A different Kari's Law question

[Qzwsa]

Hey folks.

For the most part I can ignore Kari's law as we don't have the same law in Canada (yet). However, we do have a couple of sites down in the States that we'll need to make check with.

Site A is an IPO 500v2 that we simply "do the needful" and set up direct 9-1-1 dialing (if not already in place) and email when dialed.

Site B is where my question comes into play. One of our sites out in Western Canada has a small office in upstate New York. They don't have their own system, just IP phones connected via site-to-site VPN back to the IPO out west. Has anyone considered what the legalities are of an office without a local control unit and no access to local trunking for routing emergency calls to the required centre?

As a follow up, what about a Site C, which is the winter residence of the Owner of a Canadian company that only has a single 9611 using the built-in VPN client to connect back to his company's phone system 2000 KM north? Does Kari's Law even apply to phones within a private residence?

Thanks in advance.

- Qz

 

[kyle555]

Call a lawyer.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-353961A1.pdf

(1) Kari’s Law applies to multi-line telephone systems (MLTS), which are telephone systems that serve
consumers in environments such as office buildings, campuses, and hotels. Kari’s Law requires MLTS systems in
the United States to enable users to dial 911 directly, without having to dial a prefix to reach an outside line, and
to provide for notification (e.g., to a front desk or security office) when a 911 call is made.

My free advice - worth exactly as much as you paid for it - is that you don't have a "multi-line telephone system" in the United States. Your systems, even if configured wrong, wouldn't make it such that someone dialing 911 would fail to use a trunk that can or could or should have reached emergency services local to that area. That's not to say other laws don't apply at the federal, state, or city level.

It's entirely possible your customer is in violation of some New York state law that says "offices with >4 people in the office at least 2 days a week between Tuesdays and Thursdays must have access to local 911 but we're not mandating that you need QOS". In which case, they could pay for 1 channel off some US internet based SIP provider and makes those VPN phones at site B dial thru the Canadian IPO that has that 1 channel on a SIP trunk to the US.

Just being a phone guy, just be up front and put it in writing that your support of their phone system doesn't include direction or consulting as to what is or isn't legal. You or I would know by common sense that "5 phones in Rochester on a site to site VPN to trunks in Toronto" means they're not getting 911 - but who knows if the office manager in Rochester ever got the memo that they scrapped their old prem IP500 on R6.0 to register their phones to Toronto because they didn't feel like paying for an upgrade and server edition license to add the IP500 in Rochester to the Toronto system. If there's one thing I know, it's that people won't pass up a chance to blame someone else and explain exactly how and why something isn't their fault

 

[Greybeard191]

one thing I have seen done for the above Site B scenario:

1. order a single VOIP line to the address of site B (that works over an existing internet connection, with an analog phone on the end). Test E911
2. once installed. pick up all the VOIP line gear and move it to site A
3. Install VOIP line as a standalone analog line on IP500 chassis at site A (unique line group #)
4. put Site B phones in a unique location, set emergency ARS to us the line which is now at Site A but has a site B address
5. retest E911 from site B

Kludgey, but it works.

GB

 

[holdmusic34]

Thanks for your concern mate.

Find the county the phone will be in.
Go to the county's government website.
Find where 911 is dispatched from.
EMAIL, not call them. Ask them for their preferred full national number for the centre.

I did st lawrence county for you here:

https://www.stlawco.org/Departments/EmergencyServices/

I would email the bottom two of those contacts listed, for example.

Make 911,9911, 9112, 9000 (if feasible) & 9999 dial that 10 digit dispatch number as a dial emergency. DONT FORGET THE INTERNATIONAL code to call the US from Canadia. Make sure you can still reach the emergency services in SorryLand up north too.

Test all iterations and announce to the operator 'This is NOT an emergency. Telephone technician confirming capability. Thank you Ma'am.'

Tell the customer it's best effort.

Thanks for caring. Please dont let another kid suffer the same fate. Poor Kari dialled 911 over 10 times. She did everything right.

Public safety is a Yuge interest of mine. I had a customer die once where there was no phone and i had recommended and quoted for one. Next day they had me install 9 phones in this remote transportable building.
There was one desk and four walls. Like 6x4.
Nine phones.

When i used to run software upgrades i would write an email for company wide distribution detailling what to do in an emergency. Generally would try to patch a direct POTS to reception. This is the first place staff will run to if their phone is out and someone's croaking. They just panic and run.
Best way to help is to expect this behaviour and be ready for it. No one gives a monkey's itchy dick until Bob from accounts is actually blue.

Keep up the good work and always take it very seriously.
Always ask yourself, 'How would this (my work) look on a coroner's report?'
You never want to hear the terms, 'wilful, gross, damning, in spite of, in light of' in a report about your work.

Rant over.

remembering Intrigrant 2019