From
Cathy DiMaggio
Title
Tarrant County 9-1-1 District FY2015-16 Budget
Presenter
Greg Petrey, Tarrant County 9-1-1 and Council Member Fregoe
Recommended Action
Approve
Analysis
An excess of revenues over expenditures in 2014-2015 will result in an increase in the equipment replacement fund of over $1,343,576 by the end of the fiscal year September 30, 2015, leaving an estimated $24.7 million remaining in equipment replacement fund at the close of the year.
The 9-1-1 service itself, being directly impacted by changing technology, has continuously re-invented itself, from early enhanced 9-1-1 through the explosive growth of mobile wireless phones. The Tarrant County 9-1-1 District has been able to remain on the cutting edge and has invested heavily in meeting requirements of changing telecommunications. While the existence of 9-1-1 networks that do not accommodate wireless callers still exist across the nation, the Tarrant County 9-1-1 District is part of the 48% of the nation currently providing its PSAP’s with location and call-back data from wireless callers. In 2014, wireless calls accounted for more than 82% of all 9-1-1 calls answered by our member entities.
Currently, a push is underway among the larger districts in Texas to implement “Next Generation” 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) services, which recognizes the growing number of callers, both residential and commercial, that have switched their phone service completely to internet-based telecommunications services and/or converged wireless and VoIP services.
Limitations of the current network and database platforms were exposed when wireless callers were added to the 9-1-1 network over the past 20 years. The telecommunications industry (both wireline and wireless) is moving rapidly from circuit switched technology to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). It is widely accepted that the existing 9-1-1 technology based on circuit-switched networks and a database of static ALI records will not be able to support emerging technologies such as text messaging and video services.
The 2015-16 Budget and Overview is attached.