Several factors support the electronic exchange:

• Each address for every alarm subscriber in the alarm company’s database is validated in advance of receiving an actual alarm by using the proposed electronic standard.  When a new alarm is installed, the alarm company will send an address validation request to the PSAP’s CAD System at the same time that the alarm account information is entered into the alarm monitoring company’s database.  The validation request is totally automated from beginning to end and free of human intervention.  One of the most common problems in receiving an alarm is the proper pronunciation and spelling of the street address which is eliminated when using the electronic exchange.
• All of the information that the alarm monitoring company has on file about the alarm site is sent to the PSAP’s CAD System as part of the initial alarm event notification.  No piece of information is left behind.  The amount of information transmitted to the PSAP’s CAD system is more than sufficient to assemble a call-for-service and addresses the questions that a call-taker would ask of the alarm company’s operator.  The call-for-service is processed within a matter of seconds.
• Diversity is a fact of life.  In the United States, many calls transpire between two parties who have very different accents.  Furthermore, many alarm companies use call centers in foreign countries.  Callers to the PSAPs from these foreign call centers are often difficult to understand.  Every day, in every PSAP across the country, there is some form of misunderstanding during the telephone conversation between the alarm company operator and the PSAP calltaker.  Most of these misunderstandings are easily correctable by one party asking the other to repeat the last piece of information such as “how to spell the street name”.  Every request by a PSAP calltaker asking the alarm company operator to repeat some information adds time to the call processing time and increases response times.  Unfortunately, not all misunderstandings are corrected and an error in the dispatch will occur.  Examples include a dispatch to the wrong address because street numbers were transposed, the wrong event type was entered resulting in dispatch of the wrong emergency services, the wrong street was selected from a list, etc.  It happens every day across the country.  The electronic exchange eliminates all misunderstandings and locks on accurate data to assemble the call-for-service.
• Because most alarm monitoring companies’ call centers do not co-exist locally with the affected PSAP, the alarm company operator traditionally uses a 10-digit telephone number to reach the appropriate PSAP when the need arises to relay information about a new alarm event.  The typical PSAP places the highest priority on incoming 9-1-1 calls before other lines are answered.  While the telephone continues to ring in the PSAP during peak periods, this adds to the response time before first responders are even dispatched.  The electronic exchange does not depend on any telephone call and does not need to wait for a PSAP member to take action in order for the incoming alarm event to become a call-for-service.

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