After passing  new E911 legislation earlier this year, Massachusetts, in one stroke, effectively established a standard for a State 911 Department, a single 911 surcharge and an Enhanced 911 fund.

 

The law, passed in July and will become effective July 1, 2009, says any new or substantially renovated multi-line telephone system (MLTS) must now provide the same level of enhanced 911 services provided to everyone in the state, including enterprise VoIP users.

 

While adopting regulations through implementation of these technologies, the state’s 911 Department has the power to exempt “certain multi-line telephone systems” from complying based on factors such as costs and the public benefits of compliance, according to the legislation. In addition, exceptions for the accessibility of such a system to people with disabilities may only be waived if has been established to be technologically infeasible or of excessive cost without benefit to the disability community. 

 

As the federal government strains to implement a national program designed, fourteen states have now enacted some form of E911 legislation requiring enterprises over a certain size, occupying multiple floors of a building, or those purchasing a new PBX (News - Alert) to implement E911 to protect their employees and visitors. The idea is to assure residents using VoIP services will have same access to emergency services as traditional phone service and wireless service

 

Unlike most traditional wireline phones that already provide the caller's location to emergency services, enterprise VoIP requires the specific location of phones to be programmed into an organization's telephony network. This ensures emergency responders can quickly find the caller within a building or campus.

 

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) has drafted model E911 legislation and a recommendation to the FCC (News - Alert) regarding standardizing national E911 requirements. However, no consensus has been achieved regarding implementing a national standard. Until then, states will continue to operate under their own legislation.

 

The Bay State’s legislation - which  defines MLTS as a system comprised of common control units, telephones and control hardware and software providing 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 – now requires these systems include: network and premises based systems such as Centrex, PBX and hybrid key telephone systems. It also requires systems owned or leased by governmental agencies, nonprofit entities and for-profit businesses.

 

Nick Maier, senior vice president of RedSky (News - Alert) Technologies, Inc., applauded the Massachusetts legislation saying: “The fact is that millions of Americans go to work every day in high rises, campus buildings and other complex environments and, if they dial 911, no one knows where they are. This bill will require that employers and telephony service providers have a location established for every telephone.”

 

The Massachusetts 911 Modernization and Public Safety Act, like those of the other states, is primarily designed to ensure that consumers can successfully call 911 in an emergency from an Internet phone while using VoIP services.

 

In establishing the State 911 Department, Massachusetts created a central provider of E911 equipment, database, network and technical support services to all primary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP). The agency also sponsors and conducts training programs and professional development courses for state and municipal 9-1-1 telecommunicators.

 

According to the state’s new law, for wireline E911 service, a charge wil be imposed on each voice grade exchange telephone line of business and residence customers. However, the surcharge applicable to centrex service and ISDN primary rate interface services will be based on an equivalency ratio provided to each private branch exchange trunk. For wireless enhanced 911 service, the charge will be issued per wireless mobile telephone number, based on the area code chosen by the subscriber or end user. 

 

This year California could become the 15th state to enact their own legislation. The legislature is considering a proposal would have required that "every telephone exchange service, competitive local exchange carrier, multi telephone system, private branch exchange system, key set system, Centrex, or similar system, to provide enhanced 911 service with automatic routing, automatic number identification, and automatic location information or identification."