Thomas Ginter’s 911 Frequently Asked Questions: Volume 1

We know that 911 can be confusing. Between changing regulations and evolving technology, it can be a lot to keep up with. We get questions every day about 911, and, since if one person is asking you know that three others are probably thinking the same thing, we wanted to share some of those questions, along with the answers. (For more questions and answers, see the full series here).

Does the Bandwidth 911 service also work for customers in Canada?

Yes. Note that there are a few differences with 911 in Canada, but your provisioning and interconnection with Bandwidth remains the same. Once you are connected with us, we handle local variations including how to process emergency calls in Canada.

Bandwidth can provide 911 services to a Canadian company, but Canadian companies are responsible for collection and remittance of any pertinent 911 surcharges or taxes related to 911 in Canada. 

What is a Bandwidth 911 ‘endpoint’ record?

The endpoint record is the customer’s emergency calling data stored with Bandwidth. It can be thought of as a phone or any other device (like a laptop) that will be enabled to call 911.

Remember, Bandwidth offers two different products that can solve for 911 calling, and each has different kinds of data to store as “endpoint records”.

• For our E911 for VoIP and Unified Communications, an endpoint record is the data triplet of:
  • TN (mandatory) – the end user’s telephone number.
  • Customer Name (mandatory) – the end user’s name or business name to display to public safety
  • Address (mandatory) – the address to display to public safety

• For our E911 Dynamic Location Routing solution, the endpoint record is a bit more complex than the traditional data above. The necessary DLR endpoint data is comprised of:
  • AEUI (mandatory) – Alternate End User Identifier is a unique 30-character string identifying the end user. It can be randomly generated by Bandwidth or specified at provisioning time to be something convenient, like “Bob.Smith.001”.
  • Customer Name (mandatory)
  • CBN mandatory) – or call back number. Since calls can arrive without a SIP “FROM” field or TN, we need a CBN (Call Back Number) to display to public safety—for example, a security desk in a bank where all of the other phones are extensions with no direct inward dialing (DID). Used by public safety if the 911 call is disconnected. 
  • Taxation Address (mandatory) – this is needed for accounting purposes only and is not used for call routing nor is it displayed to public safety.