Cincinnati Bell Announces Availability of Its Hosted NG911 System
April 11, 2011
CINCINNATI, Ohio – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Cincinnati Bell (NYSE:CBB) announced today the immediate availability of its Next Generation 911 emergency communication platform (NG911), enabling all emergency 911 dispatch centers in the Cincinnati Bell telephone operating area the opportunity to upgrade to a hosted NG911 solution. Cincinnati Bell's Internet protocol-based network will allow 911 calls to be transferred seamlessly between emergency call centers within the system and position the dispatch centers to take advantage of the emerging technologies that incorporate today's social media, voice, video and texting. Cincinnati Bell's goal is to provide the most advanced and reliable technology so that the 911 call centers may focus their energies on efficiently handling and dispatching emergency service requests. The driving factors for Cincinnati Bell in delivering this new NG911 system are security, reliability and affordability.
Security and Reliability Cincinnati Bell has experienced the evolution of 911 services from the very beginning and understands the disparity between systems and the importance of complying with continually advancing standards. In 2009, Cincinnati Bell partnered with microDATA and Aculab to deploy an NG911 proof of concept. The success of that concept has led to the installation of NG911 in seven 911 dispatch centers in this area. The reliability and security of this system is ensured through Cincinnati Bell's two fully redundant and completely separate networks housed in separate Tier 3 data centers that mirror one another and provide delivery to each emergency call center on the system.
Cincinnati Bell's system was designed with the capacity to safely support all dispatch centers in Cincinnati Bell's operating area. This system can be partitioned to provide for the individual demands of any emergency call center while providing connectivity across the area to communicate with other centers. As an additional measure of security and reliability, Cincinnati Bell will deliver fiber into any 911 dispatch center as part of the service installation.
Affordability in developing a new system, Cincinnati Bell also recognized that dispatch centers needed to balance service delivery with available funding. Cincinnati Bell's NG911 solution does not require the expensive purchase and installation costs normally associated with a new system deployment. In addition, the monthly rate for maintaining the system is generally about the same as the amount an emergency call center is currently paying for its existing legacy system. The system was designed to forgo the periodic as well as ongoing significant expense of purchasing and maintaining equipment, networks and upgrades in order to remain compliant with the next generation of 911 standards. Cincinnati Bell's goal is to allow the dispatch centers to focus their budget and energies on operations and training while removing concerns over technology and call delivery.
The new contract results in compensation increases, excellent healthcare plans, and, depending on the employee, either the continuation of pension credits or enhancement of 401k benefits.
About Cincinnati Bell Inc.
With headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Bell provides integrated communications solutions–including local, long distance, data, Internet, entertainment, and wireless services–that keep residential and business customers in Greater Cincinnati and Dayton connected with each other and with the world. In addition, businesses nationwide ranging in size from start-up companies to large enterprises turn to Cincinnati Bell for efficient, scalable office communications systems as well as complex information technology solutions including data center collocation and managed services. For more information, visit www.cincinnatibell.com.