Butler County will team up with eight other counties in Western Pennsylvania to start a more advanced 911 network.

Cory Angell, a spokesman for the state Emergency Management Agency, said today the new, Internet-based system will be implemented statewide once it is established here.

“It’s the way forward. This is the new way to do business,” Angell said.

The new system, which will be a joint effort of Armstrong, Butler, Lawrence, Fayette, Indiana, Mercer, Greene, Somerset and Westmoreland counties, will reduce costs by sharing resources, as well as sharing information.

The system will allow for people to communicate emergencies to 911 centers through other ways beside phone calls.

“This system will have the ability to interact with e-mail, texting, things like that,” Angell said.

This could be helpful to people with disabilities. For example, Angell said people with hearing impairments would be able to communicate with 911 through e-mail and text messages.

Additionally, the system would allow individual county emergency centers to better communicate with each other as well as the state.