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Virginia

Virginia Joins the Ranks of States Enacting E911 Legislation

In 2007 the state of Virginia passed into law a bill that ultimately holds owners of multi-line telephone systems (MLTS or PBX) responsible for providing a technical solution to the current glitch occurring in our nation's 911 system.

When a 911 call is placed, public safety responders rely on accurate automatic location information to be provided when callers are unable to verbalize their location. When the call is made from a traditional (wireline) home phone, the number and address appear at the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point). However, when placed from a multi-line telephone system or PBX, information provided to the PSAP is usually only the location and phone number of the billing address. To complicate safety issues even further, the advent of mobility in the workplace via VoIP absolutely requires the addition of the E-911 application. The necessary implementation and maintenance of an E-911 database is fast becoming an essential reality for corporations large to small in diverse industry groups. In 2007, Virginia joined several other states in enacting legislation to hold MLTS owners responsible for E911 maintenance.

In the state of Virginia, House Bill No. 1603, February 12, 2007:

Article 8.1 states that emergency calls on a multi-line telephone system “provide the PSAP with sufficient location identification information to ensure that emergency responders are dispatched to a location at the facility from which the emergency call was placed, from which location emergency responders will be able to ascertain the telephone station from which the emergency call was placed (i) by being able to view all of the telephone stations at the facility or (ii) by the activation of an alerting device, including but not limited to lights or an alarm, located near the telephone station, which activation is triggered by the placing of the emergency call.” 

Additionally, the bill states that:

Commencing July 1, 2009, the MLTS provider of any multiline telephone system shall maintain and operate the MLTS in such manner that a telephone call made by dialing the digits "9-1-1" and, if applicable, any additional digit or digits that must be dialed in order to permit the user to access the public switched telephone network, from any telephone on the MLTS is routed to a PSAP.

Read House Bill No. 1603 “Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute” in its entirety.

Over a decade ago, 911 ETC recognized the need for a solution to the E911 problem regarding multi-line telephone systems. The company has successfully developed a simple, cost-effective answer to address this urgent need. Hundreds of companies, cities, universities and school districts across the United States currently use our services. If you do not already have an E-911 solution in place, we would like to assist you in doing so. Unlike other solutions, 911 ETC's Crisis Connect™ and V-911 Connect™ are fully automated SaaS (software as a service) products, eliminating the need for onsite maintenance of costly equipment. 911 ETC assists in the task of interfacing your organization's PBX/VoIP Network with the local PSAP to provide the enhanced 911 information necessary for all calls.