Telecoms for emergency communications, 1

(Remarks at the 911 Commission meeting in Microtel at Wyndham in UP Diliman Campus, Oct. 14, 2019.)

IT HAS BEEN said that “content is king”, “connectivity is queen”, but “data is god”.

That sounds a bit sacrilegious, but no one could question the profound importance of data nowadays.

Generally speaking, it could be said that whatever applies to Management Information Systems (MIS) could also apply to emergency communications. As a matter of fact, many organizations would consider emergency communications as being part of MIS.

It goes without saying nowadays that any computer system or any database system would eventually involve the use of Big Data and surely after that, data analytics would have to come into play. And also surely, regardless of whether one would like it or not, a decision has to be made, whether to use the Internet Cloud or not.

That question may actually be irrelevant now, because nowadays, it is simply a question of using the Internet Cloud either fully or partially, the latter being the hybrid approach.

In the case of emergency communications, it should be declared a policy that all equipment and devices should be both interoperable (IO) and interchangeable (IC).

I am saying that because in almost any emergency situation, most equipment and devices would fail or malfunction, in which case there would be a need to cannibalize and transfer some parts and consumables.

Other than that, it should also be made a policy to allow another communications system from another facility or location to take it over either partially or completely, thus provisioning for an extra backup. In very simple terms, this would be similar to a trunk hunting system, wherein the system looks for an open line to patch the calls to.

Up to now, there is a tendency for most emergency communications systems to use voice calls as a single platform, and that is also the popular practice in the Customer Relations Management (CRM) systems of private corporations and government agencies. In these changing times however, it would be more practical to adapt a multiplatform that would use both voice and non-voice solutions.

As of now, many communications systems are able to accept voice calls usually from landline devices, but sometimes with the capability to accept GSM voice calls from mobile phones. Sooner or later however, all emergency communications systems should be able to accept calls from other voice sources, such as Viber, Skype, Whats App and Facebook Messenger. As another option, several non-voice capabilities should be installed, such as text, email and chat.

Since emergency communications systems are dealing with life and death situations, it is only proper that private corporations and government agencies should already require their providers to sign Service Level Agreements (SLAs), with penalty provisions for downtimes due to whatever causes. (To be continued/PN)

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