For decades, the relationship between telecommunications carriers and 911 has been defined by "legacy" thinking: copper wires, analog switches, and static location data. But as we move through 2026, the industry is hit with a hard reality: the transition to Next Generation 911 (NG911) is no longer a "future-looking" roadmap item—it is an active, regulated, and high-stakes operational requirement.

From a carrier’s perspective (Originating Service Providers or OSPs) the status of NG911 is a complex balancing act between regulatory deadlines and massive infrastructure overhauls.

The FCC Hammer: Compliance Deadlines are Here

The grace period for "exploring" NG911 has ended. Under the latest FCC rulings, the timeline for carriers is now triggered by the "Valid Request" of local 911 Authorities.

In 2026, even as the industry pushes toward a full IP-based i3 architecture, Signaling System 7 (SS7) remains the vital "under-the-hood" diagnostic tool for the transitional phase. While NG911 uses SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), many carriers still rely on SS7 for the initial call setup or for bridging traffic to legacy selective routers.

Are SS7 records of any use in identifying weak links in a carriers’ 911 network?  

Using SS7 call records—specifically Call Detail Records (CDRs) and Signaling Link monitoring—allows you to identify failures that occur before the call even reaches the NG911 ESInet.

1. Identifying Routing "Leaps" and Misroutes

In the SS7 protocol, the Initial Address Message (IAM) is the first signal sent to start a call. By analyzing the IAM records, you can monitor:

• The "911" Flag: SS7 messages for emergency calls have higher MTP (Message Transfer Part) priority values. If you see 911 calls tagged with standard priority, they are at risk of being dropped during network congestion.
• Nature of Address (NoA): You can verify if the call is being correctly identified as an emergency call at the originating switch.
• Called Party Number: In a transition, you may be routing to a "Tandem" switch via SS7 before it hits the IP gateway. Monitoring the digit strings in SS7 records helps confirm if the call is heading to the correct Selective Router.

2. Monitoring Call Setup Success (ASR & NER)

You can calculate two critical performance metrics using SS7 IAM (request) and ANM (Answer Message) records:

• Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR): The percentage of 911 calls that resulted in a successful "Answer" signal from the PSAP.
• Network Efficiency Ratio (NER): This is even more valuable for NG911. It filters out "user-busy" or "no-answer" and focuses strictly on network failures.
  • Red Flag: If your SS7 records show a high volume of REL (Release) messages with cause codes like 34 (No circuit available) or 38 (Network out of order), the bottleneck is in your core infrastructure, not the NG911 gateway.

3. Tracking pANI and Location Trigger Failures

For wireless carriers, SS7 records carry the pseudo-ANI (pANI) or Emergency Services Routing Key (ESRK).

• Data Integrity: You can audit SS7 records to ensure that every 911 call has a pANI attached. If the record shows a blank or "000-000-0000" location field, your Location Information Server (LIS) failed to "dip" the data in time for the call setup.
• Latency Check: By comparing the timestamp of the IAM (call start) to the ACM (Address Complete Message), you can measure "Post-Dial Delay." If this exceeds 2–3 seconds in your SS7 logs, your location-based routing (LBR) engine is likely timing out.

4. Forensic "Post-Mortem" Analysis

Because SS7 is a separate signaling path from the voice/media path, its records are the "black box" of a network crash.

• The "30-Minute Clock": When the FCC asks why a region lost 911 connectivity, SS7 logs provide the timestamped proof of when the STPs (Signal Transfer Points) lost their routes to the PSAP tandem.
• Inter-Carrier Fingerpointing: If you deliver an SS7 IAM to a partner carrier and they return a REL (Release) immediately, you have forensic proof that the issue lies in the interconnection point, not your internal network.

While the industry moves toward IP-based SIP signaling, the reality for most carriers in 2026 is a "hybrid" network. Advanced Technologies and Services, Inc. (ATS) specializes in forensic SS7 analysis, turning raw signaling data into actionable intelligence that prevents 911 failures before they reach the dispatcher.

ATS can help carriers master their SS7 records in three critical ways:

• ISUP Cause Code Auditing: ATS automatically flags high-priority SS7 Release (REL) messages. By identifying specific ISUP codes—such as Cause 31 (Normal Unspecified) occurring at abnormally high rates or Cause 34 (No Circuit Available)—ATS identifies capacity bottlenecks in the legacy portions of your 911 path that SIP-only monitoring would miss.
• pANI & ESRK Validation: For wireless carriers, the Initial Address Message (IAM) in an SS7 record contains the pseudo-ANI (pANI) used for routing. ATS’s analytics engine audits these records in real-time to ensure that location triggers are firing correctly. If a 911 call is routed without its associated location key, ATS generates an immediate anomaly report.
• Latency & "Post-Dial Delay" Profiling: ATS analyzes the delta between the IAM and the Address Complete Message (ACM). In an emergency, every millisecond counts. By profiling this delay across thousands of records, ATS helps carriers identify "silent" latency issues in the signaling link that could delay a 911 call's connection to the PSAP.
• Automated 911 Outage Detection: Using AI-driven baselining, the ATS platform monitors the volume of 911-specific SS7 traffic. If signaling activity drops below expected levels for a specific exchange or STP (Signaling Transfer Point), the system triggers an alert, helping carriers meet the FCC’s strict 30-minute outage notification window.

By leveraging ATS’s deep expertise in SS7 forensics, carriers can ensure their legacy infrastructure remains a reliable bridge to the Next Generation future.