911 Misdial Trap Problem - - Best Practices ????

[MitelInMyBlood]

CUCM 8.62(a)

Since we use "9" as the leading digit for normal external dialing, we're forced by our legal department to treat both "911" and "9-911" as valid emergency calls. As anyone who has ever had to face this call routing dilemma on a large corporate office PBX is painfully aware, this legal mandate creates a digit-conflict between valid emergency calls and normal long-distance dialing. Every time anyone starts to place a long distance call (9-1-NPA-NXX-XXXX), they are 2 digits deep into a 911 call and only 1 accidental slip of the finger away from accidentally dialing 911.

For several years we've used a dummy Route Pattern of 911[0-9] in conjuction with setting the T302 (interdigit delay) timer to 5000 ms (5 secs) as a brute force method of eliminating literally 100% of our accidental emergency 911 misdials. (We previously used this same design on our former phone system).

The problem, or rather complaint that this method of blocking accidental 911 misdials generates is the caller's perception of a very long delay when someone has a valid emergency and needs to call 911. The internal delay is only 5 seconds, but when combined with the additional 2~3 seconds (typical) of intermachine call setup delay out on the PSTN, it can wind up taking as long as 7 to 10 seconds for the (valid) 911 call to finally be presented to the PSAP (and for the caller to start hearing the comforting ringback tone).

In a real emergency, this delay is very unnerving to the excitedly anxious caller and has actually resulted in them hanging up, redialing, hanging up again and then reporting that they can't call 911. Of course they can call 911, they simply need to be patient, or else dial 9-911.

Our mgmt has come to us asking for a resolution to the delay. One obvious solution is to redesign our external dialing plan to use some other leading digit (besides 9) to signify an outside call, but that is not an acceptable solution. We along with a blue-bazillion other companies use 9 as the leading route digit on external calls, so we cannot change this.

The long silence is the issue.

What are others doing?

Thanks in advance!!

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[trvlr1]

We have the same issue in sites all across the U.S. We have the police showing up at several sites on a constant basis, they are as upset about it as we are. As you pointed out, the delay was very unnerving and did not go down well, so we have now set them all up as standard set up and are looking for a good solution. Most of these locations are so big that we use all of the digit ranges other than 9 so it is very difficult if not impossible to set up a different access number other than 9. In the locations we could change it, we still had people calling 911 because they were used to leading with a 9 for an outside line, or they were visitors who dial 9 at their home base, so just assumed it was there too, then mis dialed and had the same issue. There has got to be a good solution, and it needs to start with good training of the users, but with turnover of staff and the reluctance of on site people to spend the time to train new users and then the new users not wanting to read the one or two page instructions that we give to all new users, it just never gets "fixed".
Sorry, no solution here, just moral support and the knowing, frustrated look of "I know where you are coming from"!

 

[whykap]

The only solution on 911 misdials is to change the access digit from 9 to something else. As trvl said 911 calls will continue for a while due to users still dialing it but it will soon go away once they get used to the new access code.
Regardless user training and education is vital. Everyone accidentally dials 911 from time to time. That's where training comes in. Don't hung up if you misdial. Stay on the phone, identify yourself and location and explain there is no emergency just a misdial. Done. If you do hung up, call back and tell them what just happened.

The mix of the two above can almost eliminate 911 hung ups.

Any other workaround can cause legal issues to the corporation and more important death because of delay or reroutes to eliminate misdials.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks. We came from a Mitel SX2000 platform, been on CUCM approx 2½ years now. Had the same issue on the Mitel, which is where we originally came up with the misdial trap idea back in the mid-1990s. I'm at an approx 2000 employee site location and before inserting the misdial trap we (like you) had police & ambulance, etc. showing up 2~3 times a week ongoing. Misdials were so darn frequent that we were ultimately threatened with a fine, which was the driving force behind implementing the misdial trap.

The misdial trap in the Route Pattern works perfectly except for the unnerving delay introduced in a valid 911 call. We've had prior meetings over the years with our mgmt about the delay and the reasons for it, but this time they want it "fixed". Unless someone has a rabbit in a hat that I don't know about, I'm at a loss. If I squeeze down the T302 timer below 5 secs then users complain about being dropped in the middle of dialing regular calls. (that and 3 secs is hard-coded minimum)

The one thing we cannot do is resume sending accidental misdials to the PSAP.

If no one in this forum has an idea I will probably defer the issue to our SE & put the ball in his court.

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks whykap

You're preaching to the choir. Using something besides 9 as the access digit would unarguably be the correct approach for any greenfield installation, but we're talking about a 25+ year established office of a 60+ year-old Fortune-500 company with "9" as the access digit going back to the days of rotary-dial phones. Deeply ingrained not only in the mind of the users, but in everyone's personal speed call settings & goodness-knows how many sidecar/expansion modules as well. We might have been able to sell this idea commensurate with the migration to the new platform, but I don't think I'd want the job of selling it to the users now. Over the past 18 months we've also added numerous remote offices to the cluster using SRST routers at their various locations to handle their local traffic (including 911).

Here in the corporate office 99% of all the 911 calls are placed from the nurse's station or the security desk, both of which know to use 9-911. The problems pop up on the rare occasion of a 911 call from a private office or cube farm.

User training (to use 9-911) is probably going to be the only realistic approach. Sometime back someone suggested putting stickers on the phones, but I'm not a fan of that idea as the stickers become doodle pads or come off (if you use the wrong adhesive) or become nightmares to replace with a clean one (if you use the right adhesive). In an 1800 seat office we really don't need any more support liabilities.


Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member