features.

“For years now, [Radius has] had the ability to stream video from the caller, two-way text message with live translation,” Raucher said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “So, we’ve had this unified-communications theme within our Radius platform, and the voice element was the missing part.

“Because with voice, we can truly consolidate down to a single pane of glass [screen], hence the title ‘RapidONE’ for the product. That’s one pane of glass, one solution, one operating system for 911—that is what we promise to deliver.”

Raucher said the RapidONE is being tested now—for instance, the new call-handline capability is in the CalOES laboratory—and will continue to do so for several months. While RapidDeploy hopes to make RapidONE generally available to the marketplace during the first half of 2024, Raucher said the testing process will not be rushed.

“The voice part is the most regulated of all the 911 services, and we want to make sure that we have a totally robust solution before entering the market,” Raucher said. “There’s no margin for error when delivering voice, and we want to be able to guarantee the best experience. So, we will be prudent with our timelines.”

RapidDeploy products have been known for providing telecommunicators with features similar to next-generation 911 (NG911) functionalities, even on legacy 911 platforms. However, Raucher said the RapidONE call-handling service will require the call center to use an Emergency Services IP network (ESInet)—the IP-based foundation for NG911.

In addition to providing a “single pane of glass” view to telecommunicators, RapidONE promises to help PSAP directors deal with one of the biggest pain points in the 911 sector—staffing—but enabling remote call-taking in an efficient, scalable manner.

“What RapidONE will do is unlock the untapped potential of very different workforce than the original 911 system was designed for,” Raucher said. “It will allow us to scale at a moment’s notice, bringing in remote call-taking, which is something that is standard across the European emergency-services industry. It allow us to employ, scale up and scale down for emergencies and employ working mothers, rural telecommunicators.

“Sometimes a telecommunicator might drive an hour in [to the 911 center] for a shift. And if there is snow, they might have to sleep in the PSAP just to make sure they can make their next shift. All of this changes. This is the beginning of a revolution, and it is starting now.”

Today, a few 911 centers include some remote call-taking in their operations, but the mechanisms are not ideal for widespread adoption, according to Raucher.

“It is not designed to be scaled; it is done with solutions that, for the time, were cutting-edge,” he said. “But now we’re moving to a true IP-based environment where everything can be done via the cloud. That is the promise of RapidDeploy. This is the beauty of this. One will be able to work from home, to be able to take a 911 call from home.

“The concept of the way we are delivering the telephony experience is [that] telephony is a feature of an ecosystem. RapidONE pulls that all together, because the telephony experience will be delivered in the same call-taking map that today is deployed and used as a primary call-taking map in over 1,500 PSAPs—so, the total integration of voice, text and video delivered in browser.”

Between its Radius mapping and Eclipse analytics products, RapidDeploy has 10 statewide deals in the U.S., according to Raucher.

When RapidONE is available, existing Radius customers will be able to activate the new call-taking solution with a “flip of a switch,” because RapidONE will be embedded in Radius, Raucher said. And customers will benefit even more, if neighboring 911 centers also use the platform, he said.

“Radius was designed to be more powerful if a PSAP’s neighbors are running the platform, too,” Raucher said. “It helps visualize misrouted call. Also, Radius is designed from the ground up to provide a layer of resilience for an ESInet customer or a 911 legacy customer, because we get push notifications from all of the wireless handsets, which now contribute 85% to 90% of a PSAP’s call traffic. So, in the event of an outage, RapidDeploy’s Radius platform allows the PSAP to see all of its wireless calls on the map, even if the phone has not rung.”

Raucher said his company’s entrance into the 911 call-handling market began with the April 2021 acquisition of Emergent Communications. Since then, RapidDeploy has done further development with the call-handling solution and integrated it into Radius to create RapidONE, he said.

Attendees of the NENA show next week in Grapevine, Texas, can learn more about RapidONE by visiting the RapidDeploy booth.