Multiline
Telephone Systems (MLTS):
The
Overlooked Location Accuracy Problem
There is a great deal of talk about
wireless location accuracy these days. Many people have died or been severely
impacted because 9-1-1 systems were not able to provide an accurate location of
a cell phone caller who was not able to verbalize their location.
Location accuracy is important,
especially when an average of 70% of calls to 9-1-1 come from wireless phones. In
Knox County for example, 828 of 1,154 9-1-1 calls were wireless in the month of
June, which is 71% of all calls.
However, since the inception of E9-1-1,
and long before cell phones were the focus, there has been another problem that
has never been adequately addressed – multiline telephone systems (MLTS), or
private branch exchange (PBX) systems.
Access to 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering
Points (PSAP’s) and the limited location information these systems provide once
connected are both long-standing concerns. Correcting these deficiencies should
receive the same focus and energy as the wireless location problem.
Government and public safety agencies
throughout the country have gone to great lengths to ensure consumers have
9-1-1 service available to them through traditional landline, wireless and VOIP
services. However, every day millions of Americans, primarily at their place of
employment, utilize MLTS that do not offer effective 9-1-1 service.
Most MLTS/PBX systems enable the digits
9-1-1 to be dialed and routed to a PSAP. However, the vast majority of these
systems do not provide location information with the 9-1-1 call to enable
emergency responders to know the actual location of the emergency within a
large facility. As an example, a call from the 5th floor of a large
hotel might only provide the street address of the building and not the floor
or the room. Emergency personnel would have no way to know where in the
building the caller was. If the caller is unable to provide his/her location
and no one else is available to provide assistance, such a lack of information
can prove fatal.
Numerous service providers currently
offer technical solutions to the MLTS. Sixteen states have enacted statutes and
regulations. In Maine, Title 25 § 2934 deals with Multiline Telephone Systems.
In general, business systems responsible for operating a MLTS shall ensure that
such a system is connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network in a manner
that ensures dialing 9-1-1 will result in the display of the ANI (calling
number) and ALI (location) at the appropriate PSAP.
MLTS
Problems
There are two primary issues involving
MLTS systems:
First,
is the actual ability to reach 9-1-1 from a MLTS system.
Most PBX’s use an access code to allow system extensions to dial outside the
system into the public switched telephone network (PSTN). PBX systems are used
in facilities such as public safety complexes and hotels. When a caller picks
up the phone to make an outside call, they normally have to dial “9” or some
other digit to get an outside dial tone. To reach emergency services, they must
dial 9-9-1-1, for example. Many times in an emergency the caller never
remembers to dial a”9” to access an outside line and the call never goes
through. Most PBX systems today provide, or can be modified to provide the
ability to allow 9-1-1 to automatically pass through the PBX system to a PSAP.
Businesses should also have notices posted on the telephone explaining the need
to dial “9” plus 9-1-1 for systems that cannot be modified to automatically
pass these calls through.
The
second problem is more complicated, but given
improvements in telephone equipment in recent years, it is not as expensive to
correct as it once was. A MLTS typically has a central switch to which a number
of extensions are attached. Sometimes they are all in the same building, but in
many cases, multiple buildings are involved. A hotel is an example of a system
contained within one building, while a school system or a college campus are
examples of systems where multiple buildings are served by the one switch.
In a hotel, if someone dials 9-1-1 and
the hotel has already taken the necessary steps to allow direct dialing of
9-1-1, the call rings at the PSAP showing the main address of the hotel but
does not provide the room number where the call originated. If the caller is
not able to vocalize this information, the dispatcher does not know where to
send the help. In the school system example, the problem is much larger. A call
to 9-1-1 from any of the buildings shows the main address where the system
switch is located, not the correct building where the call originated from.
Even if the correct building can be identified, the system still does not show
the specific location within the
building. Having this problem fixed is essential to allowing the public safety
community to provide the best service possible. If the switch itself is not
capable of allowing the delivery of specific location information of the
calling device to the PSAP, the system owner/operator is required to install
adjunct equipment that will allow for that provision under Title 25 § 2934. Further,
the database for phone location information should be required to be updated in
a timely manner whenever a change to the phone system is made.
*Note: When a business switches from a
PBX system to a more modern VOIP system, the requirements are still there to
ensure that every telephone exchange assigned to the system is properly
identified with the physical address, telephone number and location within the
facility. If there is no information programmed, the 9-1-1 system does not know
the correct PSAP to send the call to. These calls are then defaulted to the Department
of Public Safety in Augusta for processing. This delays emergency response because
the dispatcher will have to re-route the call to the proper PSAP and there is
always the risk of the call being “dropped” or disconnected.
Business
owners should consider this: Do the first
responders know where the call is coming from in your system? In large office
buildings or campuses with multiple buildings, it is not enough for first
responders to show up at the front door. Conveying accurate location
information to emergency personnel is critical.
If
someone calls 9-1-1 from your building, how long it could take EMT’s to find the
caller if he/she was unable to vocalize his/her location?
