State-mandated RAND Corp. technical study means procurement of next-generation 911 rollout likely will not begin until at least May 2027
By Donny Jackson, Editor, Urgent Communications
Procurement for a new next-generation 911 (NG911) technology to serve the state of California may not begin until May 2027, so the RAND Corp. can conduct a mandated technical evaluation of the project, members of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) 911 Advisory Board were told today.
This represents a stark contrast to the plans unveiled to the 911 advisory board during its last meeting in June, when Cal OES officials said a request for proposals (RFP) for a statewide NG911 provider—and backup provider—likely would be issued this fall, with a contract hopefully being awarded by the end of the year.
But Advisory Board Chair Steve Yarbrough—the Cal OES deputy director for public-safety communications—said that timeline changed when the state legislature passed a law requiring greater oversight on the much-delayed, over-budget NG911 initiative.
“There was some language put into the budget act that required us to accomplish a couple of reviews first, before we could put that solicitation on the street—one of which being a technical evaluation that we’ve contracted with the RAND Corporation to do,” Yarbrough said during today’s advisory-board meeting, which was webcast.
“That’s now going to have to be completed upstream of us putting that RFP for our long-term provider out onto the street. So, that will kind of go onto the back burner until we get that evaluation back and figure out what the evaluation says and recommends how we move forward from there. The RFP is still on our radar but not on the front burner for us to put something actively out right now.”
Under the legislative language and the terms of the new contract, RAND is scheduled to provide a preliminary report about its technical review by Dec. 15 and a final report by May 1, 2027, according to Yarbrough.
“This independent evaluation is going to do a handful of things,” he said. “I think it’s going to answer a lot of questions that we’ve all been working through the last several months, at least.
“What are the state’s options for delivering the next-gen 911 system? How do each of those options impact the PSAPs themselves, both during and after the transition? How would each option address the problems that we’ve encountered up to this point in time, including interoperability challenges? How would each option affect the length of time to decommission the legacy 911?”
This RAND report not only will delay the previously announced timeline for most of California’s 440 public-safety answering points (PSAPs) to begin transitioning from legacy 911 systems to IP-based NG911, but the technical evaluation could change the network architecture that state officials have proposed in recent years.
After a regional-based system that was supposed to be completed in 2021 or early 2022 resulted in only about 5 per cent of California PSAPs transitioning to NG911 in 2024, Cal OES in August 2025 announced a deployment plan with a single NG911 network provider—and a separate backup provider—serving all PSAPs in the state.
But Yarbrough said that network-architecture decision could be altered again, depending on the finding of the RAND technical evaluation.
“It will seek to answer some of these questions to identify and justify what the recommended options should be to deliver a cost-effective, safe and reliable next-gen 911 system,” Yarbrough said. “[RAND will] assess whether the regional structure could deliver a reliable next-gen system—and if not, why not—and assess the best method for providing redundancy that preserves the cost-effective, safe and reliable services that we require.
“So, all of those relevant factors that we’ve been toiling with these many months are going to be independently evaluated and addressed in this final report.”
Regardless which NG911 network approach is adopted, having RAND conduct the technical review means Cal OES will have to release an RFP, collect bids, evaluate bids, select vendors, negotiate contracts with the winning vendors, and deploy NG911 in at least 300-plus PSAPs not covered in the “bridge” contract signed with Atos earlier this year.
Under plans released to the advisory board earlier this year, the proposed primary statewide NG911 vendor would be expected to complete deployment during a three-year period from July 2027 to July 2030. No new deployment timeline was provided during today’s advisory-board meeting, but industry sources indicated that it is extremely unlikely that any NG911 vendor would be able to begin work in July 2027, if the RAND final report might not be released until May 1, 2027.
No funding figures were mentioned during the advisory-board meeting, but media reports indicate that Cal OES made a US$141 million budget request to fund its NG911 initiative with a primary statewide NG911 provider and a separate statewide backup provider.
