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Emergency Services Overview

Updated: 05/15/2024

Overview

Being able to dial local emergency services when required is an essential and safety critical element of 8x8’s UC service. This article gives an overview of 8x8 emergency calling features.

Applies To

  • X Series
  • Admin Console
  • Nomadic 911

Your Emergency Calling Policy

We recommend that you establish an emergency calling policy for your users outlining what they should do if they need to contact emergency services while at work.
We highly recommend that most customers advise users to make any emergency calls from a cellular phone, using the built-in dialer and not from 8x8 Work. There are several good reasons for this:
  1. Mobile reception is generally not affected in case of local power failure whereas local Wi-Fi connectivity can be.
  2. In most cases a cellular call provides real-time location information to the emergency operator using cellular radio triangulation. This is not possible with 8x8 work apps.
  3. Outside US and Canada the location seen by the operator is the user’s configured emergency address which may not be accurate if the user works remotely or is travelling away from their configured location.
  4. Using a cellular phone gives freedom of movement to handle whatever emergency situation has arisen.
However, there are some situations specifically for customers in US and Canada where there is a benefit to using an 8x8 physical device or work app for emergency calls.
  • For large buildings that have a single entrance with reception/security desk, they can be sent a notification of an emergency call made by any of the users based at that location (US and Canada only). This allows for having someone on hand to direct emergency responders to a specific location in the building once they arrive at the front door.
  • The reception/security desk can be conferenced into a 3-way call with the originating user and the emergency service operator (US and Canada customers with Nomadic 911 feature configured only).
Ultimately the guidance you give to your users should be given careful consideration based on your particular circumstances.

Emergency Calls

Emergency calling varies by country in terms of the number(s) to dial and the way those calls are routed to an operator.
For example in North America emergency calls are made to 911 and are routed directly to one of the hundreds of local operators known as Public Service Access Points (or PSAPs). Test calls can be made to a designated number 933 which will route to an automated service for confirming location details without connecting to an operator.
In the United Kingdom emergency calls can be made on either 999, or the EU harmonized emergency number 112. Calls are routed to a national call center first and from there redirected to a regional operator specific to the service required (police, fire, ambulance etc) There is no automated test service in the UK.

Emergency Address

Each 8x8 user has an emergency address which serves two important functions in emergency calling:
  1. Routing of the call to the nearest local or regional operator (depending on the country).
  2. Providing a location to which a first responder can be dispatched in the event that a location cannot be given verbally.
Users can see and update their own emergency address if they have access to 8x8 work apps and their profile policy allows it. However, outside of the US and Canada the update process typically takes several days and so is not suitable for tracking short term movements such as visits to other locations. In the US and Canada address updates are typically processed within a few minutes.
Users’ emergency addresses are set to inherit from their Site address by default. Any updates made to the Site address will propagate automatically to all users at the site with this setting.
In the US and Canada the Nomadic 911 feature (also known as Emergency Routing Service) can be deployed to provide near real-time location updates automatically. This is based on either corporate network connections when the user is on-site at a corporate location, or on user input when the user is off-site, i.e., not at a mapped corporate location.

Address Accuracy

Having the correct location is vital for emergency calling as described above. However addresses can sometimes be represented in different ways depending on the situation. As 8x8 registers users’ emergency addresses with an emergency provider, they are validated against the provider’s own databases and in some cases this validation can be unsuccessful. There are many reasons why address validation can fail:
  • Missing or inaccurate information such as postal code
  • Discrepancies between postal service databases and emergency provider databases
  • Ambiguity in certain address fields such as city or street name
  • Addresses that include a company name or building name as part of the address may not be reflected in the emergency provider database
  • New-build addresses not yet present in the emergency provider’s database
Should address validation fail, our team will investigate the cause and take appropriate action. This may include an 8x8 agent re-entering the address in a slightly modified form to match the emergency provider’s records or it may require us to contact you for more information.

Remote Workers (Customers Based in US/CA)

Non-Nomadic Users

Users that do not have Nomadic 911 services and work frequently in locations other than their registered emergency service address in Admin Console should be encouraged to place emergency calls on their cell phones. If a user wishes to place emergency calls through 8x8 Work they need to be sure to update their address any time they move locations in their 8x8 Work settings. After updating their emergency address, a user can dial 933 to confirm their address has been updated properly.

Nomadic Users

Users with nomadic 911 services should ensure each location they frequent is properly identified by the Location Manager app. Location Manager will display the current address and the user can dial 933 from 8x8 Work to verify the correct address is registered for their phone number at any given time.

Remote Workers (Customers Based Outside US/CA)

Updates to emergency service addresses can take several days to propagate to emergency service providers. This delay is outside of 8x8’s control and is due legacy emergency service technology in most countries outside the US and Canada. Due to this delay, it’s recommended that remote users set their address to the location that they spend the majority of their time at and use alternative telephony to place emergency calls (e.g., a mobile phone).

International Remote Workers

Emergency calling will not be available to users that are physically based in a different country than the country of their 8x8 phone number. In this scenario you should set their address to ‘None’ in Admin Console. These users should be advised to call the appropriate emergency number for the country they’re residing in from a phone service based in that country (e.g., a mobile phone).

Additional Information