3CX concerning E-911, Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act

[TPR3CX]

Greetings,

How does 3CX handle provisions for the listed laws below when it comes to soft phones on no like devices that a capable of moving around. For fixed extensions, I have E-911 configured to the address of their locations. But I cannot account their addresses on smartphones and laptops.

Also, can 3CX alert admins if some calls 911 with all the relevant info listed below?

Kari's Law​

Direct Dialing 9-1-1​

Every phone that can dial to the public switch network has to be able to dial 9-1-1. That includes all soft phones. Not sure if this applies to your phones? Short answer: it does. To all of them.
Kariʼs Law requires MLTS platforms 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 9-1-1 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.

All 911 calls must provide notification to the front desk, security, and/or administrative personnel. This notification must include information that a 911 call is occurring, the phone number that dialed 9-1-1, and the location of where the call was placed.

RAY BAUM'S ACT​

Accurate "Dispatchable" Locations​

All 911 calls must have what the FCC is referring to as “dispatchable location”. Sec 506 of Ray Baumʼs Act defines "dispatchable location" as information adequate enough for emergency responders to find a person who has dialed 9-1-1. The “dispatchable location” will vary depending on where an individual may be calling from, however, it generally might include information such as:
Street address - 333 N. Michigan Ave. Floor - 16th flr Room # or Zone - Room 1612/NE Corner

 

[leejor]

This was raised earlier in the month, with a response from 3CX.

https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/ray-baums-act-inquiry.86864/#post-410059

 

[TPR3CX]

I should have elaborated that my main concern is for users on mobile softphone devices. This is known as Nomadic or Dynamic 911 services. How does 3CX handle this issue? If not, are there plans for it and perhaps any ETAs?

 

[Evolute IT]

I should have elaborated that my main concern is for users on mobile softphone devices. This is known as Nomadic or Dynamic 911 services. How does 3CX handle this issue? If not, are there plans for it and perhaps any ETAs?

If someone has to call 911 on their cellphone, then they should just call 911 on their cellphone, and not use the 3CX app. The app doesn't use the location so the 911 would receive the default DID for that user/rule and get the address accordingly.

 

[cobaltit]

Long story short, until there is a standard to let soft phone apps grab GPS location information and then send that to your VoIP provider who can then pass it on to the PSAP, the only way 3CX is compliant is via this:



Which means you only have one option inside of 3CX and that is to give end users the ability to manage their own extensions so they can change their outbound caller ID and disable e911 routing for them so that outbound CID is used for all calls. This would only work for pre-defined locations.

The other option is if your VoIP provider gives you the ability to update e911 information tied to a DID, then you would do it that way. But depending on the legal definition of 'end user', that could mean the PBX admin, or the actual user extension.

After that you start getting into a lot of third party/custom solutions

 

[VoIPTools]

Relying on someone to manually update their location is a less than ideal solution. As suggested, the best option is to have mobile users dial 911 directly from their cell rather than using the 3CX app. However, that's not possible when you are using your laptop and a soft phone.

In the case of an employee moving from one building to the next within your business campus, it is possible to identify the IP address of the registered phone PROVIDED they are using the original 3CX Phone for Windows, or a physical phone. But this is not possible with the web or Electron clients (they register with the IP address of the 3CX server). Come to think of it, I have not tried the Android / IPhone clients, but I assume they register with a unique IP address.

If you segment your internal network IP addressing so that each building (and perhaps each floor) has it's own DHCP subnet, then we can help you automatically assign the extension to the correct 3CX Emergency Group. Further, we offer the ability to assign more detailed location information for internal notifications as well (building, floor, pilar, cubicle) and present that information via phone, email, SMS, and desktop popup (a dialog that must be acknowledge). These features are part of our 3CX Emergency Notifier tool.

The only other option would be to provide the ability for an employee to update their emergency group membership or E-911 location manually. This would require a separate application, but we have not written an application for this yet, but it is on the development schedule.

 

[accentlogic]

Looks like 3CX jumped in and is getting the mobile apps updated to pass emergency calls through the cellular carrier, and not 3CX. This is the approach taken by other PBX manufacturers, and it makes complete sense. Here is the thread for Apple iOS. The Android beta should be out shortly.

https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/new-ios-client-beta-supports-ray-baum-act.87404/

I do still want to see some sort of enhanced nomadic 911 or dynamic location routing. This is a significant need for many installations, especially larger ones.

Many of the 3CX supported underlying carriers support this - an API can update the 911 dispatchable location at the time of the 911 call.

For example, a hotel room call should "push" the room number (extension number) along with the address of the hotel. This eliminates the need for hundreds of DID numbers with 911 services enabled and configured, along with the 3CX rules for each extension.

Or, there can be rules to inspect the network layer and report the correct zone, floor, building, etc based on this known information.

For roving computer softphone users, there should be an detection of a new IP address and then prompt the user for an e911 address update.

 

[cobaltit]

Yes, that is what the 911 rules are for.

 

[StefanW]

In case you need more advanced solutions with access to dynamic PSAP database record updates check services like redsky and co…

 

[uptime1]

If someone has to call 911 on their cellphone, then they should just call 911 on their cellphone, and not use the 3CX app. The app doesn't use the location so the 911 would receive the default DID for that user/rule and get the address accordingly.

"they should just call 911 on their cellphone" Ha! There's a lot people "should" do, but the actual problem is compliance failure (failure to follow the law) doesn't care about should, and neither do lawyers, judges, juries or jail.

 

[leejor]

Well... if they are using the App on their mobile, and call 911, the new 3CX App will force the call over to the mobile network.

https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/android-beta-karis-law/

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Does the same thing happen when you use normal Outbound Rules or is this just happening with Emergency Rules?

 

[leejor]

It may depend on whether your provider allows you to send a caller ID they have not provided to you.

What is the outbound caller ID you are adding...that of your mobile, if so, why?

 

[accentlogic]

It happens when using outbound rules. However, under SIP trunks, outbound caller ID i can transmit any number i put in there

Check your Emergency Numbers under Settings, General. That may be overriding your Outbound Rules.

3CX enhanced emergency number routing some time ago, so you probably should use that section and remove it from Outbound rules.

Caller ID presented is set in order. The the last value found will be used for the call.
1. Trunk
2. Extension
3. Outbound Rule
4. Emergency Number

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

As @accentlogic said, do make absolutely sure that you're matching the correct Outbound Rule or Emergency Rule.

The fact that changing the Caller ID on the SIP Trunk level actually has the number change probably means you are not matching the Outbound Rule/Emergency Rule you think you're matching and probably matching one that has an empty Outbound Caller ID field.

How many Outbound Rules/Emergency Rules do you have? If not a lot, try setting the Caller ID to all of them and make the call, do you see the newly set Caller ID?

If you want to know if the call is hitting an emergency rule you might want to enable Notifications for emergency calls in "Settings >> General >> Scroll Down to Emergency Numbers, Notifications"

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Could you do me a favor:

• Create a "dummy" emergency rule and place it first, have your mobile number set as the emergency number.
• Set the Outbound Caller ID you want to that emergency rule.
• Go to Dashboard >> Activity Log >> Select "All Interfaces" from the drop-down list and then hit "Capture"
• From a 3CX extension make a call to your mobile number so that you hit the emergency rule, make sure you also got the email.
• Stop the packet capture and then click the first link to download the .pcap file.
• If the caller id was wrong again, please send me the .pcap file via PM.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

For anyone who might be wondering, @SJS Effect was able to resolve the issue he was facing by recreating the SIP Trunk with the provider's default template instead using the generic sip trunk template.