Petition for 911 dialing

[ralph]

I just came across a petition regarding legislation to require all PBXs to be programmed for 911 with out requiring a trunk access code.
In other words, Dial '911' and not '9-911'.

I'm a huge fan of this.   I think both need to be set up and should never be intercepted locally.
It's crazy not not set up emergency numbers properly.

If you can, sign the petition.   The life you save could be someone you know.
911 Petition

Ralph

[lundah]

Agreed. I've been in this business for over 20 years, and it's always been standard practice that no matter what key/PBX system I'm working on, both 911 and 9-911 work from every single phone.

[ralph]

BTW: this is a related article I wrote a few years back.

How to stop 911 mis-dials.

Ralph

[acejavelin]

I am completely with you and do this in most system installs as standard practice. This is also a local regulation in many areas and many people don't realize it... I know in Rochester, MN, and in Bismarck, ND, it is.

It amazes me how many customers DON'T want this, they always whine that they get to many accidental 911 calls. A few times a year I get a call like "I dialed 91... then I looked over to verify the number, and dialed 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx and got a 911 operator. Can you fix this?" I would really like to answer this question with a "colorful" answer/

[ralph]

That's exactly why I came up with a "fix" for 911 mis-dials.   

A funny little story.
Once upon a time, we lost a bid to a Fujitsu dealer for a school system.

A few month later the consultant involved in the deal gave me a call to see if I could advise her on how to fix it.  (sure, buy a Mitel)
The dealer used a trunk group access code of '91' so if you wanted to dial a number it looked like this: "91<dialtone>1-555-555-5555".
Anybody see a problem here? 
I knew the 911 PSAP supervisor and he called me soon after the consultant did.  Apparently they were flooded with so many 911 calls from the school they had to threaten shutting them down because it was tying up all their operators and lines.
It took a couple of days for it to get resolved.  I never heard what the solution was.   After that we actually did a lot of work with that particular consultant so it wasn't all bad for us.

Ralph