A PBX and the U.S. "911" Emergency Services Number

    My last job before retiring was as a Corporate Systems, Network & TelCom
    Admin. The PBX—also known as a "phone switch"—was an older but reliable
    Nortel beast.

    The usual prefix for obtaining an outside line was to dial "9," then the
    outside phone number. Then "911" emergency services came along. This
    created two problems:

	1. People, in a panic during an emergency, might forget to dial
	   the leading "9" for an outside line, dial simply "911," get
	   silence, and lose precious time in confusion.

	2. People might "bounce" on the "9" button when seeking an outside
	   line, then hit "1," the prefix for a long-distance number in
	   the U.S., bounce on that or whatever, accidentally dial "911,"
	   and then, when emergency services answered, hang up in embarrassment.

    It was that second problem that finally provoked emergency services
    in our area to reach out and tell me it was happening frequently from
    our site. That created a problem for them: Was it dialed accidentally,
    or was a true emergency call interrupted?

    They told me it had to stop.

    Newer phone switches have logic built into them so that when "9+911"
    is dialed, they announce that emergency services has been dialed,
    giving the user a chance to hang up if the call was unintentional.
    Our switch had no such provision.

    Worse: The U.S. government had passed a law mandating that dialing
    "911" from inside phone networks must automatically route calls to
    emergency services.

    I eventually solved the problem by reconfiguring the system to make "8"
    the digit for acquiring an outside line, and making "911" automatically
    route to emergency services.

    That seemed to cure the problem.