Can All Call Centers be Upgraded to NG911?
U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, wants every emergency call center in the country to be upgraded to NextGen911 (NG911), an Internet Protocol-based system replacing some legacy analog networks.
NG911 allows emergency call centers to process not only voice calls but also digital media such as live photos, videos, and texts. This upgrade improves location accuracy and ensures calls route correctly during disasters, according to proponents.
Speaking at the Safer Building Coalition Wireless Tech & Policy Summit last week at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., Hudson said he visited an NG911 center in Greensboro recently. “The challenge is how much is it going to cost to bring everyone up to a base level. Our committee is still working though that,” Hudson said.
Safer Buildings Coalition Executive Director Chief Alan Perdue (Ret.) asked what has to happen to get NG911 across the goal line.
Hudson said the cost estimate when he took over the subcommittee in 2025 was from 2018. “We need to get a real number we can agree on. NTIA gave us a cost estimate from $5 to $9 billion. That’s less than the original estimate.” That was about a month ago, Hudson added. “The next step is finding a funding source we can all agree on.”
Referencing the $21 billion in BEAD non-deployment money, Hudson said he’d prefer to take $5 billion out of that fund for upgrading emergency call centers to NG911. He wants the final number to be bipartisan. “We’ve been keeping our Senate counterparts apprised of what we’re doing. If we can get a bipartisan bill out of the House, the Senate will be inclined to work with us on that.”
Perdue asked Hudson to discuss using AI in dispatch safety. “You need AI to help triage calls to call centers. You don’t want a call center with no people in it. Making sure we’ve got humans [in call centers] is important,” Hudson said.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
