George Bardissi

Some of you may have come by the term E911 or Enhanced 911 but I would take a guess that most of you have not. What is E911? The definition I found for this is "...a North American telecommunications based system that automatically associates a physical address with the calling party's telephone number, and routes the call to the most appropriate 911 emergency center for that address." Let's get a little bit deeper into this system. When someone calls 911 from a landline, a physical location is attached to that telephone number which includes the address and other information such as floor number, suite number and room number if available. This helps emergency responders (fire, police, ambulance, etc.) get to your emergency faster.

What happens when a cell phone dials 911? This gets a little bit dicer. When someone has an emergency and dials 911 from their mobile phone, the 911 center that handles the call will know the location of the nearest cell tower that your call originated from. However, that most likely isn't enough to actually find you. Once on the phone you need to tell the 911 operator what your location is and depending on what the location is, your call may be transferred to a closer 911 center.

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has imposed a 5 year plan for wireless carriers to make their 911 services much more accurate by September 11^th, 2012. What the FCC expects to have operational by this point in time is location information from a cell phone caller into a 911 center accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending on what technology, in the phone of the caller, is being used.

What does this mean for cell phone users that have older equipment? According to the FCC, wireless service providers may choose to comply with some of the FCC E911 rules by trying to covert 95% or more of their customers to E911 – capable phones. To me that would mean any phone that is GPS compatible, which today is over 50% of phones sold. As older phones are phased out by customers upgrading their cell phones, wireless providers will make it a point not to reactive older phones that do not have the GPS / E911 location technology.

Wireless customers that choose not to upgrade will obviously still have the ability to call 911, but the location information sent to the 911 center will not be nearly as accurate, which could in time come to be an issue if you are in an emergency! You may want to make it a point to ask if your phone is E911 compliant before your next cell phone purchase as this may be a point of contention when choosing a phone in the future.

Now the part I have been waiting for is E911 for VoIP technology. VoIP is otherwise known as Voice Over Internet Protocol. Unlike traditional landline phones that provide very specific location information to 911 operators in case of an emergency, VoIP technology is radically different to the point that a 911 caller may be states away from the actual location of the system that VoIP phone is connected to. This proves to be a major issue when trying to get to emergency services as you can imagine. This has caused some major controversy over the past few years in legislative bodies across the country as VoIP has now come into the mainstream of telecommunications.

If you actually do some research, you will come to find that some states have taken matters into their own hands and actually passed laws in regards to E911 and VoIP technology. The most recent case of this is the State of Massachusetts which had a new law that went into effect July 1 of this year and requires that any new or substantially renovated multi-line telephone system must offer the same level of E911 services provided to people in the state including enterprise VoIP users. Apparently, somewhere in this newly enacted law is the ability for "certain multi-line telephone systems to be exempt" based on the costs and public benefits of compliance. If I were anyone in Massachusetts I wouldn't hold my breath that my telephone system would be exempt.

According to Massachusetts Law the following defines a multi-line telephone system "as one that is made up of common control units, telephones and control hardware and software that provide local telephone service to multiple end-use customers in businesses, apartments, townhouses, condominiums, schools, dormitories, hotels, motels, resorts, extended care facilities, or similar entities, facilities or structures. These systems include: network and premises based systems such as Centrex, and hybrid key telephone systems. It also mandates systems owned or leased by governmental agencies, nonprofit entities and for-profit businesses."

Most of the telephone providers out there are heavily regulated by the FCC already and are in compliance with E911 laws. The providers, that we use locally, are Verizon Fios and Comcast Digital Voice, which both use VoIP to deliver telephone service across their respective networks. This issue is really coming down to problems regarding enterprise level on-premise or hosted VoIP solutions. It is a topic that many customers or perspective customers of this technology are not aware of and now seem to be finding out after the fact which is costing unbudgeted dollars to resolve.

Last year the FCC implemented new rules for VoIP service providers to sure up some of the concerns on this issue and some companies are scrambling to find ways to get into compliance. According to many sources, 12+ states have passed some sort of E911 law which forces companies over a certain size that hold multi floor buildings or companies that purchased a new PBX telephone system must install and implement E911 to protect their employees, customers, vendors, and visitors. The goal is to obviously provide a safer environment for all parties considered.

My recommendation, to all parties who use either VoIP at home or VoIP at their business, is to spend the time now to investigate if you fit and are in compliance with E911 regulations before someone in the government gets the idea to start penalizing people for not being in compliance. Now keep in mind we may not have specific law in PA, NJ, DE areas that is pushing the issue but it won't take long for the rest of the country to jump on the E911 bandwagon.

Even more, it's a safety issue to make sure this technology is in place protecting you before you find out the hard way. Hopefully, most of you will come to find that you are already set up on this particular issue, but I have a strong feeling a good group of businesses, out there, are not and will come to find that getting it set up may not be easy after the fact without a substantial cost associated with its implementation. For any of you looking to invest in new VoIP technology make sure you ask the questions about it and E911 compliance before you make the investment in purchasing the technology!

George Bardissi is the President of Bardissi Enterprises in Hatfield, PA. Bardissi Enterprises welcomes your questions or comments. Questions you would like answered or topics you would like discussed should be sent to Andino R. Ward at award@bardissi.net. You can also visit Bardissi.net, or call 215 853-2266 ext. 151.

It’s that time of year again and Bardissi Enterprises wants to make sure that you mark your calendar's for Dell's great holiday bargain bonanza.

If your looking for that new Laptop, or Desktop at reduced prices, this is the time to buy and we can help you get the best deals possible so that you get a new PC or Laptop before the Holiday Season.

If you would like to start looking at a new system, to see what's available, just give us a call at 215 853-2266 and hit the support queue. One of our technician's will be glad to help you build the Laptop or PC that's right for you and it will give you an advanced view of what your new system will be when you order it by December 1^st, just in time to have it for Christmas delivery.

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If your business phone bills have gotten higher and the service is getting worse, then Bardissi Enterprises can help you. Consider moving to Hosted VoIP. If you’re a small business then the Hosted VoIP Phone Solution has great advantages for you:

• Minimum Equipment Cost: All you need to do is purchase phones
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• Call Capacity: We do not limit you for the number of concurrent calls you are on
• Simplicity to Grow: All you need to do is add another phone to expand!
• We Handle The Hard Part: We will manage, maintain, and administer your phone system for free

Why go to a Hosted VoIP Phone Solution? Every business needs a phone solution in order to handle the day-to-day tasks. Going to a hosted Model is simple and cost effective. All you need to do is have a broadband internet connection and purchase the phones, that’s it!

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Bardissi Enterprises provides this solution with AltiGen VoIP phone systems. AltiGen is a leader in this VoIP phone market and will offer you advanced options that are not available from smaller basic phone systems available on the market today.

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Here are the features that Bardissi Hosted VoIP Business Phone Solution Includes:

• Unlimited Voice mail
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• Automated Attendant Menus
• Connects to Cell or Home Phone
• Voice Mail Notification
• Automatic Call Back From Voicemail
• Call Recording
• Music on Hold
• Extension Status Lights
• Blind or Supervised Call Transfers
• Transfer Direct to Voicemail
• Call Park
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• Multiple Call Handling
• Personal Call Queuing
• Call Hold
• Message Waiting Indicator
• Caller ID

If you would like to try our Hosted VoIP Business Phone Solution, just give us a call at 215 853-2266 and ask for customer service. If you sign up, by December 15, 2009, we will give you the new phones for free.