Abilene Seeks Emergency Communication System Replacement

The city of Abilene is seeking a refresh of its emergency call-handling system, including equipment, routers, software and network upgrades.

According to a request for proposals (RFP) released by the city, the Abilene/Taylor County Emergency Communication District (ATCECD) needs a complete replacement of its next-generation 911 (NG911) emergency services protocol system, including all relevant hardware and software components. The district will also require maintenance of the new system for a term of five years.

The city’s legacy system is not properly equipped for mobile telephone service, causing issues with emergency call transfers, text messaging and Internet-based communication apps. Additionally, the legacy system does not provide IP connections between ATCECD’s four public service answering points (PSAPs) and has difficulty recovering in the event of system outages.

At a minimum, proposed solutions must be capable of converting to NG911 core functionality without interrupting existing legacy functions, interconnecting all four ATCECD PSAPs, integrating PSAP call processing equipment with ATCECD core services, distributing incoming services from all classes of service, and introducing text-to-911 and text-from-911 services.

Proposed solutions must also be resilient to cyber attacks, misuse, abuse and system outages.

More detailed information about RFP No. CB-2511, including all submission requirements and requests, can be found online. A pre-proposal conference will be held in Abilene City Hall at 2 p.m. Nov. 18.

Questions regarding the solicitation are due at 5 p.m. Nov. 19. The deadline for proposals is 3 p.m. Nov. 26. Melissa Gorman is the point of contact for this RFP.