E911 compliance

From Bandipedia

With today's rapidly growing technology, everyone carries a mobile device. 911 is used to call the police or other emergency response units. At the emergency call center, calls come through a computerized phone system and automatically go to the next available operator, who then verifies the caller's location, determines the nature of the emergency, and decides which emergency response team should be notified; however, outdated systems nationwide are unable to trace wireless calls, meaning public safety agencies may not be able to find you in the event of an emergency. This is where E911 Compliance comes into play. The E911 will help emergency dispatchers locate people calling from mobile devices. E911 solves these problems by working with mobile phone companies to locate a caller within 111 yards (100 meters) of the caller’s geographic location. Also, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that mobile phone service providers in the United States must relay any 911 phone call, regardless of the caller’s service provider. E911 was fully operational in 2001 and service providers were required by the FCC to become compliant with the system.

Another service that has been affected by the E911 Compliance requirement is VoIP. The VoIP E911 Order requires all interconnected VoIP providers to transmit all 911 calls to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), transmit a call-back number and transmit the caller’s “registered location” to the PSAP. The “registered location” of a subscriber must be obtained by the interconnected VoIP provider prior to initiation of service (as well as from current subscribers) at no charge to the customer. The “registered location” is required in lieu of providing automatic location information (ALI), because ALI is not yet widely available for VoIP services. ALI automatically determines the caller’s geographic location and reports it to the PSAP. In order to provide this E911 capability, VoIP providers must interconnect with the Wireline E911 Network either through an agreement with a LEC that already is connected to the network or by directly connecting to a LEC.

In closing, when choosing a carrier for your VoIP and /or Wireless needs, one would want to choose a provider who is E911 compliant because it could one day save a life.

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