The 911 emergency number was created when telephones were connected by wires, before cellphones or VoIP in the home, and before Multi-Line Telephone Systems in the enterprise. In the early days, anyone could dial 911 for police, fire or medical emergencies. However, in 2017, dialing 911 unfortunately is no guarantee that a call for help will reach a 911 service that can identify the location of the caller immediately. When consumers dropped land lines and started using Internet phone services, a 911 problem surfaced.
Kari's Law is a great start to resolving the problems faced by the 9-1-1 community that answers emergency calls from callers behind a MLTS. But as noted "So after litigation Vonage (and other competing services) changed the requirements to use the service, obligating customers to register their physical addresses. MLTS raised a different, but equally problematic, issue." it doesn't go far enough.
The 9-1-1 call taker needs to know the location of the caller with as much granularity is is practicable. NENA has had model legislation for years. The FCC has been studying this issues for years. Congress is sitting on a bill to address this (H. B. 5236). NFPA did address this in the 2016 version of 1221.
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Kari’s Law: A 911 Fix That Will Make the US Safer
Posted by: Eddie Block, Peter Vogel, and Eric Levy August 22, 2017 04:04 PMThe 911 emergency number was created when telephones were connected by wires, before cellphones or VoIP in the home, and before Multi-Line Telephone Systems in the enterprise. In the early days, anyone could dial 911 for police, fire or medical emergencies. However, in 2017, dialing 911 unfortunately is no guarantee that a call for help will reach a 911 service that can identify the location of the caller immediately. When consumers dropped land lines and started using Internet phone services, a 911 problem surfaced.
The 9-1-1 call taker needs to know the location of the caller with as much granularity is is practicable. NENA has had model legislation for years. The FCC has been studying this issues for years. Congress is sitting on a bill to address this (H. B. 5236). NFPA did address this in the 2016 version of 1221.
Kari's Law is a good start.
Let's finish the job.