911 Testing Regulations 1

[Stinney]

We are going to have to test all our US location's 911 information as part of an installation to comply with Ray Baum's.

I know for New York City you have to call and schedule 911 testing, you can't just call 911 or you can face fines. I'm assuming there are other cities, possibly Chicago that might be like this.

I got the following website from 911.gov:

https://www.nasna911.org/contact-911

They stated that: "The person responsible for operating the state’s 911 system will be identified, and they should know who you should talk to at your local 911 call center, to schedule a day and time for test calls."

Unfortunately, it's an interactive map, not a list. I can go to each one and copy down the information, but was looking to see if anyone had a resource that just lists the contacts.

- Stinney

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” - Confucius

 

[phoneguy55]

thank you. When I need to test 911, I usually just dial 911 and say its a test call. 99% of the time that's perfectly fine. If thats not your style, I just google the town + police department. Find their local non emergency number and call for advice.

 

[kwing112000]

if you are in the US you should be able to test with 933 as well. it will play back all the 911 info listed on the number you are calling from. I have used it on a bunch of carriers.

Kevin Wing
ACSS Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Communications
ACS- Implement IP Office
ACA- Implement IP Office
Vive Communications

 

[ZeroZeroOne]

933 is almost but not quite a standard. It all depends on the SIP carrier and I don't think it works for PRI carriers at all but I'm willing to be wrong on that front.

Using 933 has been hit-or-miss for me.

 

[jimbojimbo]

Kari's Law and RAY BAUMS can be a pain in the neck. There are no standards for testing and the states have been less than cooperative since they are not responsible for compliance. In fact the FCC did not include the PSAP as a responsible party.

In most cases state law will be more restrictive. For example Ray Baums does not mandate Z-axis reporting however many states require reporting down to the floor, quadrant, or suite level.

Don't forget about your remote workers. I don't see any way to comply with Ray Baums without providing a third party overlay and manual input of location information for remote workers on PCs or Wifi tablets. For Cell Phone users you can force 911 calls to utilize the cell phone for dialing. You need to make sure your company if very specific on BYOD usage and compliance with Ray Baums. If the end user dials 911 and it passes through your system then you are responsible for providing location information even if your PSAP is unable to process it.

Again, the FCC has not made location information mandatory for PSAPs. I think the $12 Billion projected bill to upgrade PSAPs and the expected 10 years should have mandated a delay in Ray Baums however the major carriers and application vendors have no problem billing you for the additional software services. Happy to see Ajit Pai leave the FCC.

 

[Stinney]

Yup, a huge pain. I couldn't believe that we have to implement, but not all PSAPs may have the ability to receive the information. Guess something is better than nothing.

For the major players in the field who supply compliance with Ray Baum's have a software application that remote users have to enter information into as to their location. The difference between the vendor's solution is one doesn't allow you to log into the Avaya softphone until you enter your address, and one says that's a liability and the user needs to be able to quickly log into their soft phone and dial 911 in an emergency and will allow the user to bypass entering their location. So, damned if you do and damned if you don't.

The amount of work to get the information down to desk level is daunting. In some locations there is a single subnet range, so we'll have to go down to the switch port level. I can't imagine having to map out port locations and make sure that if networking ever connects a port to different desk/jack, that they make sure we're updated. That's just going to be a nightmare.



- Stinney

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” - Confucius