NOTE: This project completed in October 2019. Click Here for details.
In February 2018, Federal lawmakers passed Kari’s Law, which requires all Interconnected Voice over IP (VoIP) providers to enable the dialing of emergency services, such as 911, without the need for any special prefix digit or code. Per the law, providers must be compliant by February 2020.Windstream Enterprise’s OfficeSuite UC was already compliant with Kari’s Law in the states of Texas, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Tennessee as these states had passed similar laws in advance of the federal legislation.
Windstream Enterprise completed plans for compliance with Kari’s Law for all customers in all states in October 2019; well ahead of the 2020 deadline.
The schedule linked below outlines the dates when customers' OfficeSuite UC service was enabled for users to dial 911, without need to dial a leading 9 or any other digit, (i.e. dial 911, not 9+911).
The ability to dial 911 (no prefix) was added as an additional way to contact emergency services. For those users accustomed to dialing a prefix for an external call, the previous method with the prefix digit 9+911 continues to dial emergency services. If your organization uses 8 as the external dialing prefix, then 8+911 also continues to work to connect you to emergency services.
No other dial plan changes were made beyond adding the ability to dial 911 without a prefix. Continue to dial all other extension and outbound calls in the same manner you do today, i.e. for external numbers dial 9+1+<10 digit phone number>.
It is very important to inform and train all your users on these dialing instructions, as some 911 Emergency Services Centers may levy fines for too many mis-dialed calls to 911. Should your organization incur such fines, they are the responsibility of your organization. Inform your users that if they dial 911 mistakenly to not hang up. Instead, stay on the line to inform Emergency Services personnel of the error.
