Emergency Readiness
If you’re thinking about replacing your desk phones with mobile softphones, here are some important considerations.
Today’s softphone apps for computers and smartphones are not always on (emergency ready), and they’re frequently being used at different addresses making 911 address information inconsistent.
Fast, live voice emergency communication is as important as a:
Smoke detector, fire alarm, fire extinguisher, emergency exit, AED heart device, video surveillance, etc.
Emergency readiness means:
Fast voice notification of public emergency first responders at 911 and fast notification of the people in your facility: employees, customers, and guests.
Emergencies such as:
- On-site accidents, injuries, and medical emergencies (heart attack, asthma attack. etc.)
- Severe weather (tornado, lightning strike, etc.)
- Fire, gas leak, electrical outage, exposed wires
- Intruder, terrorist, bomb threat
The 4 Emergency Readiness Tools
1) Always-on desk phones located in a few key locations to quickly originate emergency communication, and originate a facility-wide paging message.
2) 911 emergency operator connection and accurate response to address/location that is kept up to date
3) The POPP system includes a feature for immediate notification to pre-selected phone numbers and/or emails when a 911 emergency call has been made from a phone on your phone system:
- You choose the phone numbers and the email addresses be notified
- Notifications include the business phone number and the user name of the phone that dialed 911
- Phone numbers and email addresses can be modified in the Business Group Admin Portal
4) For Immediate Voice Employee and Guest Emergency Notification:
We can design your facility’s communication system with All Call Paging phones and/or two-way speakers to communicate throughout your facility, including less traveled/used areas such as break rooms, emergency shelters, storage areas, hallways, warehouse, etc.
Guidelines to Design Locations of Always-on Phones with 911 and All Call Paging:
- Phones with 911 access and All Call Paging access should be visible and no more than 40 feet apart
- Voice announcement notification from phone speaker or overhead speakers that are no more than 40 feet apart
POPP Emergency Phones and E911 Compliance:
- The Public Enhanced 911, or E911 is a system to automatically provide a caller’s address to 911 dispatchers.
- POPP helps your company comply with Kari’s law, which states that multi-line telephone systems must enable a person to dial 911 directly without dialing additional digits (such as ‘9’) before dialing 911
- POPP helps your business comply with Ray Baum’s Act, which states that multi-line telephone systems must provide dispatchable location information for 911 calls, including street address or similar information necessary to adequately identify the location of the calling party.
- POPP can help you provide additional 911 dispatch information, such as a suite number, floor number, etc. In addition to a user’s street address.
POPP is always available to do 911 emergency call testing and E911 data accuracy updates.