Kari's Law and dialing 911 without a prefix

[mikedphones]

I have seen a few posts on here, but this week, we have received a few calls from customers in a panic about complying with this law. It's pretty straight forward on the IPO, but my question is about who has to comply. I have googled a few articles and seen verbiage like:

"Kari’s Law requires MLTS that are manufactured, imported, offered for first sale or lease, first sold or leased, or installed after February 16, 2020 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".

The above verbiage from the link below implies press 2/16/2020 are grandfathered, yet other sites simply say all MLTS without a date.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-358435A1.pdf

Does anyone have the official word on this?

 

[telecomtekperson]

Just set an emergency system short code for 911 to route out your ARS table.
Then set up an alert for when an emergency call is dialed.

BAM! you are covered for Karis law...

 

[Westi]

If you dial 9 for outgoing calls have in the ARS a shortcode
11;
dial emergency
911
line ID

The semi colon after the 11 makes sure that accidental 911 calls are delayed by 4 seconds before they go out

then have another shortcode
11x
barred

this makes sure that if you hit another digit within the 4 second time frame that the call is recognized by the system as crap and not sent out accidentally as 911 call.

If you do not dial 9 then telecomtekperson's suggestion is exactly what you want to do.

Joe
FHandw, ACSS (SME)

Remembering intrigrant 2019

 

[OldSchool70]

Same Issue. How is the alert setup?

 

[jayjr1105]

By default, the system will accept 911 and 9911 (if the user is overthinking it) and an alert is recorded to the log and maybe even emailed if you have it setup that way. Am I missing something here? Nothing should be needed out of the box correct?

 

[Telecomboy]

Out of the box there is a 11 short code in the main ars so if you have set the system up to dial 9 you should be all good. Our company used to remove that 11 as many clients would mistakenly dial 911 when dialing out as people were used to dialing 91 + area code. If you double hit the 1 you are dialing 911. It happened often. We use Westi's way listed above now so that if they do dial 911 by accident there is enough time to hang up before it connects through.

 

[critchey]

From what I have read (I actually read the Kari's Law document and all the jargon in it fun fun...) you need to alert a person on site (or offsite...) along with direct dialing of 911. The system status alert would not satisfy this so you would need to setup alerts(system>system events>alarms) to be emailed on emergency calls then you would in compliance.

The notifications part is pretty funny to be honest. You MUST have notifications... unless your system can't do it without upgrading hardware or software. The notifications are not specifically laid out what is needed so they suggest 1) 911 was dialed 2) callback number/extension 3) PSAP info/location... but if you can't do 2 and 3 without upgrading hardware or software then 1 is fine...



The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[critchey]

As a side note you can be fined up to $10,000 for non compliance and $500 per day you are not compliant. It sounds like the way they plan on handling finding non compliant systems is by complaints sent in. It also sounds like the system manager is held responsible despite Avaya themselves urging the system owner being responsible and Government rejected it... lol. Best make sure your systems are in compliance if you are in the US.

FYI Basic mode systems are fine as is as long as you keep ALS set to go offhook to a line appearance since the system can't do notifications without a software upgrade... I was really hoping basic mode was done for but no such luck. Even old school PBXs are fine as long as you can simply lift a handset and dial 911.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[critchey]

If you like to punish your brain here are the FCC documents:

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

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-76A1.pdf

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[jayjr1105]

I just want to clarify I have this right. This will delay the 911 calls by a few seconds correct?

I have some other rules in place to allow 7 digit dialing if a local call is made among other ARS codes to speed up normal dialing, ignore those.

 

[critchey]

@jayjr1105

Yes that will delay the 911 and 9911 calls for the dial delay time... however you missed the second part that Westi posted

then have another shortcode
11x
barred

This makes sure that if someone hits 9 to dial out, then 1 then stops to look at phone number, forgets they hit 1, hits 1 again and starts dialing (or some other odd way they didnt mean to dial 911) it will throw the call away instead of dialing 911.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[jayjr1105]

I think I'm happy with just the delay. Wouldn't you need a second one with 911x?

 

[critchey]

Most people wouldn't accidentally dial 9911 on accident (although I guess it is possible). You certainly could add that as well.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[jayjr1105]

Thanks, I actually implemented it. It scares me that it might block 911 but I tested it making 911 dial my cell phone instead of 911 for testing.

 

[critchey]

Make sure you also setup the email notification for alerts so you are compliant. Just being able to dial 911 is not enough for IPO in standard mode.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.