Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 18 October 2013

A weekly round-up of critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 18 October 2013.

How to call 911. Canadians are being asked to suggest ways in which non-traditional communications means could be used to contact 911 in an emergency. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has just released a report it commissioned into the future of 911 services, and whether devices such as tablets and laptops might be used to contact emergency centres. The report comments on “the performance and adequacy of the technology currently employed for 911 services, such as that used to locate a caller who is using a cellphone" and “the issues related to the provision of 911 services on next-generation networks, including how systems should be designed".

Mesa merger. In the US city of Phoenix, there is to be a merger of two radio cooperatives that provide emergency communications for firefighters. The two networks - the Regional Wireless Cooperative and the Topaz Regional Wireless Cooperative - will become one, paving the way for the formation of a statewide radio network. At the moment, some firefighters have to carry two radios when attending fires.

Ontario upgrades. Ontario County in New York state, USA, has just commissioned a new 911 and emergency comms network, replacing a system that had been used for 20 years. The US$18.5 million upgrade was 10 years in the making and came about partly because of the FCC requirements to reduce bandwidth and move to the 700 MHz band, but also because the previous system was becoming very old and spare parts harder to find