Need hosted VOIP but 911 out via gateway

Hello:

I would really appreciate any help on this. This is a real life problem at a customer.

Customer is willing to setup hosted VOIP. We will provide ~30 Polycom 330 (or similar) IP phones at their premises. They will be served off of our hosted server in a distant location. The IP phones will register to this remote hosted server.

What I need to do is:

- when the customers dial 911, I want to send the calls to the local PSAP via local PSTN lines.
- when customers dial any other calls, the hosted server receives them and handles them.

Is this do-able using a gateway? Any suggestions on the type of gateway that might be capable of doing this? Can outbound proxies do call routing? Do outbound proxies look at dialed digits?


Best Regards,
Anil

Welcome to VoIP User Anil.

Quote:

Is this do-able using a gateway?

Yes, that's certainly one way to do it.

Quote:

Any suggestions on the type of gateway that might be capable of doing this?

You'd probably need to build one (or contact Cisco perhaps). Asterisk is a common base for that type of application.

You need to ensure that the customer is aware of the gateway being a single point of failure for emergency access though. If there's a fire, and the power goes out, that's it for the phones. The beauty of POTS is that 50v line power that you have. The ideal solution would be a hybrid handset that takes advantage of that line power but I'm not aware of a vendor that builds anything like that?

Dean

Hi

The Mitel range have had lifeline for many years for remote workers.

Basicly the set has a line plugged into the unit and the internal dialplan sends 911 calls to this line and not the voip.

Most midrange and up gateways should also be able to do this but then you are defeating the point of a hosted solution.

Why cant you pass the call to the e911 service with the correct details ?

Ian

Ian:

Thanks for the response. My goal in connecting to local PSTN is two-fold. I want to send all 911 to local PSAP (which the FXO line can provide) and the FXO lines act a backup for regualr calls, in case the WAN is lost or the remote call server is unavailable/unreachable for any reason.

Also, the call server (which is in a different state) than the remote office being served, does not have trunk to a VOIP 911 service provider (I believe they are called VSCs?)

Thanks,
Anil

ianplain :

Hi The Mitel range have had lifeline for many years for remote workers. Basicly the set has a line plugged into the unit and the internal dialplan sends 911 calls to this line and not the voip. Most midrange and up gateways should also be able to do this but then you are defeating the point of a hosted solution. Why cant you pass the call to the e911 service with the correct details ? Ian

Have a look at the Siemens Gigaset range of IP phones. These have a pots line as well as IP. We've just done a hosted system for a dentist. The dialplan is set in the base that emergency calls go via POTS. They also have a mini UPS in case of power failure.

regards