Learn about NG911 and its benefits at this year’s Enterprise Connect panel.
Every fall, for the last several years, as Enterprise Connect planning for the following year commences, the planning team reaches out to ask me, “Are there still 911 topics to discuss next year?” And for each year, my answer is always a resounding “YES!” This year is especially relevant – we are marking the transition in our annual 911 panel from the term E911 for the newer, and more encompassing, NG911. As panelist and colleague Martha Buyer wrote a few weeks ago in her session preview, panelists are coming to the discussion with a number of topics that are top of mind as the evolution from E911 to NG911 commences.
NG911 offers potential to improve public safety by allowing phones and calling apps to use available resources such as network devices, location management servers, and GPS, to determine their location in real-time, rather than relying on a database that may not be up to date, especially in open offices or for hybrid employees. It offers potential for 911 callers to share additional information with first responders ranging from sensor data, to floorplans, to cameras.
As Mark Fletcher noted in Martha’s post, NG911 is here now. However, many — dare I say most — companies are not ready. In fact, many are still not even compliant with the existing regulations that govern 911 dialing, on-site call notification, and dispatchable location as required by Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’s Act. Metrigy’s 2023 study of 440 organizations found that just 62.7% of participants said their organization was fully compliant with both Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’s Act. Almost 11% said that they didn’t believe their organization needed to be compliant. More than 15% didn’t know the status of their compliance. These data points are consistent with what we’ve seen in the past as many in telecom roles still don’t fully understand existing regulations or what it even means to be compliant. Obviously, this will be a topic of discussion at our panel.
Compliance, as well as support for NG911, may also create confusion as companies increasingly adopt UCaaS for all or part of their communications environment. There may be a belief that the UCaaS provider will own responsibility both for initial setup as well as ongoing management of user location information, but capabilities vary greatly among providers.
Continue reading at nojitter.com.
