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I
get this question every once in a while:
"How do I stop accidental 911 calls?"
On a Mitel 3300 the solution is far simpler than most people expect. Usually they
ask me to change their outbound access from a '9' to an '8'. That would be a lot of work and
completely unnecessary.
What causes an accidental 911 call? Usually what happens is someone starts
dialing a number such as 1800-555-1212 by dialing the outside access code '9' then the '1', then they stop
to verify the number and then dial '1-800-555-1212'. The problem is that they just dialed
'911-800-555-1212'. The PBX will ignore anything after the 911, send out an emergency call and the
police show up at your door.
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Side Note:
It is possible for a trunk to dial 911 without even being
connected to your PBX.
This
affects Loop Start / Ground Start Trunks. Not SIP or ISDN Trunks
Most central office lines are designed so that if someone goes
off hook and on hook repeatedly it will automatically call emergency services. In this
case you can think of a phone being connected to the line and the user hitting the hook switch rapidly
several times. This is possible if the carrier has a bad cable pair and it shorts and un-shorts
repeatedly. Central office techs call this a "swinging short".
So if you find that you have a loop start trunk calling 911, it
may not be someone in your office misdialing. Have your carrier check the trunk.
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Here's the solution:
How to Prevent 911 Misdials
- Log into your PBX administration tool and go to "All Forms Alphabetically".
- Find the form "System Speed Calls"
- Click Add to create a new system speed dial. The speed dial number is '911*' with
the 'actual number' of '0'. Note two things here:
- The '*' in '911*" is not a wildcard. It's the dialable digit on your telephone
keypad.
- The 'actual number' you program can be any real dialable number. I
usually use zero for the operator but it could just as well be your cell phone number.
Sound's too simple to be true but that's it.
There's nothing more to do.
How Does This Stop 911 Accidental Emergency
Calls?
Here why this works. When you dial 911
the system knows there is another number programmed in the system, 911*, so it will wait about 5 seconds to
be sure you meant to dial '911' and not '911*'. If you wait the 5 seconds then the call goes out
normally. If you actually dial '911*', the call will ring the actual number you programmed
in the system speed dial form. Now here's the beauty of this, because of the way the Mitel 3300
handles digit conflicts, if you dial '911+<any other digit> you will get an error tone so now, no one can
dial '911+800-555-1212' because they will get an error tone.
One last thing.
Don't forget to program your system to dial '911' and '9-911'. In a real
emergency situation you don't want people to have to worry about weather they need to dial a '9' to get an
outside line or not so program the system to handle it either way. If your system is programmed
for '911' alone, you can add '9911' to your system speed dial table with an actual number of '911'.
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