Guam – After the administration returned around $3.8 million in the E911 fund, the Guam Fire Department said the next step is to repair the current system.
The current system utilized in the 911 call center is antiquated. As a result, Guam’s E911 system has been unable to record phone conversations that transpire between a caller and an emergency response operator.
According to GFD chief Daniel Stone, the system is “touch and go.”
“We were able to make repairs to the recording system. However, it is still very touch and go. But as of today, we have been able to record conversations coming into the 911 system for the past several weeks,” Stone said.
According to Stone, the enhanced 911 system had the capabilities from the onset but technical issues and the scarcity of parts on the island made repairing the system difficult.
Now that the $3.8 million has been paid back into the E911 fund, upgrading to the next Generation E911 system is one step closer to reality.
“We are still in contract negotiations with a vendor so we have not finalized those negotiations. As far as a firm timeline, I am not able to provide that at the moment. But I am very pleased with the discussions we have been having with our vendor,” Stone said
The new system will modernize and upgrade the current E911 system. It will have call recording and SMS capabilities for the hearing impaired, as well as location identification or GPS tracking, among other features.
