911 Direct Dialing, Notification, and Dispatchable Location Requirements
The information below provides a high-level overview of ENA’s efforts to meet or exceed the requirements of Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’s Act. These national policies for communications services endeavor to make sure that individuals and first responders can be connected and react as quickly and as easily as possible in the event of an emergency.
Executive Summary
In August 2019, the FCC Commission adopted rules implementing two federal laws that strengthen emergency calling: Kari’s Law and Section 506 of the RAY BAUM’S Act.
Generally speaking, these laws achieve two goals: First, to ensure callers do not have to dial a prefix when trying to make a 911 call – e.g. not having to dial “9” to place an external call. And second, to ensure first responders can get to a specific location quickly through dispatch and other services.
The ENA SmartVoice technology provides local and global notifications that include information to the first responders, dispatch, and other recipients that a) a 911 call has been made and b) a valid callback number.
Additionally, ENA SmartLink ensures that any user can dial 911 without having to dial a prefix to get out (e.g. dialing “9” before making the call)
Related to pinpoint location information for first responders, ENA’s communication services provide the following information when a 911 call is made: street address of the caller, as well as identifying information such as room or floor number if relevant. This capability is available via both ENA SmartVoice and ENA SmartLink. Additionally, customers have the ability to further configure pinpoint location information, such as building wing, room numbers, etc.
Additional Detail on Federal Communication Policies and ENA Services
Direct Dialing and Notification for Multi-Line Telephone Systems
ENA SmartVoice
ENA’s SmartVoice services have supported E911 direct dial since their inception. Any ENA SmartVoice handset deployed supports this functionality. ENA has been a leader in providing E911 dialing notifications via various methods (including SMS/TXT and Email) for many years. During initial deployment, our Project Management Team will work with you to complete documentation that provides ENA with where you would like notifications to be delivered. We support both global based and local notifications that can be sent to any contact within an individual building or address location.
The notification includes the following:
- The fact that a 911 call has been made
- A valid callback number for the extension that made the call
The notification will include information delivered to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), along with any other more specific location information that is available but that may be technically infeasible to provide to the PSAP.
ENA SmartLink
ENA’s SmartLink services have supported E911 direct dial since their inception.
Please note that your PBX vendor must configure direct dial support for 911. ENA is a dial-tone trunking service providing connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It does not provide telephony features to your handsets. Your PBX vendor is responsible for providing any notification services as per the FCC rules governing multi-line telephone systems (MLTS). Please also note that Kari’s Law is forward looking and applies only with respect to MLTS that are manufactured, imported, offered for first sale or lease, first sold or leased, or installed after February 16, 2020 (See 47 CFR § 9.17(b)).
Section 506 of RAY BAUM’S Act
On August 1, 2019, the Commission adopted rules under Section 506 of RAY BAUM’S Act to ensure that “dispatchable location” information is conveyed with 911 calls so that first responders can more quickly locate the caller. Dispatchable location information includes the street address of the caller and additional information, such as room or floor number, necessary to adequately locate the caller.
These rules apply to the following 911-capable services: fixed telephony, interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS), and mobile text service.
Fixed devices
The rules for fixed devices operating on fixed telephony, VoIP, or TRS require provision of automated dispatchable location with each 911 call, which means that the location information is generated automatically, without any action by the 911 caller when placing the call.
ENA provides automatic Enhanced 911 (E911) dispatchable location with each 911 call for both ENA SmartVoice and ENA SmartLink services. ENA SmartVoice dispatchable location can be fine-tuned based on the customer’s network to provide floor, wing, or room details. As ENA SmartLink is a dial-tone trunking service providing connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), E911 is phone number-based. Automatic dispatchable location information will be sent with each E911 call based on the phone number out-pulsed to ENA SmartLink from the customer’s PBX/MLTS system.
ENA also supports the ability for customers to order pin-point services which offer a more precise in-building location (e.g. cube, location in room), in addition to the dispatchable location provided. Pin-point services have additional considerations along with certain network hardware requirements and are not available for every customer.
