How Cisco is enabling your employee business phones to be safe and ready for an emergency

Nomadic E911 with Dynamic Location Support | How Cisco is enabling you to meet 911 regulatory requirements

One of the lessons we all learned in the last eighteen months or so, is that unexpected events can completely disrupt our lives at any time. Global events forced a massive and simultaneous shift in our work, social and home lives. As we move forward and with the ability to work from anywhere – it’s important to be ready for anything and with reliable communication. With Webex, we provide high-quality, flexible, and reliable cloud calling solutions built for today’s modern hybrid world.

To ensure our customers are covered during urgent situations and working from anywhere, we are staying close to updated rules and regulations pertaining to emergency communication. We are approaching a final phase of federal regulations enacted by the U.S. government, regarding handling of emergency calls, which are now set to go into effect on January 6, 2022. In part, the laws are intended to safeguard anyone dialing 911 from a multi-line telephone system (MLTS), deployed for enterprises that have employees working from campuses as well as from remote locations.

What is changing for 911 emergency calls?

Last year, Kari’s Law went into effect, which requires that when 911 is dialed, the call be routed to the proper Public Safety Access Point (PSAP), without requiring the caller to dial a prefix, such as “9”. It also required a notification to be sent where someone is likely to see or hear it (e.g. security office). While some exceptions may apply, generally, the notification must include an alert that a 911 call has been made, display a valid call back number, and provide information about the caller’s location shared with the PSAP. In addition, phase 1 of RAY BAUM’S Act required that the MLTS must notify a dispatchable location for on-premises and fixed devices to the local PSAP. Webex Calling and Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Cloud already provide support for these requirements.

On January 6, 2022, phase 2 of RAY BAUM’S Act, will take effect, which requires that a dispatchable location for non-fixed and off-premises devices be conveyed with all 911 calls to the appropriate PSAP. Dispatchable location may include a street address of the calling party and additional information such as suite, apartment that is necessary to identify the location of the calling party.

As you can imagine, in a world where hybrid work is the norm, it can be difficult to know where your employees are when they may need to make an emergency call. Webex Calling and Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Cloud now offer Nomadic E911 with dynamic location support to help your organization meet these latest regulations.

Listen to the webinar to learn more:

How is the Webex App supporting this change?

With Nomadic E911 services, when an employee using the Webex App or devices such as IP phones makes an emergency call, Webex will provide accurate location information to emergency services for fast, location-specific response.

Webex App and devices, when on campus, provide location information based on the network topology configured by the system administrator. The system detects the network identity for their connection, such as BSSID from wireless access point, device physical (MAC) address or IP subnet and uses the mapping configured by administrators to accurately identify a user’s location.

Nowadays, many employees work remotely, either from home or their favorite coffee shop, or the local library. The Webex App will prompt these employees for their current address and validate it, to be used as part of the emergency call. Webex will store the address, so next time the user is at the same location, Webex will automatically detect it as a known location.

Emergency calls from mobile phones are not routed by Webex and will use the wireless carrier network service to determine the location and deliver the 911 call to the PSAP.

As for compliance with the notification aspect of Kari’s Law, your system administrator can configure the designated facility information and parties to be alerted via email or SMS when an emergency call is made.

Nomadic E911 is now included with your existing Webex Calling (multi-tenant and Dedicated Instance) and UCM Cloud subscription for all your U.S based users. Cisco delivers this capability by leveraging the RedSky Horizon Mobility solution. RedSky (now an Everbridge company) has been a strategic technology partner of Cisco since 2015, providing E911 support for Cisco customers. Read the press release here.

Nomadic E911 service is available to U.S. users regardless of their PSTN provider, be it Cisco Calling Plans, Cloud Connected PSTN (CCPP), or local PSTN gateway. When the user is configured for Nomadic E911, Cisco routes emergency calls directly to RedSky, which immediately ensures its successful routing to the appropriate PSAP.

Are you ready to meet 911 regulatory requirements?

For more information about RAY BAUM’S Act visit the 911.gov site here

We recommend configuring your Webex Calling deployment for Nomadic E911 with careful review of your emergency calling needs. Please talk to your partner and your Cisco account manager to help you get on the path of rolling out this important capability.

To learn more about Nomadic E911 you can refer to the following resources

RedSky emergency 911 service for Webex Calling [Help Link]

Nomadic E911 [FAQ]

Learn more

Next-gen business calling built for hybrid work

Saying “Yes” to Workplace Safety: How UCM Customers Can Become Compliant with Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act

What’s new in Webex: October 2021