CRTC approves technical standards for NG911

In a new decision, the CRTC has approved technical standards for the implementation of next generation 911 service (NG911). It follows a report from the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG). The ESWG is made up of first responders, public safety answering points (PSAPs), telecom service providers (TSPs), and governments at the provincial, territorial and municipal levels. Its report offered six recommendations aimed at limiting service outages for NG911 and ensuring that, when outages occur, the impact is minimal. Last year, the commission mandated that 911 network providers and originating network providers (ONPs) notify PSAPs when outages of any sort take place. The new notification process was to be in place by last March. The ESWG report was filed before last year’s decision was released. It recommended a data quality assurance standard for the local information server (LIS) database. It also called for reliability standards for the LIS and additional data repository (ADR) databases. A data auditing standard for LIS and ADR databases was also suggested. The report looked at ways of delivering NG911 service in the event of a failure of the LIS database. The commission cited the example of Canada’s lone publicly-owned telecom to ease the problem. “Saskatchewan has long implemented a best practice where one default PSAP is responsible for all 911 calls originating in the province, except for two major population centres, which are each served by a dedicated PSAP,” the decision states. “These three PSAPs are interconnected for mutual aid purposes (e.g., call-load sharing during mass calling events).” “Building on that best practice, Saskatchewan indicated that, when transitioning to NG911, it would implement a hybrid approach for processing NG911 calls without caller location information.” The fifth recommendation is that PSAPs be encouraged to apply cybersecurity controls. The CRTC accepted all five recommendations without reservation. The last recommendation concerned notification of outages. The regulator said it was setting up interim notification requirements until a final set of rules can be drawn up. This section of the ESWG report was written before the 2025 decision was published. news@thewirereport.ca

CRTC approves technical standards for NG911

Regulatory |
By Wire Report Staff
|May 14, 2026

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CRTC approves technical standards for NG911

Regulatory | By Wire Report Staff |May 14, 2026

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Regulatory |
By Wire Report Staff
|May 14, 2026