Federal · Title 47 — Telecommunications

47 U.S.C. § 623: Configuration of multi-line telephone systems for direct dialing of 9–1–1.

Civil

What this law says, in plain English

Manufacturers, sellers, and operators of multi-line telephone systems must configure them to allow direct 9-1-1 calls without extra dialing codes and provide facility notifications of such calls where technically feasible.

Read the full statutory text
A person engaged in the business of manufacturing, importing, selling, or leasing multi-line telephone systems may not manufacture or import for use in the United States, or sell or lease or offer to sell or lease in the United States, a multi-line telephone system, unless such system is pre-configured such that, when properly installed in accordance with subsection (b), a user may directly initiate a call to 9–1–1 from any station equipped with dialing facilities, without dialing any additional digit, code, prefix, or post-fix, including any trunk-access code such as the digit “9”, regardless of whether the user is required to dial such a digit, code, prefix, or post-fix for other calls. A person engaged in the business of installing, managing, or operating multi-line telephone systems may not install, manage, or operate for use in the United States such a system, unless such system is configured such that a user may directly initiate a call to 9–1–1 from any station equipped with dialing facilities, without dialing any additional digit, code, prefix, or post-fix, including any trunk-access code such as the digit “9”, regardless of whether the user is required to dial such a digit, code, prefix, or post-fix for other calls. A person engaged in the business of installing, managing, or operating multi-line telephone systems shall, in installing, managing, or operating such a system for use in the United States, configure the system to provide a notification to a central location at the facility where the system is installed or to another person or organization regardless of location, if the system is able to be configured to provide the notification without an improvement to the hardware or software of the system. Nothing in this section is intended to alter the authority of State commissions or other State or local agencies with jurisdiction over emergency communications, if the exercise of such authority is not inconsistent with this chapter. This section shall be enforced under subchapter V, except that section 501 of this title applies only to the extent that such section provides for the punishment of a fine. In this section, the term “multi-line telephone system” has the meaning given such term in section 1471 of this title .

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