Mark Fletcher

Public Safety Advisor at RapidSOS

For over three decades, Fletch has contributed to the telecommunications industry from all perspectives. He has spent time as a Police Dispatcher, field technician, and a Systems Engineer building large global private voice networks. He has helped navigate the transition from TDM to VoIP and now to SIP and WebRTC, and holds several US Patents focused on NG9-1-1 additional data, and call handling functionality.

Widely known for his customer advocacy, and work on Public Safety Standards, Fletch was honored by the NG9-1-1 Institute where he was awarded the Industry/Technology Professional Private Sector Award by Congress and the NG9-1-1 Institute.

As Avaya's Chief Architect for Worldwide Public Safety Solutions, Fletch manages the roadmap and strategy for Avaya solutions and ensures they meet the emerging requirements for Next Generation emergency communications in both the Enterprise and Government sectors here and abroad. He is a popular keynote speaker at many industry events, and produces several weekly Podcasts and CONNECTED Blogs covering emerging technologies and trending industry news.

In addition to his internal role, Fletcher represents Avaya as an active member in the major Public Safety organizations NENA, EENA, APCO Intl. and British APCO. He is a key author of the NENA MLTS/PBX model legislation, and an active contributor on the NENA NG9-1-1 transition standards. He was appointed to the APCO Standards Development Committee in 2014, maintains a Vice-Chair role on the EENA NG112 Technical Committee, and holds a position on the NENA Institute Board, defining standards for their Emergency Number Professional certification program. Fletcher regularly advises the FCC through participation in various committees and Task Force groups such as the EAAC, the DAC and the newly formed Task Force for Optimized PSAP Architectures.

One of Fletcher's most recent accomplishments is the introduction of Kari's Law, protecting MLTS users after the tragic death of Kari Hunt in a Marshall, Texas hotel in 2013, where her 9-year old daughter was unable to dial 9-1-1 while her mother was being brutally murdered just a few feet away by her estranged husband. In addition to attention at the Federal level in the FCC, new legislation in Suffolk County, NY, Illinois, Maryland and Texas were the direct result of those efforts.

Timeline

  • Public Safety Advisor

    Current role