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The New Zealand Police
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The New Zealand Police uses Ericsson’s MD110 to ensure that emergency calls nationwide are quickly answered and dispatched to Police units in the field.
Rohan Mendis, National Manager Enterprise Infrastructure at the New Zealand Police
With 420 stations around the country, the New Zealand Police relies on Ericsson’s MD110 communication system to ensure that New Zealand’s 4 million inhabitants can always get through in emergencies – and that the Police’s mobile units can respond quickly to the public’s calls. The nationwide network achieves a 99.999% reliability rating, with seamless switching and transparent functionality.
The challenge
Active throughout the country’s North and South Islands, the New Zealand Police, which is a national organization, face a range of geographic extremes. In order to manage emergency 111 calls, and dispatch officers efficiently, they needed a communication system that could unite their dispersed organization – and eliminate missed calls.
According to Rohan Mendis, the Police’s National Manager Enterprise Infrastructure, their old telephony system at times became overloaded – which meant that staff sometimes could not get in touch with each other and the public’s calls were sometimes missed. Since each missed call could result in death or injury, they required a more reliable, far-reaching and efficient system.
Just as importantly, the New Zealand Police were looking for a partner that truly understood the public safety business, and would go the extra mile to offer long-term support.
The solution
By choosing Ericsson, the Police got a 99.999% reliable MD110 platform that links 55 sites, including 3 national emergency communication centers and 10 district emergency operations rooms. Adapted to meet their needs, the MD110 Control Application lets radio dispatchers monitor calls and quickly alert units in the field.
With 6,500 extensions, the network offers transparent functionality, centralized management and a single directory using Ericsson’s DNA product suite. 3,500 Centrex lines were also networked into the system at 445 smaller sites to form a Virtual Private Network with a speedy 5-digit dial plan.
The reward
“Callers always get through now because overflowed calls are seamlessly diverted to the Virtual Private Network,” says Rohan Mendis. “The system eliminates congestion, saves on management costs, and simplifies contact between staff members.”
And when the Police needed a way to deal with calls about the September 11 attack in the US, Ericsson configured a special Automatic Call Distribution facility within 2 hours of the request.
In addition, the Police recently asked Ericsson to convert the network to IP telephony, which will involve up to 10,000 new IP extensions, along with the OneBox Unified Messaging platform.
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