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Enhanced 911 and VoIP

E911

The basic 911 system works by pinpointing a caller's location by the land line phone number. The call is automatically routed to the closest Public Safety Answering Point and the dispatcher at that point contacts the closest emergency services personnel to deal with the call.

However, with wireless and voip phones, the original 911 system became unable to pinpoint a caller's location and if the caller was unable to identify or describe a location, emergency personnel were hampered in providing assistance.

E911 is the solution for this. When an emergency (e911) call is placed over VoIP.MS network In the USA, the physical address you will enter at the time of e911 registration for a specific DID will be passed along to your local PSAP, providing the dispatcher at the PSAP with the exact location where help is required. Please note that Puerto Rico can now be provisioned for e911, however it does not work in the same fashion as the rest of the USA. The address information will not be transmitted and displayed at the PSAP, thus needing the caller to provide the address verbally when calling.

Canadian 911 service is handled a little differently. All Canadian calls to the National 911 call center are answered by a dispatcher who will access the 911 service provider´s database to pull the location as well as verbally ask the caller for their location before transferring the call to the caller´s PSAP verbally giving the PSAP the location and then connecting the caller. This is the way all VOIP 911 Calls are treated in Canada

You can activate this service at your Customer Portal >> DID Numbers >> E911.

Important Note:

Note that if your DID from Voip.ms is not subscribed to the E911 service, attempting to make a call to 911 will result in a   
busy signal, since your callerID (which should be a valid DID or number) won't be in Voip.ms Database. This will result by not
reaching the desired destination. Also make sure to read the Terms and Condition at the end of the page.

Update as of October 2021

Due to new regulations for E911 services, softphones on mobile devices will start using the native mobile dialer to place calls to the emergency services. It is possible that not all softphone devices will provide this functionality and it is highly suggested to come into close communication with the softphone provider for further questions.

Use of e911 Service costs a recovery setup fee of $ 1.50 on activation and a regulatory recovery fee of $ 1.50 per DID number activated per month. VoIP.MS does not make a cent on this charge, it is simply what must be paid to provide this service.

Please note you can enable this service only for Canadian or US numbers (including USA or Canadian toll free numbers). 
You just have to click on the checkbox button in order to start the process to enable the service for this number. 

After this you can verify the Terms & conditions regarding of this service. Just please read them carefully and click on "I agree to the Terms and Conditions" if you wish to enable E911.

Click here to read Terms & conditions regarding this service. E911 TOS

A new window will request some required information that will be used for the e911 service. Just fill the required fields and be sure to use the correct address. After this, click on the Validate button and if everything is fine, you will receive an email confirmation.

Once your e911 service is active, you have to set your DID number as your outgoing Caller ID number for your main account or Sub Accounts you are going to use to dial out.

You can set the Caller ID number for your main account at your Customer Portal >> Main Menu >> Account Settings >> General tab >> "Caller ID number" option.

If you are going to use a sub account to dial out, you can set the Caller ID for it inside your Customer Portal >> sub account >> Manage sub account >> Edit >> Caller ID number.

To test that your Caller ID is working properly, you can Dial 1-555-555-0911 from VoIP.ms Network. The system will playback your Caller ID, then make a short pause, and play the test result. To make sure your device/switch is correctly configured for e911, you must ensure that your Caller ID number matches exactly the DID number that is activated for 911. That is the only way to identify you correctly. Otherwise your 911 call will not go through. Correctly formatted Caller ID consist of a 10 digits number, identical to your DID. For example, if your DID is 555.555.1234, your Caller ID number should be 5555551234.

If at any time you need to change your address, you just need to select the "Modify" icon (The one with the pencil and paper). After this you will be able to change your e911 information and after the information has been approved, you will be confirmed by email and the e911 service will be updated.

VoIP.ms 911/e911 Emergency Service: Terms of Service

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

The Company wants to make sure that Customers are aware of important differences in the way Emergency Services operate when using VoIP services when compared with traditional telephone service. Please find below what Customers need to keep in mind.  

Routing of Emergency Calls For United States residents, when a Customer makes an emergency call, the Company will attempt to automatically route its call through a third-party service provider to the Public Safety Answering Point (“PSAP”) corresponding to the Customer’s address of record on its account. However, the delivery of the Customer’s physical location to its local PSAP is not guaranteed. It is possible that the Customer’s location will not be provided to the PSAP dispatcher On such occasions, it will be the Customer’s sole responsibility to give the dispatcher its name, location (or location of the emergency) and contact information to receive emergency service assistance. For Canadian residents, a Customer’s emergency call will be directly sent to an emergency call center confirming its identity and location, and then immediately transferred to the local PSAP.

Limitations Due to VoIP Networks Due to the various dependencies of VoIP networks, the Company cannot and does not guarantee a Customer’s emergency call will go through. Many conditions such as loss of power, Internet access or connectivity and/or several other conditions may cause emergency services to be inoperable. The Company does not have control over those types of situations and therefore cannot be held liable of such inoperability. The Company will take commercially reasonable measures to prevent service outages within its network.  

Outbound CallerID For emergency services address information to be passed to a Cusomter’s local PSAP dispatcher, the Customer’s outbound CallerID value must be set to the specific DID it is purchasing emergency service for. Therefore, by agreeing to these Terms, a Customer is deemed to have set the outbound CallerID number to the DID it has enabled emergency services for when making an outbound emergency call.  The Company has added an extension to its network where all Customers may call to test their CallerID value. At any time, a Customer may test its outbound CallerID value by dialing ‘1-555-555-0911’ through the Company’s network.  

Limitations on Emergency Services CUSTOMERS UNDERSTAND THE LIMITATIONS OF THE COMPANY’S EMERGENCY SERVICES AND ASSUMES ALL LIABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY, AND RELEASES THE COMPANY TO SUCH EXTENT, FOR THE USE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES,AND FURTHER AGREES TO HOLD THE COMPANY, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS HARMLESS FOR ANY DAMAGE, WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT THAT MAY RESULT FROM : (1) THE EMERGENCY SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE COMPANY (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SITUATIONS OF UNAVAILABILITY OF EMERGENCY SERVICES AS DESCRIBED IN THESE TERMS AND INCOMPLETE OR INCORRECT LOCATION INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE CUSTOMER); (2) CUSTOMER’S FAILURE TO OBTAIN ACCESS TO CONVENTIONAL EMERGENCY SERVICE AS PART OF A TELEPHONE LINE SUBSCRIPTION FROM ANOTHER COMPANY UNDER SEPARATE AGREEMENT; (3) CUSTOMER’S FAILURE OR DELAY IN UTILIZING CONVENTIONAL EMERGENCY SERVICE. CUSTOMERS WHO RESELL THE SERVICES FURTHER AGREE THAT THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR NOTIFYING, AND AGREE TO NOTIFY, THEIR CUSTOMERS, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, EMPLOYEES, ASSOCIATES, SHAREHOLDERS, PARTNERS, AND ANY OTHER POTENTIAL USER OF THE COMPANY’S SERVICES OF THE NATURE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE EMERGENCY SERVICES.  IF A CUSTOMER IS NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THE LIMITATIONS OF EMERGENCY CALLS, THE CUSTOMER MUST CONSIDER AN ALTERNATE MEANS FOR ACCESSING TRADITIONAL EMERGENCY SERVICES, AS REGISTRATION TO EMERGENCY SERVICES IS MANDATORY IN MOST COUNTRIES. FURTHERMORE, THE CUSTOMER AGREES THAT THE COMPANY HAS NO LIABILITY IN RELATION TO THE QUALITY OF THE ADVICE AND SERVICES PROVIDED BY A PSAP.

Pricing for Emergency Services

Using 911 using the Reseller Interface

The feature is available for your client through the Reseller interface. You must enable this feature in your package in order to give them the ability to leverage this.

Note that the DID must be linked to your client. (Reseller > Manage Client's accounts > Click on Manage client where your client.)

Go under the navigation bar on [Reseller] then click on [Manage Rates & Packages]

Click on the Edit button to edit your package, or click on [Create a new package] to create a new one.

Go under the [Reseller System Configuration] Tab, and on the section "Type of configuration" select: [Package Configuration],

Then scroll down and find the feature "e911", and enable it.

1) To add a e911 entry for your client, or to help your client adding one. Go under the [Services] at the left navigation bar, then on [e911]

2) In the row where the wished DID, click on the [ENABLED] button.

3) Your client must read and Agreed the Terms and Conditions.

4) Complete the form and click the [Validate] button.