NG911 CHE Services

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) is conducting an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) for NG911 Call Handling Equipment (CHE) Services statewide, with qualifications due October 1, 2036. Qualified suppliers will be awarded a contract and invited to respond to subsequent Requests for Quote (RFQ). There is no goal setting for this ITQ.

Suppliers must register as Pennsylvania Suppliers through the PA Supplier Portal and submit qualifications electronically through the JAGGAER portal, selecting commodity code 92000000-ITQ-640. PEMA intends to issue the first RFQ for presentations within six months of the ITQ posting, with additional RFQs anticipated as projects are required.

Minimum qualifications are stringent: five years of documented experience delivering 911 CHE services for FCC-registered PSAPs; manufacturer status of the proposed NG911 CHE equipment (manufacturer-certified partners and resellers are ineligible); demonstrated release and implementation of NENA i3-compliant CHE services in a multi-PSAP production environment for at least two years; and three references verifying experience with hosted NENA i3-compliant multi-tenant systems. The scope encompasses vendor-hosted services including hardware, software, implementation, and 24/7 support to receive and process 911 requests via multiple methods (voice, video, text, TDD/TTY, RTT, data), automatic call distribution, system interfaces for statewide NG911 infrastructure integration, emerging technologies such as transcription and translation, administrative and user training, testing, and migration services. Service must comply with standards from NENA, IETF, APCO, and NIST. Contractors must achieve 99.999% availability and reliability, maintain 150% capacity above normal call volumes, support local survivability and disaster recovery, and deliver NENA i3-compliant Call Detail Records.

The initial contract term spans ten years with one optional one-year renewal exercisable at PEMA's sole discretion. Contractor must maintain commercial general liability insurance of $2 million, professional liability of $2 million, network and cyber liability of $3 million, and comprehensive crime insurance of $5 million per claim. Enhanced Minimum Wage requirement is $15.00 per hour, subject to annual cost-of-living adjustments. Pennsylvania serves as place of performance across 67 counties and Philadelphia, with a statewide baseline of 1,434 PSAP positions and projected 2025 call volume of 13.8 million inbound calls.