E911

Updated: March 3, 2023

Enhanced 911 Service – Disclosures, Notices and Disclaimers

IMPORTANT: EMERGENCY 911 CALLING INFORMATION

This document provides very important information about emergency 911 calling using the Internet phone service of Company, including as part of Company’s Unified Communications and Cloud PBX services. This document also describes the steps that you, as a customer of this service (“You”), should take to ensure Your safety and the safety of Your employees and visitors.

Capitalized terms used in this document but not otherwise defined have their respective meanings set forth in the Master Service Agreement between You and Company. Note that this document is incorporated into the terms of Your Master Service Agreement and creates a legally binding obligation on You.

Dear Customer:

Emergency 911 Services (including Enhanced 911 or “E911”) provided by Company differ from the emergency calling services provided by a traditional telephone company. These differences may have an adverse impact upon the ability or timeliness of 911 responders to respond to or assist You or others in the event of an emergency. In addition, due to limitations on technology, the location reported by Company to the public safety dispatcher for Your telephones may not include a user’s specific location within a business premise. For this reason, it is important that You carefully follow the instructions below.

As part of the process of subscribing to our voice services, You provide us with the street address, city, and state (“Service Address”) where You will be using Your Company voice service. Except as provided below for Canada, our customers have access to either basic 911 or E911 service depending on their service location:

         If You are a customer located in an area where the applicable emergency center offers E911 service, then, when You dial 911, Your telephone number and registered address are sent by Company to the emergency center, where public safety dispatchers have access to this information in order to send help and call You back if necessary.

         However, if You are a customer located in an area where the applicable emergency center only offers basic 911 service, then, when You dial 911, the emergency center is not equipped to automatically receive Your telephone number and address, and public safety dispatchers answering the call may not be able to access Your telephone number and/or registered address. Therefore, in this situation, You must be prepared to supply this information on the call. Until You supply the public safety dispatchers with Your phone number and address, the dispatcher may not be able to send help, and they may not be able to call You back if the call is disconnected or dropped.

If You are calling from a Canadian phone number, when You dial 911, You will only have access to basic 911 service. Your call will first be routed to an emergency services operator. You will need to verbally provide Your location to the operator. After the operator verbally determines Your location, the operator will transfer the call to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Therefore, in this situation, You must be prepared to supply Your telephone number and/or registered address on the call. Until You supply this information to the operator, the operator may not be able to send help and may not be able to call You back if the call is disconnected or dropped.

For the purposes of 911, and to ensure the safety of You, Your employees, and Your visitors, You must register with Company the physical location where each user will utilize our service with each phone line. We will register the physical location or Service Address that You provide as part of subscribing to our service. Please note that it is Your responsibility to confirm the accuracy of Your Service Address upon initial registration, and upon any further changes, additions, or transfers of phone numbers. You can do this by using Your online account portal. In addition, it is Your obligation to require each user to provide Company with their specific location within Your premises in the event of an emergency. It is Your responsibility to inform each user that when the user moves the device to another location, the user must inform You, and in turn, it is Your obligation to update Your registered address. It is Your responsibility to update Company promptly when You or any user changes the physical location to which service is provided. If You (or Your users) do not update location information, Your 911  calls may be directed to an emergency center near Your old address (instead of the new location), which may result in 911 responders being delayed in responding, or unable to respond, to the reported emergency. You may register only one 911 location at a time for each phone line. To be clear, You must re-register the Service Address with Company each time the Service Address changes. Please note that this is standard and customary practice for any Internet-based voice service, and it is designed to keep You, Your employees, and Your visitors safe in case of an emergency. 

With Company’s Unified Communications service, You have the ability to connect Your voice service to multiple devices and endpoints. Please note the following important service limitations with regard to the use of such devices or endpoints:

         Note that You must register (or instruct Company to register) the correct service address for each separate device within the Company portal (e.g., home phone, office phone, etc.).

         Emergency 911 calls are supported from Company’s Unified Communications mobile application as follows:

o          Except as provided below for Canada, emergency 911 calls placed through Company’s Unified Communications mobile application will be processed (e.g., routed to a local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)) as if the call was being placed from the Service Address that is registered in Company’s system for the applicable Unified Communications phone number. Therefore, if the caller is not physically located at that registered Service Address, the call may be routed to a PSAP that is not local to the caller’s then-current location, and the caller will need to verbally provide his/her location to the emergency responder. As a result, there is a risk of delay in the processing of emergency 911 calls placed through the mobile application (due to calls being incorrectly routed and additional handling and transfer time), as well as a risk that the emergency service providers may not be able to identify the caller’s location (and thus not be able to provide the emergency services needed by the caller) if the caller is unable to verbally communicate his/her location; and any of these events may result in the caller not receiving the emergency services they require in a timely manner, or at all.

o          In Canada, all emergency 911 calls placed through Company’s Unified Communications service, including the Unified Communications mobile application, will first be routed to an emergency service operator, which will transfer the call to the appropriate PSAP after verifying the caller’s location. As a result, there is a risk of delay in the processing of emergency 911 calls due to additional handling and transfer time. In addition, if the caller is unable to communicate his/her location to the operator, the operator may not be able to route the call to the appropriate PSAP. Thus the caller may not receive emergency services he/she requires in a timely manner, or at all.

         Company recommends that any emergency 911 calls placed on a mobile device be made using the mobile phone’s native dialer, instead of through the Unified Communications mobile application, as the mobile carrier infrastructure is better able to obtain and provide accurate location information to enable the call to be routed to the most appropriate PSAP.

911 service over Internet-based voice service has several limitations. Such limitations, including those discussed above, may prevent You from making emergency calls and include but are not limited to any of the following:

         Loss of electrical power

         Loss of Internet connection for any reason

         Termination of Your account by your broadband ISP or by Company

         Defective or misconfigured customer premises equipment or software

         Network congestion

         Delays from updating Your registered Service Address

         Non-voice equipment, such as security systems and medical monitoring equipment

         Relocating the equipment outside of the United States, which is prohibited by the Master Service Agreement and applicable product schedules

         Simultaneous use of one line with multiple pieces of equipment

         The failure of the emergency response center to answer Your calls

         Failures of third parties responsible for routing 911 calls 

You should advise all of Your employees, invitees, guests, visitors, and every other person who visits Your facility and/or who may make calls using the service of the limitations described above.

In some cases, emergency calls may not be routed to the designated emergency center in Your area. Rather, an emergency call may be routed to an alternative emergency center that may not have access to any or all of Your registered Service Address information. Consequently, a user should be prepared to provide sufficient information with respect to their physical location to a public safety dispatcher. This method may delay the dispatch of emergency personnel to the user’s location. If the emergency call is disconnected for any reason prior to the time the user has provided a location and callback number, emergency personnel will have no way to contact the user or determine the user’s identity or location, and the user should immediately redial 911.

It is important that You place the stickers shipped with the phones purchased from Company, or the label (accessible in the document entitled “E911 Notifications” found on www.serverdata.net/legal under the heading “Unified Communications”) for phones You supplied yourself, next to all devices which use the Company service, including all session initiation protocol (“SIP”) telephones, analog telephone adapters and telephones attached to an analog telephone adapter having the capability of connecting to our service, as well as all computers having softphone software installed. The sticker or label should be conspicuously located near or on each device so that a caller can easily see it. Failure to situate a sticker or label near or on each device may result in a caller not knowing that he/she may not be able to reach 911 in the event of an emergency. 

You acknowledge and agree that if You are not comfortable with the limitations of Company’s 911 service, that You should always have an alternative means of accessing emergency service. To ensure that You and Your Users have access to emergency services, You acknowledge and accept that it is Your sole responsibility to purchase, from a third-party separately from Company, traditional wireless or landline telephone service as a backup means of completing emergency calls. If the Service is used in a home office environment, it is not intended to be used for personal, residential, nonbusiness or nonprofessional commercial use. A home office user must provide alternative arrangements for residential emergency calls.

To check Your 911 activation status, log in to Your account or dial support from Your Company phone.