Glossary

E911

Short for Enhanced 911. It is advanced by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve the effectiveness and reliability of wireless 911service. E911 provides three major enhancements – Selective routing - electronically routes 911 emergency calls to the proper Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), based on the Emergency Services Number (ESN) code, assigned to the caller's address); Automatic Number Identification (ANI) - provides the calling party's seven digit telephone number on a display at the PSAP) and Automatic Location Identification (ALI) - provides the name and address associated with the calling party's telephone number on the display at the PSAP). In 1996, the FCC mandated a two-phase E911 support implementation for wireless carriers: Phase Irequired carriers to provide the telephone number of a wireless 911 caller and the location of the antenna, receiving the call to a local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Phase II required carriers to provide more precise information about the caller's location, within 50 to 300 meters in most cases.
In 2005, the FCC mandated E911 service requirement for voice over IP (VoIP) providers for VoIP calls, interconnecting with the public switched telephone network (PSTN).