How do you test that you have your dialing rules for emergency numbers is correct?
I’m planning on installing asterisk and one of my concerns is dialing emergency services. No matter how simple/complex I make the dialing rules, the last thing I want to find out is that dialing the emergency services doesn’t work. It seems to me that the only way to test is to actually dial them, but this could be seen as wasting their time. Is there a protocol set out for testing emergency numbers?
Well, here in the US, we dial 911 to reach emergency services.
In my dial plans I create a context just for emergency calling. (Use an include statement in another context to allow calls through.)
[emergency]
exten => 911,1,Dial(${OUTGOING}/${EMERGENCY})
In the globals section, you’d set the ${EMERGENCY} variable to be the number you’d call:
[globals]
EMERGENCY=911
OUTGOING=SIP/101
For testing purposes, you could set that variable to be anything. (Say, your mobile phone’s number.)
This is also a good method for managing emergency service calls, if the route chosen might be different in different buildings or towns. You could control which gateway a call would take to reach the local emergency services.
For systems where there is only 1 outgoing/incoming line, you’d make the emergency context a bit more complex. Mine will check to see if an emergency call is in progress. (By checking a variable that’s set when someone dials 911.) If there is, it plays a message to tell the second emergency caller that an emergency call is already in progress. If not, it drops any call in progress and dials 911.
Well, here in the US, we dial 911 to reach emergency services.
In my dial plans I create a context just for emergency calling. (Use an include statement in another context to allow calls through.)
[emergency]
exten => 911,1,Dial(${OUTGOING}/${EMERGENCY})
In the globals section, you’d set the ${EMERGENCY} variable to be the number you’d call:
[globals]
EMERGENCY=911
OUTGOING=SIP/101
For testing purposes, you could set that variable to be anything. (Say, your mobile phone’s number.)
This is also a good method for managing emergency service calls, if the route chosen might be different in different buildings or towns. You could control which gateway a call would take to reach the local emergency services.
For systems where there is only 1 outgoing/incoming line, you’d make the emergency context a bit more complex. Mine will check to see if an emergency call is in progress. (By checking a variable that’s set when someone dials 911.) If there is, it plays a message to tell the second emergency caller that an emergency call is already in progress. If not, it drops any call in progress and dials 911.
Hi
In the Uk you call 999 and explain that you are testing a new system, They will normally take you name and often the number, Just be polite and only test once if at all possible.
Ian
I don’t think you will find a voip service provider in the UK that will carry a 999 call yet. I know voiptalk.org won’t as I have asked them about this many times.