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Configure Enhanced 911

To comply with U.S. federal regulations, all United States-based customers who purchased PureConnect Cloud Telco service must perform the mandatory Enhanced 911 configuration steps listed below.

What is Enhanced 911?

Enhanced 911 capability provides a seamless communications infrastructure for emergency services. All United States-based customers use this enhanced service through a third-party provider which delivers call routing to the proper regional 911 contact center. 

When a user dials 911, E911 automatically transmits a caller's address and telephone number to the emergency services dispatcher. This information provides emergency responders with the caller's location and telephone number, even if the call is disconnected. In contrast, traditional 911 requires the caller to identify their location. For background information, see 911 and E911 Services at the Federal Communications  Commission website.

Overview

Starting in March 2018, Genesys offers Enhanced 911 capability to all United States PureConnect Cloud customers. Using the MyCloud website, customers can assign a physical address to each Genesys-provided telephone number that routes over SIP. E911 calls route by means of an Intrado API, which is a third-party emergency service, that delivers the call to the appropriate regional 911 contact center. This process effectively removes the customer need for an additional on-site gateway and POTS line while still maintaining regulatory compliance.

A Genesys representative contacts each PureConnect customer to begin the process and schedule the upcoming changes as needed. Genesys works with you to ensure that there is no impact to your services during this transition. There will be scheduled planning and strict change management controls so that the implementation is seamless.

Enhanced 911 Configuration Steps

There is no additional cost for the Enhanced 911 service. However there are important updates that you must make in order to properly configure and enable the service. These updates are critical to ensure that calls route to the appropriate Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) and that local emergency services can locate the caller by their address.  

To configure Enhanced 911, each site must perform three tasks:

  1. Associate a physical address with each Genesys phone number.  Using MyCloud, configure each Genesys-provided telephone number with a physical address. This address enables the correct location to appear when a Genesys phone user calls the E911 vendor, so that the call is routed to the correct regional 911 call center.  

  2. Set a custom attribute for each user or station. Add a "PCC Emergency ANI" custom attribute to each station or user. With this attribute, customers define which ANI to send a 911 call so that the third-party vendor knows to which regional 911 call center to route the call.

  3. Create Attendant call flows for PCC Emergency ANI phone numbers. Create call flows for "PCC Emergency ANI" phone numbers. In case a 911 call disconnects, a 911 operator or emergency responder can call back the calling party number (ANI) associated with the 911 call. That number is  the phone number specified in the custom attribute PCC Emergency ANI on the user or station that placed the call. Therefore, routing must be configured appropriately to route inbound calls to these phone numbers.

Polycom emergency routing feature option

The Polycom emergency routing feature option is for customers who purchase SIP telco through Genesys and who have Polycom phones, customer premise Gateways, and their own local on-premises PSTN connectivity (FXO gateway with POTS line).

Polycom phones have an option to enable an Emergency Routing feature configurable in Interaction Administrator. When enabled, calls to 911 dialed from the actual Polycom phone are immediately sent to the SIP endpoint specified by the setting.  Such calls bypass CIC completely and therefore depend on local gateway equipment and local telephony provided by the customer. This configuration allows a 911 call dialed on the Polycom phone to go out a local PSTN line even if all connectivity to PureConnect Cloud is unavailable.

However, enabling this setting results in all 911 calls dialed on the Polycom phone to always bypass CIC, which means those calls would not utilize the E911 provider with the PureConnect Cloud service that is available to customers who purchase telco through Genesys.

Dialing 911 within the client software (Interaction Connect, Interaction Desktop, etc.) routes the call to CIC and therefore through the Genesys E911 provider, regardless of the Polycom station setting.  To ensure all 911 calls are sent to CIC and therefore through the E911 provider, customers must ensure the Polycom feature is disabled on any of their Polycom managed stations.

Customers with the above configuration need to choose one of two options:

  1. Leave Emergency Routing enabled on my Polycom phones. This means the customer wants to continue to maintain local gateways, local telco, and wants to have all 911 calls that are dialed on their Polycom phones to route directly to their on-premises equipment and not through the Genesys E911 provider.

    Customer understands that such Polycom-based 911 calls are entirely outside of their PureConnect Cloud service. In addition, calls to 911 dialed within the client software will behave differently and will route to the Genesys E911 Provider using the required E911 configuration (i.e. CUSTOM::PCC Emergency ANI attribute and the corresponding location data configured in MyCloud).

  2. Disable Emergency Routing on my Polycom phones. This means the customer wants to have all 911 calls route to the Genesys E911 provider. In the event that all connectivity to Genesys is lost, all call functionality will be unavailable including 911 calls.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Genesys Customer Care for PureConnect.

Related Topics

E911 FAQ