CCA Announces Deadline Warning for 'Ray Baum Act' Compliance

On January 6th, 2021, Ray Baum’s Act officially commenced, and the Cloud Communications Alliance(CCA) recently sent out an urgent reminder about the deadline for industry-wide compliance.

Ray Baum’s Act requires all multi-line telephone systems (MLTS), VoIP, and fixed telephone services to allow the transmission of a “dispatchable location”, which gives emergency professionals more accurate location data for dramatically faster response times.The new location details would allow responders to know specific caller information such as floor numbers and room numbers, instead of a basic generalized address.

The FCC has implemented these strict guidelines for the sole purpose of public safety, which means telecommunications companies have an even greater responsibility to be compliant.These new mandatory rules will have a wide scale effect on the telecommunications industry, which is why the CCA’s reminder is critical for service providers,manufacturers, and vendors. Ray Baum’s Act would forbid the sale, leasing, or manufacturing of any MLTS that fails to abide by these rules. At the same time, MLTS managers and operators cannot manage or operate a system unless it is capable of providing an automated dispatchable location of the caller.

Although the act officially began on January 6th for MLTS, non-fixed devices like smartphones will have an extra year to make the necessary changes. For more information about Ray Baum’s Act and the official guidelines, visit the FCC’s official website.

Edited by Maurice Nagle