9-1-1 Network | 911 Network | 9-1-1Colorado Foundation | 911 Colorado

9-1-1 for 9-1-1

The 9-1-1 Network, built on 1970's analog telephone technology, is unable to process and determine caller locations with many new telephone and messaging technologies. We must modernize the network to a "Next Generation 9-1-1 Network" to assure that you can continue to dial 9-1-1 for help. Read more.

Ten Front Range counties with about 75% of the state's residents collect approximately $30 million annually in telephone surcharges to fund their portion of the 9-1-1 Network and call processing. The remaining 54 Colorado counties with about 25% of the population spread across 90% of the land area of Colorado, collect about $16 million in surcharge revenues. These rural counties struggle to fund their portion of the existing 9-1-1 Network, and make do without equipment and systems common to the Front Range Call Centers. Read more.

Misuse of the 9-1-1 System blocks Emergency Calls to 9-1-1. The Foundation's public education efforts are intended to help reduce misuse of the System.* Read more.

* Because surcharge "revenues" are not available for all jurisdictions, the aggregate revenues provided have been extrapolated from actual county populations and surcharge amounts, and rural and urban telephone subscription trends determined from jurisdictions for which revenue data is available. While the revenues are not precise, we believe a fair approximation of the ratio of Front Range to rural revenues is presented.

Modernizing the 9-1-1 Network

When you call 9-1-1, the 9-1-1 Network identifies your location in order to determine which Emergency Call Center can dispatch help to your location. The network cannot determine caller location with some internet and wireless phones, and cannot handle text or video messages, or calls from Automatic Crash Notification, and health and alarm monitoring systems. In fact, Crash Notification, Alarm Monitoring, and internet telephone calls are relayed to the Emergency Call Center over regular administrative telephone lines rather than the 9-1-1 Network. The lines are answered on an as-available basis, may not be answered "after hours," and do not provide any data related to the call.

Your cellphone likely has more data transmission, storage and processing power than the current 9-1-1 Network, which was built in the 1970s and predated fax machines, personal computers and cellphones. Limited data, address and callback number, is transmitted over the current analog network at only 1200 baud. For comparison, a 1200 baud modem would require almost 2 hours to transmit a 1MB file which a "modern" 56K dial-up modem would transmit in under 3 minutes, and a cable or dsl modem would transmit in .8 to 16 seconds. These data transmission limitations are a function of network design requirements developed in the 1970s, lowest-common-denominator Emergency Call Center equipment, and historical data transmission requirements.

Updating the 9-1-1 Network to 21st Century digital network interconnecting Emergency Call Centers, capable of handling text and video messages to "911" as well as modern wifi, internet and other phones, and allowing transmission of additional data, will also provide many additional public safety benefits.

We want to upgrade the 9-1-1 Network to ensure you can reach 9-1-1, and to enable First Responders to arrive sooner with better information no matter where you may live, work, travel or play in Colorado.

Funding Rural 9-1-1

Public safety is a local concern, funded and managed at the city and county (and fire district) level by local officials familiar with the particular needs and concerns of the community. The 9-1-1 network is funded by surcharges on telephone service. Emergency Call Centers are funded with a portion of these same surcharges, and with local sales and property taxes. Rural Colorado counties must provide 9-1-1 service over larger areas, to residents, visitors and through-travelers, with fewer residents and a smaller funding base than the Front Range Counties.

Even with telephone surcharges up to three-times those along the Front Range, many rural Emergency Call Centers operate with limited and outdated equipment and systems. Eleven rural Emergency Call Centers cannot receive location information from cellphones, and few rural counties are ready for Next Generation 9-1-1. There are Emergency Call Centers relying on a WWII era generator for backup power, which do not have even the most basic computer aided dispatch ("CAD") system, or have made other significant compromises. Due to their limited funding, rural counties are less likely to have subscribed to Emergency Notification Services ("ENS"), which warn residents of public hazards such as wildfires, tornados, flashfloods and other public hazards threatening their homes or businesses. ENS, and Enhanced ENS (in which residents can register their cell phones, Internet phones, e-mail and text message addresses to receive the warning messages) are important in more sparsely populated areas in which other warning systems, such as sirens, are not as effective.

Because the 9-1-1 Network must be capable of transmitting calls and associated data to all of the State's Emergency Call Centers, it is important to update all PSAPs before or at the same time that the network is upgraded.

9-1-1 Education

9-1-1 is for emergencies. 9-1-1 saves lives because you don't have to figure out what county, city or fire district you're in, look up the number of the police, sheriff or fire district, and call for help. You just dial 9-1-1, and the system directs the Emergency Call Center which can dispatch first responders to your location.

Unfortunately, sometimes you can't reach 9-1-1, because the lines are tied up with people calling for improper reasons. People call 9-1-1 for information, directory assistance, to complain about traffic or ask for a ride to a hospital or doctor's office for routine appointments, for paying tickets, to find out if someone was arrested, or as a prank. Public education regarding proper use of 9-1-1 will help avoid emergency calls being blocked in this manner.

Sign Up For Emergency Notification Service

The Colorado 9-1-1 Database lists all wireline telephone numbers by address. This is how the 9-1-1 System knows which Emergency Call Center can dispatch first responders to a caller's location and thus which Emergency Call Center should get a 9-1-1 call from any particular wireline number. It is also how the Emergency Call Center knows where to send First Responders.

An Emergency Notification Service, or "ENS," create an ENS Database from the 9-1-1 Database, and uses computer technology to reverse this process. When a wildfire, tornado, flash flood, chemical spill or other hazard threatens an area, Public Safety Officials can identify the area on the map affected and the ENS system will identify all addresses in the area, and all telephone numbers in the ENS Database located at those addresses. The ENS system will then place telephone calls to each of those telephone numbers, and play a recorded message alerting residents to the hazard and instructing them as to actions they should take.

Newer, Enhanced Emergency Notification Services allow residents to add their cell phone numbers, Internet phones, pagers, fax machines, text message addresses, E-mail addresses and other telephone numbers and messaging addresses to the ENS Database associated with their residence or business address. When the ENS system is activated, the service will send recorded or text messages to each of these addresses.

Enter your addresses and numbers in your county's Enhanced ENS Database, if available.

Support Colorado 9-1-1

Just $1 per month per Colorado resident will modernize the 9-1-1 network, upgrade the rural Emergency Call Centers, help pay for Enhanced Emergency Notification Services, and allow us to educate the public regarding proper uses of 9-1-1. More generous donations will help us accomplish these goals sooner. Please help us, help Colorado's First Responders, save lives. You can be assured that your donation to support Colorado's 9-1-1 System will save lives!

To Give, please use our secure credit card server; or help us avoid processing fees and send your check to:

9-1-1Colorado Foundation
PO Box 621323
Littleton, CO 80162-1323

Please make an annual contribution of $12 or more for each person in your home. Write in the memo area of your check the way you would like your name to appear on our donor page (for example, "Jane Jones, Denver;" or "The Jones Family, Colorado Springs;" or "J. Jones, Grand Junction.")