From E-911 to NG-911: Overview and Challenges in Ecuador

For years, emergency attendance institutions in Ecuador worked separately and not all of them had a 24/7 service, resulting in duplicated efforts, a waste of the scarce resources, and an absence of generalized technology. In 2012, Ecuador created an Integrated Security Service, called ECU 911, to address the need of an emergency service articulating all the first response institutions. The ECU 911 relies on the Enhanced 911 technology, having a countrywide presence. Since then, Ecuador has implemented 16 public-safety answering points and 11 decentralized operative rooms, covering all Ecuadorian territory and serving to a population of about 17 million people. The overview presented in this paper demonstrates how the advanced technology supports this new model of emergency attention service based on an Enhanced 911 platform. In addition, the achievements and challenges required to become a Next-Generation 911 service are discussed.