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Technology innovations have enabled emergency communications to move well beyond the traditional 911 phone call. Text messaging, the Internet, IP communications and more have advanced the ways organizations can respond to disasters and emergency situations. Traditional telephone lines are being complemented or replaced by cell phones, Internet-enabled devices and other technologies, like machine to machine communications.

8x8 (News - Alert) Inc., a provider of cloud-based communications and computing solutions, has been awarded a new patent related to its communications technologies. The patent, number 8,422,985, “Systems, Methods, Devices and Arrangements for Emergency Call Services Using Non-traditional Endpoint Devices,” relates to various technological tools and procedures implemented in emergency call centers.

Many of these newer technologies provide a caller with new mobility options not available with a traditional landline telephone. Aspects of this new patent are directed at addressing challenges to providing emergency services to a variety of voice and data applications, devices, systems and methods.

For example, one method is to utilize a location database that includes physical location information about different communication devices. The database identifies the locations of nodes in a data transmission route using information received from the endpoint devices, and thus emergency calls using these nodes are located using the populated data.

When it comes to emergency situations, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Being prepared for any type of disaster is key to ensuring safety, and preparing your phone system is one way to safeguard your organization.

8x8 offers some tips for preparing your phone system for an emergency. These tips include verifying that your extension’s call forwarding Default Rules are set up appropriately, making sure your Virtual Office Online profile is set up so you can access features via any device connected to the Internet, identifying someone to access the phone system and administration privileges if the designated person is unable to and downloading the Virtual Office Mobile app so you can use the 8x8 extension on your mobile phone.