People dialing 911 trust that emergency services are only one call away. However, IT professionals and providers of unified communications and collaboration systems know that the process is complicated. To ensure technologies comply with current government regulations, IT administrators must know how 911 works and should know how modern legislation has shaped the emergency response system.
Established in 1967 as the first national emergency telephone number, 911 connects the caller to the local public safety access point or public safety answering point (PSAP). The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) worked with AT&T to develop 911 and define PSAPs around specific geographical areas where an emergency call must be routed. The FCC lists nearly 9,000 PSAPs across the nation in its database, a number that’s subject to change as PSAPs are combined, separated into smaller regions, or designated as primary or secondary.