My wonderful State of Michigan has enacted new rules for buildings over 7,000 sq ft (used to be over 40,000 sq ft). When a 911 call is made, the 911 dispatcher needs to be aware of the area or room# the person is calling from when they call 911.
From my understanding, this is all done at the ITSP on a unique DID. Is it as simple as setting up E911 for multiple DID’s with the correct locations and setting the E911 CID in FreePBX on a per extension basis?
One Building, Multiple Floors
The specific location information for a multi-story building with 1) its own street address, and 2)
a total area of more than 7,000 square feet must provide, at a minimum:
The building’s street address
The building floor
Caller’s location within the facility/premises
Example in Practice: A three-story building, containing two 2,500 square foot floors and a 2,500
square foot basement floor. The total square footage is in excess of 7,000 square feet and the
rule is applicable.
Yes the carrier will need to handle the E911 stuff… Then set the appropriate “emergency callerid” in the extension. Make sure you have a 911 route set as an emergency route.
The way I handle it is order DID’s for each extension and on each DID’s E911, we have to submit to the carrier the proper location information for that extension.
Then set the Emergency CID field to the corresponding DID assigned to that specific extension.
Thanks. This is exactly how I understood how I needed to implement it.
Edit: How specific do you get? Do you enter in the general location in the building? or do you actually enter in every single extension as its own location?
Did you actually go through every extension, dial 911, and confirm it with the operator?
There is no way I can think of to actually test this without bugging an operator for every single extension.
I’m actually set to configure the same thing next week, and I’m glad that the appreciate I’d worked out is the same as the one here.
Our ITSP links each DID to a physical address (that we configure) and then we set extension to use the emergency DID based on where the extension is located, that way the presented number giver the right address; just as discussed already.
I’m trying to work out how to test it, I’m seeing information that we can book in a test time to place a real 999 (UK) call, but so far I’ve not found how to actually do that. There’s a config file somewhere that defines what an emergency number is, right? What about I add my cell number to that list, then a call to my cell would present the “emergency did” so I can check it is doing it’s thing?
This is going to be a right pain to set up. But it needs doing of course. It is something really easy to overlook actually, perhaps the lack of an emergency DID for any extension should trigger an alert in the dashboard?
The least expensive and simplest way to set this up is as follows:
Order a dedicated DID for each “zone” (area/floor of the building that law requires have it’s own identifier - this is usually done by floor and wing or floor and quadrant - depends on how many square feet each zone is and the logical way to break it down) - These DIDs become your ELIN’s (Emergency Location Information Number)…
With the carrier, have them register each ELIN with the PSAP for the specific address, floor, area/zone that you are planning on the number representing…
In FPBX, under each extension’s ADVANCED>EMERGENCY CID, assign the appropriate DID/ELIN for the area the phone is deployed in…
Test a phone in each zone to make sure the proper ELIN is presented to the PSAP…
Create inbound rules that route return calls back to a security desk or someone in authority at each floor/zone, so at least return calls can be handled…
Grab a beer (I recommend this after any work - never before) …
The other thing we do is create a dedicated outbound route, which is programmed to record all emergency (and emergency test) calls. That way, we have a record of it if there’s ever any question as to how the call was handled (same for the inbound ELIN callbacks)…
Lastly, if you get the Paging Pro module, it has a nice “emergency alert” feature - when a call is made using the emergency route, it can send alerts to groups of phones (similar to a pre-recorded page - but you can get creative and do more with it). If you’re designating a specific person (or security desk) to handle callbacks, the initial Paging Pro alert is helpful for them to know who initially called 911.
With the practices above, since your law notes 7000 sq. ft. as a limit, each zone is essentially limited to that. Since each zone is under 7000 sq. ft., you would only need 3 ELINs registered (basement, floor 1, floor 2).
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