GeoComm Partners With NextNav to Improve Emergency Response Indoors

Partnership dramatically improves geolocation of callers with floor-level altitude for multistory buildings in urban areas across the country

MCLEAN, Va., May 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GeoComm, Public Safety Location Intelligence® Platform provider, is pleased to announce a new partnership with NextNav, a leader in z-axis vertical positioning, to enhance floor-aware indoor mapping for E9-1-1.

Recent regulatory requirements from the FCC require the 911 caller’s vertical location to be determined with +/- 3m accuracy 80% of the time. NextNav’s solution far exceeds that requirement, delivering +/- 3m 94% of the time according to independent tests. Using local GIS data and building information, GeoComm systems can convert raw positioning measurements received from wireless carriers into dispatchable locations including, but not limited to, building name, street address, and sub-address elements such as floor and room number. Improved accuracy in locations empowers emergency responders to locate 9-1-1 callers inside buildings faster, saving more lives and protecting more property.

Through the partnership with NextNav, GeoComm systems are also enabled with the ability to take indoor tactical mapping displays to the next level, automatically highlighting the vertical location from where a 9-1-1 call originated in a multistory building. This partnership builds upon NextNav’s recent partnership announcement with a nationwide wireless carrier to provide precise vertical location information for 9-1-1 callers.

“9-1-1 positioning technology is moving indoors. Thanks to the hard work of many in the industry we are now witnessing a convergence of regulation, enforcement, legislation, standards, and technology enabling accurate positioning of emergency callers and responders indoors. But without an indoor map, a highly accurate and precise indoor position is little more than a blue dot on an otherwise blank whiteboard. The partnership with NextNav gives us the ability to make our indoor maps truly floor aware by, for the first time ever, enabling accurate z-axis surveying inside multi-story buildings,” said John Brosowsky, Vice President of Innovation at GeoComm.

“Bringing vertical location capabilities to the Public Safety ecosystem will expedite our industry’s ongoing transformation to a next generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) end state, and as a result, help save lives,” said Dan Hight, VP of Business Development and Partnerships. “With NextNav’s Pinnacle service and through partnerships with leaders in the industry like GeoComm, agencies gain precise vertical location intelligence that can be easily provided to PSAPs without the need for an additional pane of glass.”

About GeoComm:  GeoComm, provider of Public Safety Location Intelligence®, serves local, regional, statewide, and military agencies in forty-nine states, helping keep more than 100 million people safe. Over the last 26 years, GeoComm’s public safety GIS systems have routed emergency calls to the appropriate 9-1-1 call center, mapped the caller’s location on tactical emergency response mapping displays, and guided emergency responders to the scene of the accident on in-vehicle mapping and navigation applications within police, fire, and ambulance vehicles.  In addition, our statewide NG9-1-1 GIS project footprint has expanded to include 17 statewide projects across the country. Visit www.geocomm.com to learn more about GeoComm and our Public Safety Location Intelligence offerings.

About NextNav: NextNav Inc. (Nasdaq: NN) is a leader in next generation GPS, enabling a whole new ecosystem of applications and services that rely upon vertical location and resilient geolocation technology. The company’s Pinnacle network delivers highly accurate vertical positioning to transform location services, reflecting the 3D world around us and supporting innovative, new capabilities. NextNav’s TerraPoiNT network delivers accurate, reliable, and resilient 3D positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services to support critical infrastructure and other GPS-reliant systems in the absence or failure of GPS.

For more information, please visit https://nextnav.com/ or follow NextNav on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Mahmood Abu-Rubieh
LaunchSquad for NextNav
[email protected]