Oregon Upgrades 911 for Smartphones in a Slow National Shift

Oregon is replacing the technology behind 911, retiring a system that has handled more than 5,000 calls a day for over 30 years in favor of an internet-based network that can locate a smartphone caller and send the call to the correct dispatch center the first time. The state has hired Lumen Technologies and the emergency-communications firm Intrado to run Next Generation 911 (NG911, a digital replacement for analog 911) across all 36 counties.

Oregon is neither doing this alone nor doing it first. The switch from analog to digital 911 has run since before the iPhone, it still has no nationwide deadline, and a federal study this spring put the remaining bill at $5.8 billion to $9.27 billion.

How Oregon’s New System Routes a 911 Call

For anyone calling, the experience does not change. You dial the same three digits, and a person answers. Everything new sits in the wiring between your phone and that call taker.

The old setup leaned on cell-tower coverage to decide which public safety answering point (PSAP, the local 911 center that answers calls and dispatches responders) should get a wireless call. Towers do not respect county lines or rivers. Someone calling from Hood River can reach a tower across the water or in a neighboring jurisdiction, so the call lands at the wrong center and has to be transferred, burning seconds in an emergency.

Next Generation 911 trades that guesswork for Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, which routes a call by the caller’s real location rather than the nearest tower. Oregon’s Department of Emergency Management built its Next Generation 9-1-1 modernization plan around that geospatial data and brought in Lumen Technologies and Intrado to run core call-routing services for the state’s 40 public safety answering points. The list of changes the state says come with the switch is short and concrete:

• Better location accuracy for wireless callers
• More resiliency and redundancy if equipment fails
• Smoother coordination between neighboring 911 centers
• More reliable routing when lines go down in a disaster
• A platform ready for newer ways people may reach for help

The state frames it as overdue maintenance on a lifeline. “Oregon is committed to building a reliable, resilient, and future-ready 9-1-1 system for communities across the state,” said Frank Kuchta, the state’s 9-1-1 program manager at the Department of Emergency Management.

A Migration That Started Before the iPhone

The idea is not new. Officials and engineers sketched out Next Generation 911 around 2000 and began writing standards in 2003, years before the first iPhone shipped. More than two decades later, as the federal overview of Next Generation 911 lays out, the country is still mid-switch, with no national deadline pushing anyone to finish.

Progress is wildly uneven. A few states run modern, location-aware systems; many still lean on gear built for landlines. A study from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released this spring pegged the cost of finishing nationwide at another $5.8 billion to $9.27 billion over roughly seven years, down from a 2018 estimate of $9.5 billion to $12.7 billion as cloud software replaced pricey hardware. You can read the 2026 federal NG911 cost study for the full math.

Spending already done is the main reason the estimate dropped. Since 2018, states and cities have put more than $4.5 billion into NG911, mostly without federal help, and the study found that even systems it labels mature often cannot do what Oregon is now chasing: route calls by geography, pass a call and its data to the next county, and share live updates with responders in the field. Adjusted for inflation, the older 2018 range would run as high as roughly $17 billion today, part of why a lower number matters to a Congress that has never funded 911 at that scale. The national picture comes down to four figures:

• $5.8 billion to $9.27 billion: the federal estimate to finish NG911 nationwide
• More than $4.5 billion: already spent by states and cities since 2018
• 30 to 40 percent: how far the cost estimate has fallen since 2018
• Zero: federal deadlines requiring states to finish

California’s $456 Million Cautionary Tale

California shows how the same project can go sideways. The state started in the early 2000s, aimed to finish by 2022, and picked a regional design with multiple vendors so that one local failure would not drag down the whole state.

It did not hold together. Only 23 of California’s roughly 450 emergency call centers had switched their voice calls to the new system when early users ran into routing problems, outages, and dropped calls. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) paused the rollout in early 2025, and a later budget review counted $456 million already spent. The state is now scrapping the regional plan for a statewide one, as its budget review of its Next Generation 911 system details, and does not expect to switch off the old network until 2030, eight years later than planned.

The Phone-Bill Fees Holding It Together

All of this runs on a fee you already pay. The surcharge on your monthly phone bill funds 911, and Oregon is covering its upgrade the same way, with no new tax.

That model is both the system’s backbone and its soft spot. The fees are steady, but they are small and locally controlled, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reported every year since 2009 that some states quietly divert 911 money to unrelated budget lines, a pattern its annual 911 fee diversion reports document state by state.

Federal cash has stayed thin. A grant program created in 2012 eventually sent about $109 million to 34 states and two tribal nations, a rounding error next to a multibillion-dollar national job. Advocates point out that Congress seeded the FirstNet public-safety broadband network with $7 billion that same year and argue 911 has earned similar backing.

Congress keeps circling a bigger check. Lawmakers have floated proposals from $10 billion to $15 billion, and a House subcommittee advanced a fresh NG911 funding bill in January, though none has become law. The industry’s pitch has not shifted in years.

Today’s NTIA study reinforces what NENA has long emphasized: transitioning to Next Generation 9-1-1 will require a sustained, multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment.

That was John Provenzano, chief executive of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), the field’s main standards group, after the federal cost study landed in April. His group has lobbied for a dedicated federal 911 fund for years, so far without a law to show for it.

From Copper Outages to Cross-Border Calls

The case for spending the money starts with what the old network cannot do. Roughly 80 percent of 911 calls now come from cell phones, yet the legacy system was built for landlines that reported one fixed address.

It is also about how that network fails. Outages have cut millions of people off from 911, sometimes for hours. Three episodes show the pattern:

1. In 2014, a call-routing failure in Colorado knocked out 911 for up to six hours, blocked calls to 81 dispatch centers across seven states, and left more than 6,600 calls unanswered.
2. In 2018, a nationwide fiber outage ran about a day and a half and left roughly 17 million people across 29 states without reliable 911.
3. In 2024, a nationwide wireless outage cut voice and data for at least 12 hours.

Next Generation 911 is built to bend those curves. Because it runs on Internet Protocol (IP) rather than dedicated phone circuits, it can reroute calls automatically when a center goes dark or fills up, and it can carry texts, photos, and video from the public. Federal rules now push carriers toward location-based routing for wireless 911 calls, the same precision Oregon is wiring in. Text-to-911 already works in many areas, though it depends on your local center, so officials still say to call when you can.

The technology has been ready for years. If the fees keep flowing and Congress finally writes its check, Oregon’s routing upgrade becomes one more state quietly crossing the finish line. If they do not, the country keeps running its emergencies on a network built for a phone that never left the house.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Next Generation 911 change how I call for help?

No. You still dial 911 the same way you always have, and a call taker still answers. The changes are behind the scenes, in the network that figures out where you are and which center should pick up.

Can I text 911 in Oregon?

Text-to-911 is one of the features Next Generation 911 supports, but whether it works depends on your local dispatch center, not the statewide network alone. If you can call, call; if a text does not go through, you may get a message telling you to dial instead.

Will the new system find my location more accurately?

Yes. Next Generation 911 routes calls using mapping data tied to your real position instead of leaning mainly on the nearest cell tower, which matters because roughly 80 percent of 911 calls now come from mobile phones.

Who pays for Oregon’s 911 upgrade?

The work is paid for by the 911 fee already charged on monthly phone bills, not a new tax. Federal money for 911 has historically been small, which is why most of the national rollout has been funded by state and local fees.

When will the upgrade be finished?

There is no single switch-flip date. Oregon is phasing the rollout in, and the country has no federal deadline; one federal study this spring estimated it could take roughly seven more years to finish the transition nationwide.

What is a PSAP?

A PSAP, or public safety answering point, is the 911 center that answers your call and sends police, fire, or medical help. Oregon has 40 of them serving all 36 counties, and Next Generation 911 is meant to help them back each other up during outages or call surges.