Ahead of 2028 Olympics, CA signs $194 million contract on 911 network deployment
After California officials discovered that a modernized 911 emergency call system, which was built out over five years and cost $450 million, wasn’t going to work the way they wanted, they halted the project — in effect, to stop the financial bleeding.
Now, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is again moving forward, posthaste, to deploy Next Generation 911 services to more of the state before millions of anticipated visitors descend on Southern California for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics.
Last month, Cal OES signed a $194 million contract with Atos Public Safety, one of the vendors that served as the statewide backup provider for the now-scrapped regional 911 design, to keep providing services to emergency dispatchers that have already transitioned to the new system and to deploy the technology in more areas of the state.
The 30-month “bridge contract” will serve as a transition between the defunct regional design and the new statewide system, which Cal OES is in the process of procuring a permanent contractor to build.
“California is moving forward deliberately and with transparency to build a safe, reliable and modern Next Generation 9-1-1 system that works for everyone,” said Cal OES spokesperson Matt Notley. “The bridge contract continues Cal OES’ partnership with Atos. Atos is now the statewide provider on an interim basis until the long-term solution is in place.”
Notley said that by the end of 2026 the agency expects to have selected a vendor to serve as the long-term Next Generation 911 provider through the state’s procurement process and with the California Department of Technology.
Until then, Atos will continue providing Next Generation 911 services, which includes enhanced location services and allows dispatchers to communicate via text and video messages, to 23 public safety answering points across California. The Golden State is home to more than 400 dispatch centers and in the two years leading up to the Olympics, Cal OES hopes to transition as many as possible from the legacy system to the Next Generation 911 technology to better prepare the region for the potential influx of 12 million to 15 million visitors.
The project has faced elevated scrutiny in recent months after Cal OES decided to scrap the design that was initially built, at significant cost to taxpayers, because of challenges posed by the regional design. Federal officials and state lawmakers have demanded information from Cal OES to help explain how California spent money on a technology project that was largely discarded.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office recently recommended that Cal OES pause moving forward with the project until Cal OES provided more insights into why the regional design was scrapped. Lawmakers agreed with the LAO that more oversight of the project is necessary.
Legislative oversight
To provide that additional oversight, lawmakers have introduced two bills, one in the Assembly, one in the Senate, that would require Cal OES to provide quarterly reports on the status of the Next Generation 911 project.
Assembly Bill 1805, authored by Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, D-Tracy, would grant more oversight authority to the 911 Advisory Board, require the California state auditor to begin an audit of the project by September and prohibit Cal OES from awarding a contract for the Next Generation 911 system until the audit is complete.
In an interview, Ransom said that she does not have concerns about the new contract with Atos. She said she understands that the agency needs to continue moving forward with the project given the narrow timeline with the Olympics two years away.
“We’re more concerned about the larger contract and making sure that they don’t jump into a permanent contractual relationship before we understand the best pathway forward,” she said.
The Assembly Committee on Emergency Management, which Ransom chairs, recently unanimously approved her bill, which is now awaiting final approval from the lower chamber’s Appropriations Committee.
A Cal OES spokesperson said that the agency does not comment on pending legislation.
Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, the author of another measure that aims to provide the Legislature with more oversight over the technology project, also does not support pausing the deployment of Next Generation 911 across California.
Strickland said the Legislature needs to know if this project, particularly the long-term contract, is “a good bang for our buck.” To ensure Cal OES is using public funds wise, more legislative oversight is needed, which he said his bill achieves.
A bridge between designs
Atos was one of four vendors that was initially contracted by Cal OES to build out a Next Generation 911 system that assigned individual companies to handle emergency calls from distinct regions of the state. Atos was tasked with serving as the statewide backup provider for 911 calls in the event one of the regional vendors went down.
Cal OES paid Atos $206 million, nearly half of the total project’s cost, to build out the statewide backup system between 2019 and 2024.
Atos will continue using the infrastructure already installed in dispatch centers across the state to continue providing Next Generation 911 services to the small number of public safety answering points. Those 23 dispatch centers are the only ones that have been transitioned from the legacy technology to the more modern communications system. Cal OES hopes to have the hundreds more dispatch centers fully connected to Next Generation 911 by 2030.
The agency’s goal is to transition as many dispatch centers in the Los Angeles area as possible to the Next Generation 911 system before the Summer Olympics.
Several of the regional vendors have encouraged lawmakers to reject Cal OES’ decision to transition to the statewide design, but both Ransom and Strickland said they support Cal OES’ decision to move forward with the new contract with Atos.
“Now that the bridge contract is in place, Cal OES will begin phasing out the regional providers,” Notley said. “There will be some overlap between the bridge and regional providers to ensure uninterrupted service.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Ahead of 2028 Olympics, CA signs $194 million contract on 911 network deployment."
