The European Emergency Number 112 is growing in Europe. On February 12, 2022, -112 day - North Macedonia inaugurated its new national emergency response system.
The country is preparing its entrance the European Union by modernizing key infrastructures such as its emergency response system. Beta 80 Group, with international and local technological partners, was involved in the planning and development of the new strategic system.
112 in Macedonia with Beta 80 Group technology
The project, which lasted about a year, had an ambitious goal: to create a new infrastructure to converge all emergency calls previously managed by second level PSAPs (Police, Fire Brigade and EMS), transforming how the country responded to citizens' emergencies.
The old system was managed locally, with four emergency numbers and traditional and manual technologies.
The challenge wasn't only to create a new PSAP from scratch, but to update the existing infrastructure in an innovative ecosystem, with a clear vision towards the future.
The system was built in a year, a noteworthy timeline, considering the national and international lockdown due to the pandemic, that slowed its execution. Through constant communication with all stakeholders our team:
-
supported the North Macedonian team in the PSAP and technological infrastructure planning and design
-
Supported in the layout of emergency response procedures and protocols
-
collaborated in the technological renovation of the preexisting second level PSAPs and their integration with the 112 PSAP
-
Supplied the technology for the emergency call management: telecommunications, switchboard, SMS gateway, eCall AML and NG112. Beta 80 also provided a key technological tool: our Life 1st Computer Aided Dispatch platform.
-
Provided call taker and dispatcher training with a new hybrid mode of remote and onsite lessons.
The new 112 PSAP in North Macedonia
Today, the new 112 PSAP receives all national calls. It then filters and sorts them to the most appropriate second level PSAP, depending on the type of emergency and the territory involved. North Macedonia can now count on a state-of-the-art technological infrastructure, with:
-
1 national 112 PSAP in Skopje with 6 regular and 3 extra workstations
-
7 regional second-level PSAP with 2 workstations each
-
1 EMS PSAP in Skopje with workstations for specialist doctors and coordinator
-
1 Fire PSAP in Skopje with workstations for fire specialists and coordinator
-
8 police PSAPs throughout the country with police specialists and coordinator workstations
The project features some of the most innovative technologies, for the most advanced emergency response system in Europe:
-
NG112 architecture: a core network for the distribution of emergency calls according to ETSI TS 103 479 standard.
-
eCall technology for all vehicles
-
Text or SMS to 112 nationwide
Amongst all the above, the next generation architecture is noteworthy, North Macedonia is, to date, the only country in Europe with an end-to-end next generation system with call routing, as well as 112 messages.
European Emergency Number 112: benefits and opportunities
The first results and data show a clear improvement in the national emergency response. The biggest upgrade the elimination of unanswered calls.
The 112 system is also improving the information exchange between different agencies, and their coordination in complex emergencies involving multiple players.
The results speak for themselves: in the first four months the system received over 175,000 total calls (about 1,400 per day), 94.57% with less than 15 seconds response time.
On the strength of these first positive results, Macedonia's emergency response system will continue to evolve and update. In the future, there are plans to improve real-time location services via SIP and integrate all control panels with mobile devices, to connect to the E-112 from anywhere.
Lastly the infrastructure is already Next Generation 112 compliant. This makes future testing possible, an absolute novelty not only in Europe but worldwide.
