I have been a vocal opponent against Kari’s Law and I do not oppose for any regulation from government telling private business and citizens what to do.
Kari’s law is named after a deceased Texas woman who died from a brutal murder several years back while the daughter had called “9-1-1” and was unable to get through because of the trunk access code. The media and Avaya Incorporated (nee Nortel Networks) had sensationalized the story of “A little girl who was taught in school to call 9-1-1 for emergencies couldn’t do that in a motel room”
This sensationalized message was PBX systems kill not idiotic sysadmins who didn’t properly label sets to dial emergency services.
The FCC got involved and now as of a week ago, Presisdant Trump signed Kari’s Law into law and now companies can go to jail if they prohibit 9-1-1 access without any trunk access codes or a TAC. A TAC is the 9 or 8 before you call out on most multiline telephone systems, or MLTS as its been called as of late.
The actions of POTUS basically rewrote the Key Telephone System is government regulated, and a Private Branch Exchange was rewritten as Public Branch Exchange, meaning a large enterprise is a step below being a telephone company, without the FCC license to do so.
This is a burden to business, it’s a burden to the public safety answering points, who may get more erroneous calls which would then put a burden in the public. Given the Voice over IP regulations state by state, the state can throw a company into criminal prosecution or ambulance chasing lawyers for a technicality in the regulations.
Yeah the FCC used to have rules for PBX systems, minimal at best, like revolutionary war against Bell System known as Part 68. But now with Mister Pai’d Off running the communications industry like a casino, they are also putting regulations in the improper place.
In the last 10 years, the FCC has done
- Allowed every media conglomerate to merge with minimal restrictions, Comcast and NBC Universal, Entercom’s buyout of CBS last year; the various deals of Sinclair Broadcasting with Fisher Communications, Abritirton Communications and the attempt buyout of Tribune Broadcasting enabling Sinclair to own just under 200 over the air TV stations; the Tegna (nee Gannett) buyout of Belo Corporation, and small market stations in Texas; the merger of LIN Media and Media General to then be sold to Nexstar, which now is the second largest owner of TV stations in the US, and Sinclair still is #1 before buying out Tribune.
- The ATSC 3.0 standard means less over the air TV stations. Some markets stations are on digital sub channels, and in some markets a CBS affiliate is on a .2 or .3 and an NBC affiliate is the .1 station. Less voices, crapper content.
- Repealing Net Neutrality, where some provisions were over the top, while some might had been worth a rule
- More freedom for telecom companies to cut the cord of the legacy land lines after major disasters – which is the most reliable form of Enhanced 9-1-1 communications. Wireless and VOIP will never work properly.
- Realigning the radio spectrum where one could question the reason why.
Telecommunications is a broad industry, and when you read old textbooks on this subject you’ll see PBX, VOIP and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the same book.
I find it appalling that a very specific form of technology is more regulated than a over the air TV station. The FCC lifted a rule where a TV station does not need to have a studio or perform programming in the same market (meaning it enables Nexstar and Sinclair to produce “local news” in sister stations a time zone away) AND back up studios is not required by law anymore; but yet they can fine me for how my PBX can be used to dial out? Jesus, what’s next – FCC licenses for phone systems? I am not a Ma Bell!
And where does the line cross of what type of phones where I could be sued? Does that mean that a SIP phone that is used for in house be required to dial out? Does this mean I will have have these phones unplugged or cordless to let the user know that my museum of Western Electric telephones. Does this mean that if I want a fake phone on my desk that I have to purchase from Clicktel because is broken office phone not to be used for the chiilldlren just as illegal as using old cell phones as a toy because a kid may dial 9-1-1 when these phones wouldn’t even do that in the first place?
Kari’s Law is an injustice to enterprise voice communications systems. I want to know who really killed Ms. Kari and was he hung to death for the atrocious murder. I bet the PBX was thrown in the trash for cap punishment and that’s not fair. Avaya and other companies enabled a really bad regulatory environment
F— Kari’s Law. I am sorry for the woman who died, but the PBX or KSU didn’t kill her, it was improper design by the installer. And thanks to Pai’d Off, we have a more instable media market that has given enterprise communications the short end of the stick.
(And before people call me a person who likes to “provoke” conversations – it’s to wake the sheeple, I mean engineers and nitwit sysadmins the hell up. I know former vendors developed algorithms to prevent misdials to 9-1-, but I find it highly apauling that PSAPs transfer inter department calls of EMS, Fire or Police as “trunk transfers”. How the hell is not not illegal against PSAPs? Where the hell is the FCC when you need them? Oh wait, they are regulating Enterprise voice while they are giving Sinclair and Tribune their marriage that will hurt more people than random misconfigured, misawared PBX by some heartless IT guy who doesn’t care about phones. They’ll get punished first.)
My gawd, I didn’t think I’d talk about Mark Fletcher, Avaya, Commiss Pai’d Off, the Cloud, FCC, telecom and Sinclair and Tribune in one post. That tells you how bad the media environment and the telecom regulation has gotten so out of control.